With more and more people buying food online, new avenues on the internet open up for small vendors. Find out how to create an aesthetic no-code website, sell on social media and marketplaces, and accept secure payments online. 

To get started, our 30-day free trial could be a key way to develop your online business. Here’s how to sell food online and how Netcash Shop can streamline the process for an easy and enjoyable new business venture.

10 Reasons for starting a food business online

Let’s look at why you should consider selling food online before we get into how it’s done. This will give you clarity when it comes to expanding your existing business online. 

1. Control & flexibility 

Having an online business gives you optimal flexibility and control as you’re able to run your store from virtually anywhere with an internet connection. You also have the freedom to create working hours that suit your lifestyle. This allows you to better balance your work and personal life. 

2. Wider reach

Online businesses are the future, as you can reach anyone, anytime, anywhere. You’ll be able to tap into a much larger pool of potential customers compared to traditional physical stores. Reach new customers through multiple channels, from social media to email marketing and marketplaces.

3. Easy to scale

Online businesses have more potential to scale, allowing your business to grow quickly and efficiently. And with the help of digital marketing, handy apps, and platforms, growing your business and increasing your customer base has never been easier.  

4. Lower overhead costs

Small businesses that start from home and sell online have far fewer overhead expenses compared to their brick-and-mortar counterparts. This also allows smaller businesses to expand into commercial spaces more effectively as their business grows. 

While costs normally tend to increase as your business scales, the set up costs associated with traditional, physical stores won’t be a setback for you. These include staffing costs, expensive leases, and insurance.  

In contrast, to sell online, you’ll need just a few thousand rands to cover ingredients, website and marketing costs, and packaging.

4. Access to sales trends & data analytics

One of the best parts of running an online business is having access to insights like sales trends and data analytics. These insights help you understand consumer behaviour and identify trends to narrow your target market and improve sales. 

Data analytics improves your decision-making, allowing you to make faster and better-informed business decisions. It also enhances marketing campaigns, improves operational efficiency, and increases customer retention.  

5. There are no “opening times”

One huge advantage to having an online business as opposed to a traditional brick-and-mortar store is being able to sell 24/7. You can tap into the global market, no longer restricting yourself to making sales from your local customers. This means potential customers country-wide can browse and purchase your products at any time. 

A Step-by-step guide to selling food online

Excited to get started? Before we get into all the steps, it’s essential to first consider everything you need to start an online food business. Starting an online food business is easier than you think if you follow these steps closely: 

1. Understand food laws 

First things first. Before you even begin to think about selling food online, you should familiarise yourself with food laws. It can be very complex, and organisations have to monitor all foods sold online closely to ensure public safety. 

Do your homework to acquire the appropriate licenses and adhere to certain standards and practices. If not, you’ll land in hot water with the health department. In South Africa, these laws are overseen by the Department of Health. Breaking a food premise law, for example, can lead to fines from R400 up to R2000 or imprisonment that extends to 24 months, depending on the number of offenses. 

2. Study food trends and find your niche

Whether you have an idea yet on what exactly to sell, it’s always a good idea to first study current food trends. Look at what’s selling well, study the competition, and understand the current market, i.e., what are consumers raving or complaining about? 

Once you have these insights, it makes it easier to decide whether your idea is worth pursuing. Also, consider whether you need to make some tweaks to make what you’re selling more appealing. Lastly, consider if you’ll be able to compete with plenty of competition, which is often the case when merchants jump on the latest trends. 

Then, it’s time to determine your niche. Choose something that will fill a gap in the market. What’s the one thing no one else is selling that could do well? Filling the needs of a niche market can be essential.  

3. Do some market research

Now that you’ve decided on which food product/s to sell, it’s time to do some market research to get a better idea of how it could perform. This step allows you to test the viability of a product and determine if there is a market for it. 

When doing this research, it’s important to consider the rules that govern the specific industry. For example, are you even able to sell and ship the food product online? You have to consider the following aspects:

• Can the shelf life of a product make inventory challenging? 
• Can your product be shipped and remain intact regardless of the journey’s length and conditions?
• Does your product need special shipping conditions, such as refrigerated trucks?
• Is your product legal to sell online in your country, such as liquor or cannabis-infused products?  

4. Research your costs and determine a budget

Knowing more or less how much it’s going to cost to not only start but also run your online business is essential. Firstly, you’ll need to know how much to budget for, from sourcing ingredients and managing inventory to shipping fees. 

Not knowing the costs involved is an irresponsible business move that could cost you in the end as your chances of running into unexpected costs increase.

5. Come up with a business model

With most of your research out of the way and having decided on the product you want to sell, you can start working on your business model. First, you need to identify your target market. Who are your potential customers? What are their needs and desires? 

