How to Start a Private Label Coffee Business Online

Coffee is big business. It is an evergreen niche which means it will always be making money. If you are interested in learning how to start a private label coffee business, there are several things to consider before starting.

This website is focused on exploring various ways to sell coffee online. Private labeling is one such way. I’ve done some research on how to get started.

In this post, I will share what I’ve learned and provide some details on how to get started.

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Steps to Start a Private Label Coffee Business

There are several steps that you’ll need to take to start a private label coffee business online. Private label coffee saves a lot of money in start-up costs.

Starting a coffee roasting business is expensive in terms of equipment, renting out a space for your business, marketing, and so on.

By private labeling coffee, your start-up costs remain low. Your main expenses will be ordering your coffee, design (labels & bags), paying for an online shopping cart, marketing expenses, and possible shipping costs.

Below, I will highlight the main essentials for starting your own online coffee store.

Step 1: Choosing Your Niche

You may be wondering what niche it is that you could possibly choose? It is the coffee niche, right? Well, there are still subniches that you can target within the coffee niche.

For example, there is a personal trainer that I follow on Instagram who sells his own brand of coffee. He markets it to his niche audience which are health & fitness enthusiasts.

Maybe you are a college student and want to market your coffee to college students. You can have fun with choosing your niche.

Black Rifle Coffee Company is a great example of a niche. It is a veteran-owned coffee company and its mission is to give back to veterans, law enforcement, and first responders.

There is no problem staying in the general coffee niche. However, it can still be fun to choose a subniche and it definitely makes it more fun when it comes to marketing your business.

Step 2: Designing Your Labels and/or Bags

Your logo is what will set you apart and what your customers (and potential customers) will remember. It will be your branding and when it comes to selling coffee, branding plays a large part in your success.

There are many coffee bag designers to choose from. Investing in a professionally designed logo or coffee bag is worth the investment.

However, when starting out, you do not need to spend a lot of money up front. You can search for low-cost options such as finding a coffee bag or label designer on Fiverr.

Otherwise, if you have the budget, you can choose from multiple designers with 99designs. It works by submitting your specifications, setting an amount, and professional designers will compete for your business.

You can always start off with a low-end design and upgrade later.

Step 3: Choosing a Private Label Supplier

There are many coffee roasters that do private labeling. This will take a bit of time to decide on who to choose as all private label coffee suppliers have different requirements.

The first option is to check locally first. If you can find a local private label coffee roaster, it can make it easier to sample products as well as communicate with your supplier.

Some questions that you’ll want to ask when selecting a supplier can include:

Do you offer wholesale pricing?

Some coffee roasters do not offer wholesale pricing. If not, it will cut into your profit margin. It is important to know if the company offers wholesale pricing or at least a discount.

Are there any additional fees?

There are some private label coffee suppliers that will charge a one-time fee or monthly fee to do private labeling.

Will you need to supply your own bags or labels?

Many coffee roaster suppliers do not provide bags or labels. If some do supply them, they will charge a fee to do so. You’ll need to find out if you have to mail in your bags/labels or if they supply the bags and will print your labels for a fee.

Step 4: Setting Up Shop

You’ll need a place online to sell your products and one of the best ways to accomplish this is by opening an online store.

Nowadays, it is super easy to get your own eCommerce store up and running. Shopify is an excellent shopping cart platform to consider.

You can have your store up in minutes. It is easy to add products, descriptions, and your payment gateway is set up as well.

They also make it easy to add your own domain name. The basic Shopify plan starts at $29 per month.

Step 5: Marketing Your Coffee Business

After you have your online store set up and ready for business, it is then a matter of promoting your products.

You can use both free and paid methods. Free methods can include creating social media accounts on popular platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and more.

If you want to run paid advertising, you may have great results advertising on Instagram and Facebook. Keep in mind that paid ads can be expensive so set aside a budget for it if you choose this route.

Another excellent platform for promoting your brand and products is YouTube. If you are comfortable being on camera, it provides an amazing opportunity to build a following and make sales.

Create videos demonstrating how to brew coffee using your beans or create other helpful coffee tutorials and mention your beans.

Most of your work will be involved with marketing so it helps to learn a lot and apply what you learn.

Step 6: Excellent Customer Service

The success of your business will be greatly determined by the type of customer service that you provide.

Always provide excellent customer service and you will help ensure that you’ll not only have new customers but repeat customers as well.

Make it easy for customers to reach you. It may mean getting a business phone number to place on your website. Include a contact page and display a business email address.

Personally, I will not shop from an online store that doesn’t make it easy to reach out for customer support.

Closing Thoughts On Starting a Private Label Coffee Business

I hope this post has provided some insight into how to start a private label coffee business. It is a low-cost and easy way to begin selling coffee under your own brand.

A majority of your time may be spent on marketing. Providing excellent customer service is key.

If you need an easy and reliable shopping cart platform, Shopify is an excellent resource.