Three Years on: The changing face of retail

Three years ago, we ventured into the world of retail…

We opened our Retail Concept Store three years ago in central Edinburgh because we saw a shift in the demographic of the traditional tea drinker.  Not only this, but having the space allows us to show off our tea’s amazing versatility!  Our delicious and carefully selected range has a world of knowledge behind it to learn from.  Most of all, our retail space gives us the ability to interact with you, our wonderful tea-drinkers, about our exciting range as much as it deserves.  As well as this, we are free to dive in to all of the brewing methods, tea mocktails, cocktails and the amazing possibilities of tea.  We have had cold brews and hot brews of different teas available to try each day since opening and the best part is building relationships with you in person.

With so much excitement to share in the world of tea and the interest growing in its connection to health and wellbeing, our concept store is our ultimate hub.  A space dedicated to tea creation, innovation and knowledge sharing, with our full range of teas and everything you could ever want alongside them.  Ever since, it has been the place for all tea lovers to come and pick out their favourite blends.  Located on Rose Street, it is a stone’s throw from our famous Tea Room and we all love to pop in when we can.

In case you were wondering who created our exciting space, it was the amazing team at SPLINTR! They took our design ideas and ran with them…

TUN TUN TUNN….

The decline of bricks and mortar

Don’t panic though, this is not about to turn into a tragic story with the start being the ‘Once Upon a Time’.  However, we all know from walking down the high street that things have changed.  And really, we are all part of the reason.  The rise of online retail has a part to do with it alongside many companies not being adaptable to turn their space into a destination rather than a simple purchase place.  And of course, then there’s the economic climate.  Although still a customer service industry, retail is vastly different from hospitality and at eteaket, we work hard to make both places that you would want to physically be in.

Ever since the 2008 financial crisis, things have been shaky in the industry.  Retail has been dipping and rising showing demise then promise, until the last few years when things became somewhat bleak for lack of a better word… and I didn’t want to mention the ‘B’ word (Brexit, shhh) but it will be having it’s effect too.  But in the end, engaging our senses – touch and smell – especially in terms of our tea, is pretty special.  And for us, our retail space is about experience.  It is about so much more than an outlet for us and I will go into further detail on this in just a moment…

Changing the face of retail

As a small business, we love getting to know you along with your wants and needs.  We have a strong focus on you and our eteaket tea-community which we call our ‘Tea-Tribe’.  All of us love tea, and that’s the only requirement.  We listen to how you feel and what sorts of tea you are missing in your life.   Or perhaps benefits you may be after, and then we come up with our fabulous Limited Edition blends!  Most of the blends we bring in are on the back of what customers have asked for in our Concept Store!  But you can contact us any way you want about your cravings.

Along with our Limited Edition blends, our method of retailing our tea in our Concept Store is more about the sensory experience which you can’t get online.  We have amazing Tea Siphon’s which allow us to brew our tea in record time for customers to try with the aroma just mouth-watering.  We also have our Cold Brew taps on constant flow for you to try our daily cold brew!   It is so popular and for good reason.  Our summer Limited Edition blend, Watermelon Burst is just like summer in a cup.

We have also recently opened our front window area up to include (very comfy) seats that you can enjoy a takeaway tea or tea latte on.  Because sometimes, sitting down for a cup of tea in a peaceful and quiet location is just what we need, right?

Our Concept Store has become our hub for Social Events

The store has become a multifaceted space.  It is a great spot for wholesale customers to pop in and learn more about the tea.  Recently, we had Amy and Cammy to visit. They are from Gather & Gather and they serve eteaket tea!  We enjoyed discussing with them the amazing versatility within their collection.  We really enjoy having close contact with our wholesale customers so that they can expand their tea offering and make use of it’s full potential.

Over the past three years we have hosted numerous exciting events.  From a whisky tasting with Tomatin, to our Wellness event series where we hosted experts like, SONO Yoga, Louise Dodd`s and Carole McMurray.  We have held tea tasting masterclasses, beau-tea events, Kombucha tastings with Left Field Kombucha, cocktail evenings with Isle of Harris Gin and countless Tea Flights.  Recently we had Saturday morning Yoga and Tea in our Concept Store with eteaket Brand Ambassador, Sophieemma_yoga. We love filling the store with people who can pass on valuable information which will help you live life on purpose!  We are here to share experiences and live life to the full and it is more enriching when we all do so together.

Looking towards the next three years..

The future is never certain but as a forward thinking business, we are ready for whatever it throws at us (Brexit and all).  Over the next three years we hope to keep growing the store,  keep developing close relationships with you, and use the space the store has to host beautiful events.  We love encouraging our customers to live life on purpose.  The store helps us spread this message and it is a lovely calm space where you can really take time to appreciate the art of tea.  We are always here to help you on the journey to learn more about tea and of course try some for yourself!

Host your next event in our Concept Store.  Did you know you can hire our Retail Concept Store?

We are the perfect venue for networking events, group meet ups or team-bonding evenings.  Previously, we have hosted Woman in Networking Edinburgh events, Amazon business holder meet-ups and social media meet-ups, plus all of our other events mentioned above.  You can rent the space from between 6-8 pm for £50.00.  The price includes having a member of our team there to help you whenever needed and serve eteaket tea to everyone attending.

Are you a small business or start-up? Are you looking for a space to ‘pop-up’ in?

Our Retail Concept Store is a great space for small businesses or start-ups who are searching for a pop-up location.  We understand what it is like to be a small business and securing a spot on the high street is hard!   Therefore, we want to support and nurture start-ups and help them put their information/product out to a new customer base.  Working together, we will help to promote your pop-up through our social media channels, clear space for you to work within, encourage our customers to come and visit on the day and give you are lovely light space to use.  In the past we have been joined by The Trumpet Shop for a weekend.  Both sides benefited from the collaboration and our customers enjoyed the variety!

If you are interested in hiring our Retail Concept Store or interested in a pop up please email – rosestreet@eteaket.co.uk

Tea Flights

Take a trip around the globe without even leaving Edinburgh!  For only £12.95 pp, we will take you on a journey.  You will taste 5 unique eteaket teas, we will help expand your tea knowledge, teach you different brewing methods and you will get 20% off anything in the store at the time of the Tea Flight!  Follow us on social media (@eteaket) to find out when our Tea Flights are taking place or email (rosestreet@eteaket.co.uk) to book in a private slot.

Learn more here.

Tea Tasting Masterclasses

Become a tea expert and join us for one of our Tea Tasting Masterclasses.  They run for one hour and include:

• The tasting of 7 teas with an eteaket leaf tea expert, plus another one that you get to pick as a team.
• Learn how to make a tea latte and which teas work best.
• Experiment with different brewing methods.
• Grow your tea knowledge!
• Receive 20% off anything at the time of the Tea Tasting Masterclass.
• Go home with 3 eteaket tea samples that you can enjoy.
• We will sign you up to our Tea Tribe.

Our Tea Tasting Masterclasses cost: £24.95 pp – to book email – rosestreet@eteaket.co.uk

Make sure to come and visit us in our Retail Concept Store on 111 Rose Street and Tea Room on 41 Frederick Street,

eteaket xx

References:

https://www.bgateway.com/stories/inspiring-stories/what-brexit-means-for-scottish-businesses

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