Then, define your unique selling proposition (USP), i.e., what makes your product stand out from the rest. Finally, you’ll want to create a pricing and marketing strategy to determine the factors that influence your pricing and how to reach your target market.   

6. Source your ingredients

Where and how you source your ingredients is very important, as this will impact the quality of your product and your pricing model. This can also affect your labelling; for example, if you plan on labelling your product as organic, you’ll need to prove that your raw ingredients are sourced from a certified and reputable supplier. 

Do your homework and ensure that your supplier adheres to food laws and guidelines. Also, look at the quality and ethics behind their produce.  

7. Decide on a food production model

The food production process depends on the scale of your business and what you intend to sell. If you’re a start-up or small business, you will be able to sell food online from home. Some items can be legally produced and sold right from your kitchen, but as always, look into the regulations surrounding your product. 

You may need to tweak your home setup, such as improving the ventilation or adding more countertop space to work on. Just be sure to secure the required license to sell food from home in your region. 

Then, for medium-sized operations or small businesses that are scaling, you may need to look at alternatives. These include renting an hourly or monthly shared commercial kitchen or setting up your own commercial facility. 

8. Research packaging and labelling laws

Packaging and labelling laws can be very complex. Yes, the visual appeal is just as essential, but you want to make sure you adhere to your country’s labelling requirements. Then, if you plan to ship abroad, you have to ensure that your labelling adheres to those countries’ regulations as well. 

The main things you’d want to focus on are ingredients, certifications, nutritional information, best-before dates, allergen warnings, and country of origin.

9. Figure out the pricing for your products

Pricing is probably one of the most challenging parts of selling online. While there’s no one pricing formula, the biggest thing to consider is your fixed and variable costs. You can determine your profit margin by dividing your profit (either gross or net) by your revenue and multiplying by 100 to express it as a percentage.  

You could also look at your competitors’ pricing during the market research phase to see what customers are willing to pay. 

10. Set up effective inventory management

Effective inventory management reduces costs, improves customer satisfaction, increases efficiency, and minimises storage needs. Properly monitoring and controlling your inventory can help prevent discrepancies, loss, and theft. 

Reordering and sourcing ingredients and stock will also be more efficient, making sure you don’t order too much or too little.  

11. Figure out the shipping and packaging logistics

Shipping is an integral part of an eCommerce business, but it’s also a pain point for many entrepreneurs. You need a fast and reliable solution to ensure your customers get their products on time and in mint condition. Besides improving customer satisfaction, your products can reach multiple locations across the country at the same time. 

However, there are a few setbacks when it comes to shipping food products. These include high freight costs and delays, extreme temperatures, and also ensuring safe packaging to prevent spills, breakages, and contamination.  

Since many food items are fragile and perishable, you’ll likely need to invest in shipping materials to offer enough protection from breakage and contamination. Besides the extra cost of materials, you also need to factor in fees for handling, staffing time, and shipping weights. 

12. Choose where to sell from

Which sales channel will work best for your business? Small businesses that are trying to scale will find that building a website is the best option. Whereas start-ups or those looking to sell within their community may find that selling through social media and online markets is sufficient enough.  

13. Start marketing your product

Now, you’re finally ready to get started. The only thing left is to develop and build your brand so your online business scales. Marketing is no doubt one of the most significant factors in running a business.   

Online marketing presents an opportunity to not only connect with current customers but also appeal to new ones through storytelling, visuals, and other marketing techniques. At some point, you’d want to invest in search engine optimisation (SEO) to help your store rank on Google’s search page and pinpoint your target audience. 

5 easy ways to sell food online

Now that you know how to sell food online, let’s look at the many ways to go about it. There’s more than one way to go about this, so if you’re looking for a way to sell food online but don’t know where to start, don’t stress. 

Here are the best ways to sell, whether that’s via social media, marketplaces, or a website.

1.  Create an eCommerce website 

It doesn’t matter what product you’re offering; you need a platform to sell food online, and creating a website is a great place to start. Netcash Shop has Instant Site, a brilliant website builder that’s included with all eCommerce plans.

That said, if you already have a website, you could always add an online store to it. When you choose Netcash Shop, building your website or adding an online element to it becomes simple and quick. 

With a variety of website builders, including WordPress, Wix, Joomla, and Squarespace, that seamlessly connect to Netcash Shop, it’s never been easier to set up your virtual store.

2. Sell without a website 

There is also a way to sell online without a website, whether that’s through advertising on Instagram or Facebook or through a third-party online marketplace like Amazon. Netcash Shop has useful functionalities, like the Buy Now Button, which allows you to place a beautiful product card or simple “Buy Now” button on your own or a third party’s website – the perfect solution for affiliate marketing.

Additionally, you could sell your food online at wholesale prices to other sellers that have successful websites. To do this, you’ll need to ensure you have enough of a profit margin to sell items at the retailer’s preferred rate.  

