If you want to work from home selling coffee, you’ll be glad to know that you have options. These options are all different online business models that do not incur the start-up costs that a typical coffee roasting business has.
One of the best ways to work from home selling coffee is to open an online coffee business. This is simple to do when utilizing a coffee supplier. You can buy wholesale or locate private label coffee dropshipping suppliers.
The below will help provide a good starting point. When you find an option that you like, you can do further research on your own.
Becoming a coffee roaster is costly. The equipment alone could run you into the six-figures. This is what makes selling coffee from home so appealing.
There are plenty of coffee roasters available to choose from that will let you private label and sell their coffee under your own brand. Some will even do order fulfillment which I touch on more below.
Open your online coffee store today using Shopify’s 2-week free trial.
Table of Contents
1. Private Label Dropshipping
One of the easiest and low-cost ways to open a coffee business online is to utilize private label coffee dropship suppliers. With the dropship model, you do not have to pack and ship any coffee yourself.
You will still need a shopping cart platform to display your products and process orders. However, you forward all shipping information to your coffee dropship supplier. Your supplier will then ship the products to your customers for you.
It will appear as though the coffee has been shipped by you. You will still need to handle all customer service inquiries so providing excellent customer service is key.
Your start-up costs will be low as all that you will need up front is an eCommerce platform like Shopify. You should also budget for having a logo created for your labels.
Some coffee roasters that dropship do not provide labels or bags so that is an expense you should prepare for as well.
It is best to shop around before choosing a coffee dropshipping supplier as some may charge a setup fee as well as a fee per order shipped. These types of fees eat into your profit margin.
I would also be sure to ask about wholesale pricing. If you are having to buy the products at retail prices, it will not be worth it to you to spend the time and money in promoting the products.
Overall, the dropship model is a convenient and low-cost way to start your own business selling coffee.
Here is a graphic representation of how the dropship model works:
2. Coffee Affiliate Programs
Another low-cost and easy way to sell coffee from home is by becoming an affiliate marketer. Affiliate marketing is the promotion of another company’s products in exchange for a commission when a sale is made.
For example, Bulletproof Coffee is a well-known brand and they also have an affiliate program. You can become a Bulletproof Coffee affiliate for free by signing up for the affiliate program.
Affiliate programs are free to join and once you are approved, you will have access to special tracking links called affiliate links. You can then place these links on your website when talking about the product.
When a visitor to your website clicks on one of your affiliate links and buys a product from the merchant’s website, you receive a commission (percentage of the sale.)
How to Make Steady Sales as an Affiliate Marketer
Unlike running an online store, affiliate marketing does not require a shopping cart platform. Instead, you will need to create a niche website.
A niche website is a website that focuses on one topic. In this case, you could create a website (blog) that is related to coffee.
I always recommend getting your own self-hosted WordPress website. All that means is registering your own domain name, getting a web hosting account, and installing WordPress using one-click installation.
Any commercial web hosting provider has everything that you need to get started. I host many of my niche websites with WPX Hosting. They have managed WordPress hosting which is fast. The customer support is also fast and available 24/7.
If you prefer step-by-step training on how to create a niche website, I recommend following the same training program I used. That program helped me to progress faster than if I had tried to learn everything on my own.
3. Wholesale Coffee Beans
Buying your coffee beans wholesale and selling them online is another option that you have for opening an online store.
It is very similar to dropshipping in that you can still private label another roaster’s coffee. However, you will be responsible for order fulfillment. That means you will have to pack and ship each order.
The start-up costs will be a bit more in comparison to dropshipping and affiliate marketing. Many coffee roasters have a minimum order requirement which can cost you hundreds of dollars up front.
Also, keep in mind that the coffee will not arrive as fresh as it could to your customers if you are storing them yourself and waiting for orders to come in.
This is what makes the dropship model more appealing as the coffee ships directly from the roaster. Buying wholesale coffee is ideal for actual brick-and-mortar coffee shops.
However, if you want to buy wholesale beans to sell online, it will help to disclose the freshness of the coffee to help reduce refunds.
4. Network Marketing / MLM Coffee Business
I have to admit that the network marketing and MLM models of starting a coffee business are my least favorite methods.
Most people that join a network marketing company or multilevel marketing company spend more than they are making. That is due to having to buy a certain amount of product each month and being unable to sell enough products to be profitable.
Some coffee network marketing companies include:
- Valentus
- Organo
- Javita
A large part of making money with network marketing companies has to do with building a downline (network of independent distributors) under you.
The larger your downline, the more potential income you can make as you make a percentage of sales from what your downline sells.
Recruiting other people into your downline is often the most challenging aspect of being in a network marketing company.
The percentage of people that succeed and earn a full-time income from it is low. I would much prefer the dropship model or affiliate marketing over network marketing.
My Closing Thoughts On How to Work From Home Selling Coffee
Out of all the options above, my favorite would be affiliate marketing and private label dropshipping. Both offer a low-cost and low-risk way to begin selling coffee online.
Selling coffee online is competitive but you can set yourself apart by focusing a lot of your efforts on branding as well.
Social media platforms are a great to begin branding your business. Instagram and a Facebook page are a must. I’d also recommend creating a YouTube channel if you are comfortable creating videos.
Stay on top of your marketing and you can generate consistent sales. Opening your own coffee store online is easy thanks to shopping cart platforms like Shopify. You can open your store using their 2-week free trial.
