How To Sell Coffee Online

– Open Your Own Online Coffee Shop –

Did you ever consider selling your own coffee online?

Now might be the right time to open your own online coffee shop.

Only in the United States, there are around 200 million daily coffee drinkers. All around the world, the coffee industry and all of its varieties is rapidly expanding.

This huge potential makes many people want to open a coffee shop and join the movement. But they also have doubts or concerns.

Because starting a coffee business (internal link) usually involves quite substantial startup costs.

You will have to buy equipment (internal link) for every coffee working process. Additionally, there will be the shop rental fee. On top, employees are hired and so on.

Your entire cost will quickly rise and you might feel discouraged already.

But this should not shatter your dreams to join the many successful coffee shop owners. Not all of us need to take big loans or find investors.

Instead, consider starting your own online coffee shop.

All you need to start is an entrepreneurial spirit and a passion for coffee, of course.

Selling coffee online can quickly become a lucrative and rewarding business for you as well.

How to Start Selling Coffee Online in 10 Steps

As you can imagine, selling coffee from your own home can become a real challenge but also fun the same time.

You can either fully focus on your online coffee shop venture and make it your career. Or, you can try to integrate in your daily work and life routine as pastime or supplementary income.

Let’s get started, shall we?

Below you can find a useful instruction to kick things off the right way.

1. Determine Your Consumer Base

To whom are you selling your coffee online?

Each consumer or demographic group has very different needs in a suitable coffee provider.

It is essential to target and identify your own audience or potential customer group. This will help you to determine what type of coffee or products your brand will have to sell.

As an online coffee shop brand, you usually have two types of buying customers. There will be individual buyers like you and me. And, there will also be local coffee shops other businesses working with coffee products in general.

Try to fill the needs for each of these different target markets. This will help you to establish and benefit from different income sources.

For example, local coffee shops may prefer to buy larger bags of whole beans from you. So, they can grind fresh on a daily basis.

On the other hand, a busy restaurant may instead prefer pre-proportioned ground coffee. Restaurants usually require rather quick and consistent coffee brewing.

Last but certainly not least, individual buyers will also show great interest in single-serve items. We all know about single-serve capsules or drip coffee bags (internal link), like our very own ones.

On top, many individual online shop coffee buyers prefer to make or even grind their own coffee at home. For this, they will shop suitable bags of whole or ground coffee.

Choose Your Profile

All of your different and potential customers will have various concerns. There is a great variety of all sorts of coffee flavors and quality.

Some coffee lovers enjoy rich, dark roasts. While others rather drink caffeinated light roasts, for example.

There will be coffee enthusiasts, who idolize specialty or ‘third-wave’ coffee. They want to know the exact origin and source of their ordered coffee beans.

Yet, there will be coffee drinkers only looking for organic or fair-trade coffee.

Are you entirely overwhelmed by now?

Please don’t try to satisfy all customer needs but rather choose a specific niche market for your coffee brand.

Such business approach is often the best method for narrowing your customer base down. Focus your efforts on one group of coffee drinkers.

With the help of this business strategy, you will be better able to determine your coffee flavor profiles.

On top, you can implement supporting marketing efforts and suitable company branding tools to your customer base.

We will get back to these efforts and tools later on.

2. Choose Your Product Portfolio for Your Coffee Online Shop

After you get an idea of your target audience to sell coffee online for. Your next step can be to determine what type of coffee to sell online.

Which coffee products will serve your business needs best?

As a start, you should research what kind of coffee equipment your consumer base is mostly using.

Do you want to offer cups for Keurig or pods for Nespresso machines? Are you going with coffee beans or with a combination of all?

According to coffee research studies, around 41% of home coffee drinkers use a single-cup machine.

Whereas, 61% of home coffee makers will own a drip-brew machine.

As a further step, you can also have a look what your competitors are offering and selling. This will help you decide what products you want to sell online.

In general, you should offer products that merely set your business apart. While still keeping up with current coffee trends.

3. Develop Your Own Online Coffee Shop Brand Image

A strong brand image is always of great advantage for any business. It substantially raises brand awareness and lets your consumer base grow steadily.

But especially when you sell coffee online, a strong brand image will be very important then.

The reason is quite simple. Because you are selling online, your customers will not have a chance to taste your product before they make a purchase.

No matter how delicious your coffee may be. Without a well-performing brand image, you will continuously struggle to reach higher sales numbers.

Your brand image should represent or embody what your coffee is all about.

What does your company stand for? Which company goals do you pursue? Try to install a recognizable and memorable overall company concept.

And actively promote the trademark characteristics of your very own online coffee shop.

Perhaps your coffee is intensely strong. Or, your entire business approach focuses on sustainability and transparency.

Furthermore, you might offer very unique flavors, which you want to strongly advertise.