3. Sell on social media

Another great option for where to sell food online is social media, as it offers a unique way to connect with potential customers. 

Note that the Facebook and Instagram Shop feature is no longer available in South Africa. However, South African merchants can still use the Advertising features to sell through social media. You’ll be able to create targeted ad campaigns to reach new customers. 

Then, you can also add shoppable product tags to your Instagram ads, allowing your customers to view products, checkout, and pay via your built-in, secure Netcash payment gateway at the tap of a button.

Lastly, with Netcash Shop’s LinkUp, you can add your website link to the bio section of all your social media platforms, giving your followers a quick and easy route to your online store. 

4. Connect to marketplaces

Marketplaces are another excellent option to start selling food online. You can add the Netcash Shop eCommerce cart to your chosen marketplace by using the Netcash Shop integrated marketing tools. 

Some of the best online marketplaces for selling food in South Africa are Facebook Marketplace, Gumtree, Takealot, Featsy, and OLX. For most of these, the setup is relatively simple, as you only need a seller account and a connected payment method. 

5. Choose an eCommerce solution that does it all

Another solution for selling food online is to use an eCommerce shop. As one of the best eCommerce platforms in South Africa, Netcash Shop can help you incorporate eCommerce into any small business plan. 

Some eCommerce best practices to follow are optimising product pages, decluttering your website, and ensuring your site is secured – all in an effort to make prospective customer’s experience as effortless as possible. 

Of course, if you’d prefer to leave this to the pros, Netcash Shop includes some innovative eCommerce features, such as store management, sales channels, and preset configurations that make all of this much easier for you from the start. 

Best apps for selling food online

If you’re looking to incorporate some eCommerce apps on your website, Netcash Shop has a range of options available. Here are some of the best apps for selling food available on the Netcash Shop App Market.

1. Bob Go

Bob Go Smart Shipping allows you to have full control over your store’s logistics. Automate waybills, compare shipping rates and choose your local courier from one central dashboard. Standout features include sending customers automated order updates, shipping from multiple locations, shipping rates for customers at checkout, and pre-set packaging options.  

Sign up with Bob Go

2. HelpfulCrowd 

A useful app to help you understand your customer’s experience is HelpfulCrowd, which generates and collects product reviews. This is because shoppers are more likely to trust sites that highlight past consumer encounters. 

3. Storehub.io

This easy-to-use integration tool seamlessly connects your Netcash Shop eCommerce store with accounting software. Storehub.io syncs prices, orders, and stock levels to your store to and from your accounting suite. As a result, maintaining and managing your online store becomes seamless.  

4. Droppa Shipping

Droppa Shipping is another handy tool that lets you manage your online orders straight from your Netcash Shop dashboard. However, it does way more for your business than most of its competitors. This includes creating and printing shipping labels, automating shipping rate calculations, and managing order logistics from Netcash Shop. 

Benefits of using Netcash Shop for your online store

Netcash Shop has a variety of plans available to suit your business so that your customers can buy food items online. We also have a free plan available to get you started. Beyond that, Netcash Shop’s eCommerce shopping cart, Instant Site, and Buy Now Button are the perfect tools to sell online.

After you have created your free account, you can add your eCommerce site to any existing website using one of the integrated plugins. Additionally, you can simply copy and paste a few lines of code into any content management system. 

You can sell your products online by adding your Netcash Shop to your Joomla, WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, or custom website. 

You are now ready to start selling food online in South Africa. Also, use the Netcash plugins to sync your shop to social media platforms to sell online across multiple platforms and increase your reach.

Sign up for Netcash Shop free of charge

1. Customisable template

Netcash Shop features customisable templates to blend seamlessly with your website and display your inventory beautifully. Our systems are lightning-fast, so your customers will enjoy a smooth online shopping experience and make their purchases without any interruptions.

2. Responsive design

Our responsive website design presents your food items in an aesthetically pleasing way to your customer on any device. Netcash Shop’s responsive design is mobile-optimised to display seamlessly when your customers are on the go. 

Our website and online shop templates are customisable. So, you can tailor the look of your online store with the click of a button without needing any design or website development skills.

Customers can browse your product range and make purchases directly from your online shop. Payment and shipping plugins are fully integrated, and you can use the free mobile store app to manage your inventory on the go.

3. Powerful eCommerce shopping cart 

Netcash Shop’s powerful eCommerce shopping cart includes features that use customer data to help you learn from your customer’s shopping habits. You can use data to market your business to segmented customer groups and develop a loyal customer following through social media while even offering your VIP customers exclusive discounts.

4. Easy-to-use payment gateway

Thanks to the various payment solutions that come integrated into your Netcash Shop, you can offer your customers multiple ways to pay. The Netcash eCommerce payment gateway (Pay Now) is pre-installed, so all you need to do is complete your Pay Now service application and copy & paste the Pay Now service key into the Netcash plugin in the Netcash Shop control panel. 

