Ordering food online becomes more popular each year. So why restrict your business to a local target group? Here is a guide on how entrepreneurs can sell their delicacies worldwide.
The way people eat today has changed a lot during the last years. Food is no longer something we need to survive, it’s about the experience you get by eating it. Nowadays, there are many food lovers around the world who enjoy spending money on a rare piece of chocolate or a homemade marmalade that reminds them of their childhood. Therefore, people like to order delicacies from around the world. But when it comes to selling food online, many chefs have trouble getting started as there are a lot of different laws and restrictions that come with it.
If food is your passion, these legal barriers shouldn’t stop you from starting to sell online. Just remember, whenever you get frustrated about a regulation, they were invented to make food safer for the customers and that – by following them – you can avoid getting people sick from your delicacies. If you are struggling too much with the regulations, consider consulting a lawyer who has experience in the food industry.
First of all, you need to decide what kind of food you would like to sell. Maybe you already have a physical store in a good area and now you want to expand your business. But if not, you have to find a niche in which your idea fits into. If you are looking for new inspiration, have a look at the current food trends and see if you can work with that.
Set up your Store
Once you decide on a certain kind of food, you can set up your web store. You can easily do this yourself without spending a lot of money on a developer with platforms like Shopify. But before you publish it, don’t forget to do some research: what makes your product better than your competitor’s? Compare your brand to others to see what you can learn from them and to better them.
Make sure that you have everything ready before getting started and don’t forget to think about your business operations. In a local restaurant, you have a restricted number of seats and therefore guests you can serve in a day. The internet doesn’t work that way. It’s hard to estimate how high the demand will be. Therefore, it can be helpful to use a manufacturing scheduling software that helps small manufacturers optimise their operations. The software will make sure you have enough ingredients in stock whilst you can concentrate on preparing the food.
As people cannot try before they buy, the way it looks on your website is essential. Your product has to tell a story through the package design, photography and the description. By looking at the product page, the customers must be able to imagine how the food might taste.
Last, but not least, develop a marketing strategy for your store. This should include setting up social media pages, optimising your website for the search engines, and starting an email campaign.
Now it’s up to you! Happy selling!
