With the popularization of health awareness, people are paying more and more attention to the improvement of their quality of life. Among the many health preservation methods, health tea is favored because of its simplicity and natural effect. Online shopping is one of the ways for modern consumers to shop, and the demand for health tea on e-commerce platforms is growing.
In this issue, Zhongkang Yunling Traditional Chinese Medicine Industry Data System analyzes the health tea products sold on the Taobao Tmall platform in the first quarter of 2024.
First, the sales of health tea declined
Figure 1: Sales volume of health tea in the first quarter of 2024
In the first quarter of 2024, a total of 26,628 products will be listed in 5,123 stores in the health tea category on Taobao and Tmall platforms, with a total sales volume of 6.567 million SKUs, a decrease of 14% month-on-month and 19.5% year-on-year, of which the top 100 products in sales volume will sell a total of 2.891 million SKUs, accounting for 44%.
The Spring Festival in February is the off-season for e-commerce transactions every year. Judging from the SKU data, only 1.534 million were sold that month. Consumption recovered in March, and sales of health tea products rebounded.
2. Consumers love to drink health tea containing Chinese herbal medicines
Figure 2: The top 10 varieties of medicinal materials in demand for health tea in the first quarter of 2024
Among the top 10 demand for medicinal raw materials contained in health tea, wolfberry is the most demanding, followed by gardenia, chrysanthemum, jujube and other varieties. Among them, the demand for cassia rose the most, increasing by 16.9% year-on-year.
Chrysanthemum: It has the effects of dispersing wind and clearing heat, calming the liver and brightening the eyes, clearing heat and detoxifying. The product has many specifications, a large price gap, low production cost, and easy recovery of production. In 2023, stimulated by high prices, the planting area across the country will increase, and due to the better weather and normal output, the price will fall to a low level after the new production, which will attract a wave of bottom-hunting, and a large number of goods will be turned into inventory backlogs. It is expected that this year's planting will be reduced, and the short-term market will not rise sharply, mainly at a low level.
Dandelion: This variety has both wild and domestic species, and the impact of the epidemic in 2022 has greatly increased the demand for heat clearing and detoxification, resulting in the basic digestion of the inventory, and in 2023, due to the reduction of production and market demand, the supply will exceed demand. The product is currently in the new production period, the market remains stable in the short term, and in the medium and long term, the market will rise slowly with the rise in labor costs.
Third, the price of health tea products has been reduced
Figure 3: Distribution of health tea consumer prices in the first quarter of 2024
In the first quarter of 2024, the market size of health tea on the Taobao Tmall platform will reach 297 million yuan, a decrease of 18.9% month-on-month and 36.3% year-on-year, of which the sales volume of the top 100 products will be about 115 million yuan, accounting for 38.9%.
Judging from the distribution of the TOP100 consumption range of health tea in the first half of the year, most consumers prefer to buy goods below 50 yuan, accounting for 87%, and most of them tend to choose products of 30-50 yuan.
Figure 4: Brands with average price reductions in health tea products in the first quarter of 2024 (unit: yuan)
In the first quarter of 2024, the average unit price of health tea products was 45 yuan, down 6.3% quarter-on-quarter and 21.1% year-on-year. Through the price monitoring of hot-selling products, it is understood that the price of some brands of health tea products has shown a downward trend in the past year, among which the price of health tea of Xiangpin Golden Leaf has dropped the most, reaching 43.5%.
Fourth, consumers tend to buy health tea with efficacy
Figure 5: Word cloud for health tea product titles in the first quarter of 2024
Consumers buy health tea, mainly in the hope of drinking tea to achieve the purpose of health care and disease prevention. Through the analysis of the information of the top 100 health tea sales on the Taobao Tmall platform, it can be seen that functional health teas with clear efficacy, such as health tea products that use words such as dampness, fire reduction, and sleep aid as selling points, are often more popular with consumers.
Fifth, well-known brand health tea is more popular
Figure 6: Top 10 health tea brands in the first quarter of 2024 (Note: The size of the bubble represents the average price of the brand)
Among the top 10 brands in health tea sales in the first quarter of 2024, the sales volume of Neiting Shangyong, Tong Ren Tang, and Herboring are the highest, and the sales of Neiting Shangyong, Guangyue Lou, and Tong Ren Tang are the highest.
Guangyue Lou mainly sells more than 500 grams of large-package health tea, and the tea bags contain more than 10 kinds of medicinal raw materials, and contain ginseng, dendrobium and other precious varieties, and the unit price of the goods is relatively high.
6. Comprehensive evaluation
1. Functional products that follow the theory of traditional Chinese medicine are selling well Health tea that integrates the concept of traditional Chinese medicine health preservation not only satisfies consumers' pursuit of taste, but also caters to their desire for health. Based on the theory of traditional Chinese medicine, health tea companies can meet the functional health care needs of consumers through continuous product and channel innovation, and the market prospect is considerable.
2. Grasp emerging marketing methods for product promotion On the one hand, emerging methods such as online live streaming can make product promotion more intuitive and vivid, shorten the distance with consumers, and thus drive product sales to increase; on the other hand, the establishment of private domain traffic retention such as WeChat groups and group buying groups through product and customer service will also become an important marketing channel and method.
3. Commodity quality is the key to the long-term development of the e-commerce market Traditional e-commerce focuses on price competition, thus ignoring the quality of goods. The quality of health tea products sold on e-commerce channels is uneven, and consumers need to carefully identify them when purchasing. In the fierce market competition, merchants should also pay attention to the quality of raw materials and establish a good reputation in order to gain the favor of more consumers.
(Unless otherwise noted in the article, the data are from Zhongkang Yunling)