The payment options you can offer your customers with Netcash are:

• Scan to Pay – accept almost all QR and digital wallet payments
• Credit and debit cards
• Visa Click to Pay
• Ozow instant EFT
• Payflex
• Retail Payments
• Instant EFT 

5. Integrated shipping options

It is a top priority to deliver a customer’s orders as fast as possible, which is simple to do by setting up one or a variety of shipping options. Netcash Shop has integrated shipping options with local courier companies like Fastway Couriers for real-time shipping quotes. 

Additionally, you can use the shipping configuration wizard to set up flat-rate shipping, shipping based on location, and many more.

6. Sell on multiple platforms

Netcash Shop offers various solutions when you want to tackle cross-platform selling. Sell across multiple platforms, including mobile, websites, Google Shopping and Search, and marketplaces like Takealot and Amazon.

7. Social media

Netcash Shop can help you reach a wider audience by advertising your online store on Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, and Pinterest.  

8. Global reach

Netcash Shop features integrations with Amazon, eBay, and Google, real-time shipping integration with local couriers like BobGo, Fastway, and Droppa, and support for over 50 languages.

Top features of an online food business

Now that you know what benefits Netcash Shop has for online sales, you might want to know what features your website to sell food should have. Here’s a quick rundown to help you make the most of your online business: 

1. High-quality photographs

First things first, online customers need to see what they’re buying. Without high-quality product images, sales simply aren’t going to happen. If you’re looking for where to start, this beginner’s guide to eCommerce photography will help. 

Adding useful product imagery helps appeal to your customers’ senses. Whether you DIY it or hire a professional, it’s essential to get the styling and lighting right. Food photography may not be easy, but good camera work and editing can help enhance the food items. 

Shoot your food against clean backgrounds for product pages to make them stand out. Also, ensure you have multiple angles and various close-ups to showcase the textures and color. 

2. Simplistic, easy-to-use navigation 

Going hand in hand with top-notch imagery is easy-to-use navigation of your site. Without this, it doesn’t matter if you have the best product photos, as your customers won’t be able to use your website and will leave out of frustration.

Making the shopping experience as convenient as possible can lead to returning consumers, higher spending, and even the ability to recover abandoned carts. This can be done by adding dropdown menus, specific product categories, and relevant information, such as allergens, nutritional values, and portion sizes. 

3. Product reviews

Another feature that is pivotal to add to an online business is product reviews. It helps to build your business’ exposure, reliability, and reputation – as customers will be more willing to buy products that other people enjoy. This is the power of social proof. 

Reviews can also help boost the SEO of your business, as they show search engines that you have a reputable and trustworthy website. This could lead you to rank higher, as your store will be searched for by prospective customers looking for potential reviews.

Read Next: For a more extensive look into digital marketing, be sure to check out these SEO tips for small businesses.

4. A secure eCommerce platform

One thing your eCommerce business needs to have is a secure platform. Seeing as you’re selling online, customers want to know that their data is safe from hackers and scammers. 

So, if your eCommerce platform is not secured, chances are prospective consumers won’t want to spend money on it. There are various reliable options to use, but with Netcash Shop, you’ll save money on eCommerce website prices.

FAQs about how to start an online food business

Still have some lingering questions about using an online store to sell food? Here are some answers to commonly asked questions.

What food sells well online? 

Food that sells the best online are often items that are non-perishable and low cost, like the following: 

• • Sweet treats: Sugary treats are very popular thanks to their long shelf life, low costs, and ease of shipping. These include chocolate, hard candy, jelly beans, gummy worms, chewing gum, candy bars, and cotton candy. 
  • Snacks: Like sweets, snacks are low-cost and easy to ship, making them a great choice for online selling. You can sell items like popcorn, cured meats and sausages (biltong and boerewors in South Africa), granola bars, pretzels, crackers, chips, and pre-packaged ice cream. 
  • Jams, preserves, and pickles: Another option that is well-suited for online selling is jams, preserves, pickles, and even organic condiments and sauces. 

• • Tea and coffee

• • Nuts and dried fruits

• • Speciality foods: Foods that are hard to come by means that some consumers are willing to pay a higher price for a unique and premium product. 
  • Baked goods: While freshly baked bread may not be ideal, pre-packaged cookies, biscuits, muffins, and pastries can do well online.  
  • Dry herbs and seasonings: These are non-perishable, making them perfect for online sales as well. 

Is the food business profitable in South Africa?

Yes, there is potential to run a successful and profitable online food store in South Africa. This is especially the case if you offer unique products that cater to specific needs.

Read next: Have a look at the latest eCommerce tech tools and optimisation trends