Teabox.com plans offline stores

Teabox.com, an online store that sells tea to customers across countries, is now actively working on a multi-channel approach to make the freshest tea more accessible.

"We have realised the need to take the brand closer to consumers. Offline will help us drive this multi-channel experience. We are a few months away from going offline," Kausshal Dugarr, Founder, Teabox.com said.

Teabox.com, which was founded in 2012, has a satellite office in Bengaluru. It offers a range of both single estate teas and blends and sources from over 150 tea gardens across Darjeeling, Assam, the Nilgiris, Kangra, Sikkim and Nepal.

In 2015, the company set up the country’s first cold-storage facility for tea in Siliguri.

"We have our in-house algorithm-based suggestion system that suggests, which courier to use for a particular zip code based on various logic like, historical performance data of all courier for that particular zip code, cargo connectivity schedule from origin to destination country etc," Dugarr said.

It operates in over 112 countries. "Our global sales (out of India sales) contribute over 80% of our overall revenues," he added.

The speciality tea market in India is worth approximately $500 million, and is growing at a CAGR of 10%. The total tea market is much larger and is approximately $2.22 billion.

"We intend to introduce personalised subscription boxes which would be customised boxes built by us catering to the palate profile of the customer, created based on a questionnaire. Also, we are looking to introduce customisable subscription boxes wherein the customers get to choose from our range of over 150 teas and build a box of teas of their own liking," Dugarr added.

It offers teas ranging from Rs 5,000 per kg to as high as Rs 2 lakh per kg.

Teabox.com has around 130 people in Siliguri, West Bengal location, which is its sourcing and fulfillment centre. At Bengaluru office, the startup employs about 35 people.