Sell coffee online
Around 2 billion cups of coffee are drunk worldwide each day so let us investigate the best ways to sell coffee online to satisfy some of these caffeine addicts and make some money at the same time.
Whilst a lot of people buy coffee on their way to work or when out shopping the majority of coffee is drunk at home. Online shopping continues to grow in popularity and allows coffee drinkers an opportunity to try a much wider variety of coffee than they could previously.
Selling coffee online is a relatively low cost way of starting a business and generating some money to boost your net worth.
You can sell coffee from your home without the hassle of having to hire employees and rent premises therefore keeping your business costs down.
As you don’t have a bricks and mortar site your customers are not limited to your geographical location. Instead selling coffee online allows you to reach many more coffee customers.
Like any business to be successful will require time and hard work. Coffee is a commodity and there is a lot of competition out there so it is important that you develop a great site to sell your product, develop your brand, and promote your site.
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Coffee selling site
Building your online coffee selling site is a lot easier than it sounds and you don’t need to be an IT wizard to build one. Instead, it is reasonably straightforward to build your site using Shopify and Bigcommerce as these can provide you with sites you can customise to your specific requirements.
These sites also allow you to set up a shopping cart which makes it straightforward for your customers to buy your coffee. This is important as you want to make it as easy as possible for your customers to buy coffee when they visit your site.
Having your own site makes it easier to sell coffee online as you can personalise it as much as you want. This allows you to really target the customers in the niche you are focussing on rather than having a bland vanilla generic site.
In order to encourage people to buy it is extremely important that your photos are clear and show your coffee products as being desirable and drinkable. It is also important to provide as much detail as possible when describing your products as this helps to encourage sales.
Developing your coffee brand
In order to differentiate your site from other online coffee selling sites, it is important to develop your brand.
You should consider who you’re customers are going to be. The coffee market is huge and your chances of success will be greater if you focus on a particular niche within it. Carry out some research into this niche to identify your competitors, review their websites, and their pricing to see how you can compete with them.
Coming up with a great name, slogan and logo makes your site stand out from the crowd. This should encourage people to visit your site and check out your coffee products.
Promote your coffee selling site
Build it and they will come won’t work unless people can find your site. It is important to promote your site on social media to develop a following of coffee drinking customers.
You should set up accounts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and other social media sites to market your coffee selling site. If you can develop an online following on social media then your site will start to promote itself as people start to refer their friends and family to your site.
You can also join online forums and discussion sites such as Reddit to promote your site. Participating on these sites allow you to follow the latest trends and see which coffee products are selling and which ones are being left on the shelf. They also give you feedback on your ideas which can be helpful and prevent you from making any obvious mistakes.
Other sites to sell coffee online
Whilst waiting on your site to take off you can try to sell coffee online using eBay and Amazon.
Both these sites have lots of visitors looking to buy coffee online as they are deemed more trustworthy than a brand new site.
This allows you to sell coffee online and hopefully win some loyal customers who will buy from you in the future.
Amazon offers a Fulfillment Service whereby they will store your coffee products and ship them to your customers for you. This saves you a lot of hassle and may generate more sales in the short-term. As so many people buy stuff on Amazon the chances of someone visiting your online store are greater and so the chances of you making a sale increases.
Sell coffee online to make money
If you are looking to sell coffee online then it could be a great way of building a money-making business. Whilst your business will no doubt start small it can take-off if you are prepared to put in the time and effort especially at the beginning. If you go down the Amazon fulfillment route then this could be a great side hustle to boost your financial independence.
Remember to keep all the receipts and invoices for the products you buy as you will need these to work out how much profit you have made. You will also need these to fill in your tax return which is not something that may necessarily be at the front of your mind when you are starting up your business to sell coffee online.
It is also a good idea to keep a separate bank account for your coffee business as otherwise your personal and business costs will get mixed up. Bank accounts can be set up fairly easily using Tide, Revolut, Starling, and other new banks. Alternatively, you can set one up in your local high street branch if you prefer.
As your business grows you may want to consider setting up a limited company and finding a good accountant to help keep your tax affairs in order. A beancounter can certainly help as your business grows and you take on staff to meet the demands of your business. Sadly there are only 24 hours in a day and you cannot do everything yourself if your business is a success.