All About the Logo and Name

To sum up, the name and logo of your coffee business will also define your fate.

It will either make your customers frequently remember or quickly forget your company.

Try to come up with a name that is creative and memorable. Combine it with a very unique logo that reflects what you want your company to be all about.

Plus, your package design will also impact how your consumers perceive your brand.

There are different kinds of design and concept ideas.

You may market your coffee with a bold and bright package bag. Or, you might choose a rather classic and timeless packaging design, for example.

Take your time to develop your ideas. Because once you have decided you will have to feel comfortable with your decision for hopefully many more years to come.

The right logo and name will tremendously help to grow your online coffee shop.

4. Create an Online Coffee Shop Website Based on an E-Commerce Platform

Your website will be like your business card and storefront the same time.

So, you should really put great energy and work ethic into it. Approach it with the same care and thought you would spend decorating a physical coffee shop.

Ideally, your website should be aesthetically appealing. On top, customers should encounter an easy-to-use interface. So, they can fully enjoy their experience and are willing to come back again and again.

Overall, every website visitor should preferably get a feel for your company’s values and goals.

On top of all of this, the website design has to appear clean and professional. Your customers have to feel confident in placing an online order.

An overall professionally structured and streamlined website will encourage purchases.

Clear Path to Your Products

Of course, you also want to turn your website visitors into temporary or even permanent customers.

Users should easily find and buy the products they are looking for.

The internet culture is moving fast and people easily get distracted. Or, they lose interest quickly by all the overload of online offers and impressions.

Make sure your website loads quickly. Additionally, your website should be suitable for multiple screen sizes on computers and mobile phones.

As next step, I recommend you to choose an e-commerce platform.

This will actually be the most important part of having a successful online coffee shop.

Popular e-commerce platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, or SquareSpace make designing an e-commerce site much easier. They provide you with customizable website designs and an easy-to-use checkout function.

To sum up, a great overall online user-friendliness will be important for great success of your website.

5. Write a Business Plan for Your Online Coffee Shop

I have done a few business plans for various entrepreneurial projects myself already.

It certainly is not the most exciting part when starting to sell coffee online. But, I still strongly recommend you to write your own business plan.

Creating a written business plan with all of your projections and key ideas in one place is essential to the success of your company.

You will be able to better consider and review initial costs, ongoing expenses and projected sales. Go further and determine how much you will charge for your coffee. Set your own sales goals.

Always stay prepared to adjust your overall business plan and concept.

A good business also knows how to adapt as your online coffee shop business grows and changes.

Additionally, please make sure to always keep track of your inventory.

Such an overview will also help you to find out which products are the most popular ones. And, which are maybe not selling that great.

Great attention to details will empower you to become more efficient in decision-making. For example, when it comes to aspects such as ordering or to reduce product waste.

The more you stay organized the better your business can thrive and grow.

6. Determine Who to Choose as Your Coffee Supplier

Take your time and carefully explore which supplier will satisfy your business demands and needs best.

It is quite essential to choose the right one.

Your supplier determines how your coffee tastes. And, its delivered coffee beans will impact the quality of service you can provide to your customers.

Here are a few top supplier key factors you can use as guide.

Quality Coffee

It is pretty simple. If you want to sell a lot coffee, you need coffee that has good taste.

A good supplier will provide high-quality coffee on a constant basis. The coffee beans should fit your roasting and flavor specifications.

Quick Turns

A quick product delivery service will keep your customers happy. But to guarantee this, you have to work with a supplier with fast turnaround times.

Your supplier should be able to address and fill your orders quickly. So, your customers will never have to wait for their favorite roast.

Low Minimums

This point is especially important when you just start to sell coffee online.

You should preferably work with a supplier with low minimums. So, you can easily afford your first customer order and don’t have to risk running into high expenses right from the start.

It will allow you to get your business up and running without breaking the bank.

Outstanding Service

Your supplier should sooner or later become a trusted and supportive business partner.

They should care about your success the same way you do. Your online coffee shop and the supplier can grow and expand this way the same time.

A good supplier should always give you high-quality customer service. Furthermore, they should be able to adjust to your company’s needs and provide coffee you are proud of and feel comfortable to sell as your own.

7. Begin to Create Online Content on How to Sell Coffee Online

Why would you want to create outstanding content for your website?

A well-performing search engine optimization (SEO) will make your website rank higher in online search results.

When your company is mostly online, visibility means everything in the internet. You want your brand and coffee to be discovered by as many people as possible.

This guideline will help you to implement SEO best practices to draw more website traffic.

Create fresh and relevant content for readers. Build strong links by using keywords and use high-quality images.

With a great SEO website setup many of your website visitors can be turned into buying customers. Hence, it is great investment in time and effort to grow your online coffee shop.

Here are some of the major types of online content you should focus on.

High-Quality Photos

Especially online, a first good visual impression means everything.

