2019 Black Friday Puerh Sales Fizzled Out…

Well, it’s actually still on right now…. Or is the real sale already over?

Certainly, Yunnan Sourcing’s sales are over.  They launched two big 15% off sales that were 3 weeks apart (Oct 21^st and Nov 12^th).  There is no better discount for their 2019 Spring line ups than Black Friday.  After getting the promotional email last month that Black Friday was cancelled, I wondered if they would attempt some different sales and promotions rather than the standard 15%.  Maybe some free shipping for those who are looking to put through a smaller order or maybe a sale that didn’t require a code so you could spend up your loyalty points?  As I just put through a few bigger orders at Yunnan Sourcing over the Summer I thought I might bite on a promotion that was geared to a smaller order.  I guess you can’t argue to much about 15% off, really.  As predicted this very nice 2018 Yunnan Sourcing Autumn Nan Po Zhai sold out before Black Friday.  Everything 15% off- it’s a very good sale and without the hassle.  I wouldn't be surprised if Scott dropped another 15% off sometime before now and the end of the year- a bit of post- Black Friday as well.

Also, white2tea’s limited releases of Tunji and Snoozefest are already sold out now too.  There Black Friday promotion is still on and was a bit of the same non-sale stuff with free shipping and release of years past successful limited releases of Tunji and Snoozefest.  The Snoozefest sold out in about the same amount of time as last year but the Tunji, with more name recognition this year sold out shortly afterward…  Or did they sell out…. It turns out the site crashing apparently caused some issues with the computerized stock counts… it turns out that a handful of Snoozefest and even more Tunji were added to the stock Sunday… I never know if this is part of the marketing stunt of white2tea or not.  Last time I checked the site for the research for this post there were still many Tunji left… poor Tunji…

For the mere fun of Black Friday’s hedonistic consumerism, I went in thinking I would just pick up 2 or 3 Snoozefest after a few good sessions with the 2018 over the last few weeks …. Just as a comparison… and to put an entry into the draw for the oversized cakes… I don’t know how I checked out with a few more Snoozefest than I planned… hahahah…. ah, consumerism….

Going in I thought that white2tea was going to offer more in the line of unique new limited releases and offer more of a new creative direction with their Black Friday promotion while still keeping the framework of their promotion.  Instead they ended up doing basically the same thing with their sheng puerh which was a bit uninspiring.  Of course, it’s good to stick to the formula if it has brought you past successes.  I was right about their promotional business structure being basically unchanged though.  If you look back to their Black Friday blog post last year it reads almost the same as this year.

The new creative change in direction was their releases of promotional and teawear which outnumbered their puerh releases.  Weird.  Their four different bamboo releases were the interesting part of white2tea’s Black Friday promotion.  I kind of predicted that they will be exploring more interesting shapes and forms for their shu puerh in this post back here.  The pre-Black Firday release was the main release of puerh and allowed for buyers to make more informed and developed, as opposed to more spontaneous, purchases when it comes to their puerh.  I wonder if the pre-Black Friday release allowed for those to put a quick order in before black Friday to sample them before the promotion.  I don’t know if that would even be worth it with white2tea’s business structure and lack of real discount.  I wonder how these changes will influence their sales, if at all, this year.

The Essence of Tea are continuing to go in the direction of anti- social media and anti-consumerism by offering less of a sale to the public than years previous.  I think is in line with their direction of their brand which has a really more mature core following, I think.  The 20% more tea was only offered to their tea club members this year the rest of us have to settle for 15% more tea.  They dropped only their second public pressing of 2019 a blend called 2019 Essence of Tea Spring “Singularity”Gushu.  It is a blend of two club exclusive cakes.  The action with Essence of Tea this year is all about their tea club.  This club is the most interesting one, I think.

A few puerh vendors which I haven’t tired yet… Bitterleaf is offering a 5-15% off sale with some other promotional giveaways.  Crimson Lotus is doing 10% off everything.  Farmer Leaf is doing 20%off!!! all full cakes with free shipping.  There are some sold outs already showing with that hefty discount.  Farmerleaf continues to amuse me from afar.  

A few longer running sales are taking place which include Tea Encounter with a 4-39% off Sale which I mentioned last week.  I have reviewed most of their catalogue if you are interested in more detailed notes on what they are stocking or are looking for a particular profile or quality.

I’ve said it in this post last month that this year’s black Friday played out very different than my prediction of the sale being even bigger.  I would say that this year it was wider and longer and took up even more space.  I wondered to myself, If the gap between sales was large enough could you place a sample order through, receive it, sample them, then place and order while still hitting up the discount?  That would be real ambitions and the packages would have to be rush shipping but maybe it would be possible?  This year was really all about the pre-sale.  With that said, most sales are still on but the vendor with the best sale this year, in my opinion, is ready over.

Great job all vendors who offered us a sale…

Peace