Revival Tea Co. owner Drew Henry built the foundation of his business on e-commerce. After the company experienced significant demand for its product online, Henry opened a brick-and-mortar tea house in February in downtown Spokane.

But the coronavirus pandemic hit and as Gov. Jay Inslee ordered restaurants and bars to temporarily close in March, Henry, like many other business owners, had to re-evaluate the company’s business model.

“Once things took a turn for the worse, we focused back in on the e-commerce side of our business and have seen a 400% increase in online sales over the last two weeks,” Henry said.

During the first week following temporary closure of the brick-and-mortar store, Revival Tea generated $1,000 in online sales in one day. Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, generating $100 to $150 in orders was considered a good day, Henry said.

“We are studying trends and getting a ton of people from Spokane County who never purchased from us before,” Henry said. “We are seeing a lot more bulk buying. The average order amount is $60. That’s a lot of tea. People are buying more by the pound than ever before.”

Henry is responding to the rise in demand by packaging a variety of the company’s loose teas into bags to sell online. More than 60% of the company’s sales consist of the newly packaged teas.

Consumers’ reaction to the coronavirus pandemic is generating e-commerce growth in a short amount of time.

E-commerce sales increased 25% nationwide March 13-15, compared to the first 11 days of the month, according to an Adobe Analytics study.

Spokane Valley-based etailz – which partners with third-party sellers to grow their brands on Amazon, eBay and Walmart – noted an increase during the past few weeks in sporting goods, toys and games, and home and pet products, suggesting customers are looking to buy items that help ease their time at home, etailz CEO Kunal Chopra said in an email.

Etailz, during the week of March 15-21, reported a more than 16% increase in sales for pet products and sporting goods, a 19% increase in sales for toys and games, and a 14% increase in home, kitchen and grocery goods, compared to a week prior.

Revival Tea’s Henry said he’s spoken with several area businesses, such as coffee shops, which also are growing their e-commerce presence amid the coronavirus outbreak.

“There’s business owners in survival mode and ones in growth mode,” he said. “Several online businesses are skyrocketing now.”