People want to see what they are buying before they make a purchase. I recommend to fill your website with high-quality photos of your coffee products.

Feature multiple views and different angles of your packaging and coffee beans. As well as photos of people using and brewing or enjoying your coffee.

Try to use images that trigger emotions and engage the consumers’ senses. Overall, all images should be aesthetically appealing.

When customers can visualize the product in action. They are more likely to make a purchase.

Detailed Product Descriptions

People also prefer to exactly know what they are going to buy.

The more information the better. Make sure to present detailed product descriptions. Give individual characteristics that describe the flavor notes of each coffee product.

It will help to raise overall consumer engagement with your products. And, they will find useful content helping them to choose the right coffee product for their needs and tastes.

Other Written Content

Become active and establish yourself as credible and knowledgeable coffee culture source. Write blogs and create other written content to develop your brand voice.

Share your company’s story, vision and goals.

Interesting, educative and compelling written content will help customers to feel connected to your online coffee shop and overall brand image. This will essentially lead to more sales.

People love to support brands they can trust and relate to. So don’t just copy but publish real and genuine content on your website. Your readers and eventual customers will appreciate and enjoy it.

8. Build Your Brand Online and Offline

There is hardly anyone who does not regularly use social media during the day.

Out of this very obvious reason, your coffee online shop should also become part of this community. Building your brand’s own social media presence is another excellent digital marketing strategy.

Here is a handy guide you can also have a look at.

It enables you to drive more traffic to your website and increase sales.

Of course, there is the obligatory Facebook and Instagram. I would also like to recommend you to get to know and work with LinkedIn and maybe even Tik Tok as well.

These are all additional channels which give you the opportunity to connect with your customers and build a stronger overall network.

It would be great if you could have a large social media following one day. Your online coffee shop brand will definitely benefit from it.

As an overall result, your business will stand for a more reputable and trustworthy service and quality provider.

Go Outside

Yes, you will sell coffee online. I know. But take your social networking one step further and step out of your door.

Take it to the streets.

Engage with your friends, neighbors, colleagues and others. Get them to know your coffee brand.

Be brave and build up relationships with local coffee shops. They might become interested in serving your coffee or just share valuable knowledge with you.

Even in our digital era, the old-fashioned word of mouth method is still a very powerful marketing tool owners often sadly overlook.

It is still one of the ways to build authentic, meaningful and valuable connections, or course.

9. Deliver Excellent Customer Service Every Time

This next point should actually go without saying. Never let your service get worse.

In order to become successful, your online coffee shop will have to rely on a steady and loyal customer base.

For any business, repeat customers provide reliable and predictable revenue income. And they themselves will become your most valuable marketing tool. Without them actually realizing.

It will feel natural for your loyal customers to recommend and talk about what they like your products and service.

They will share your content and products with friends and family, online and offline.

Constantly providing great customer service is a great way to build a loyal customer base. It will become the ultimate reward and driving force for your top quality products.

Convert and serve orders quickly. Adjust to customer needs. Openly and constructively respond to customer complaints. Show genuine care and concern.

Establish yourself in the market as a company committed to provide excellent customer service.

If there is a problem or an order goes wrong. Stay transparent and pro-active. Good customer service can efficiently fix the problem and prevent you from losing a potentially concerned customer.

10. Value Your Local Customers

The last but certainly not least point builds upon the previous one.

Sell coffee online the right way. Demonstrate appreciation towards your customers. Don’t just take but also give back.

There are many tools you can work with.

Loyalty programs, monthly newsletters, sharing coffee knowledge, offering special discounts and many others.

Even a simple ‘thank you’ here and there will work wonders.

Your customers will appreciate that you truly appreciate them. Keep a humble attitude and be grateful for their purchase and support.

Summary

I hope this overview helped you to understand that selling coffee online can be a perfect step to get started in the coffee industry.

The internet is vast and ever-growing.

Especially the entire coffee market and culture has great growth potential in itself. Make your feet wet and give it a go.

If you never try, you will never know.

Work out your business plan and concept. Explore your customer base and their needs. Use the internet and all of its tools to not spend huge amounts of money than maybe starting with a more conventional coffee shop.

Once your online coffee shop succeeds, you have automatically already taken the first step into this major world market and exciting coffee universe.

With an online shop, you can also work with a more flexible schedule. You can work as little or as much as you want.

Hopefully you can discover your own passion and develop your own coffee brand. Try to stay active and updated on recent coffee trends and events.

Grow with your business.

As you try new roasts and marketing ideas, you can figure out what your coffee brand will be about.

When you have a strong online brand and website in your back pocket already. You can still choose a coffee shop and will have an active customer base which gives you competitive advantages already.

What do you think?

Let us know your thoughts? What else might be essential or crucial for an online coffee shop?

Don’t hesitate to let us know. Cheers!