Selling food online is a growing e-commerce sector, as customers gradually become more confident with online shopping and begin to trust them for their weekly purchase.
Consumers are becoming increasingly sophisticated and are demanding unusual foods and ingredients that the Internet can offer them. There have also been improvements in the supply chain infrastructure, which means that even very fresh food is easier to deliver to the home.
But selling food over the Internet brings with it a unique set of challenges. People are used to seeing their food before buying it and visiting the facilities from which it is obtained. Online food vendors lose the advantage of being able to sell their food using smells, samples and displaying food in real life. These issues need to be addressed to gain customer trust online.
If you sell food online, it is absolutely essential that you offer really good photos to make the food look attractive and delicious. Photographs are the main thing your products will sell, so make sure you get really attractive photographs.
These days, many e-commerce sites use what is known as "lifestyle" photography. This means displaying items for sale in a typical environment where they would be used, perhaps using some accessories that are not too intrusive or distracting. For example, if you're selling baked bread, you might consider photographing it on a breadboard, next to a bread knife. This is not just a fashion choice; It really helps your customers get an idea of the scale of the item they are buying.
LTrust is a really key aspect when it comes to buying food online. How are you giving your customers confidence in your product?
There are many ways to do this online. Here are just a few ideas:
- be completely transparent about the ingredients and the preparation process
- display any food hygiene awards or certifications prominently on-site
- explain about the shipping process and how your food is protected in transit and how it should be stored upon arrival
- add customer testimonials to your site and show prominent reviews (not just good ones)
- use a reliable shipping company
- It is really important to make a good packaging of food, both to make it look attractive and communicate the values of your brand, and so that the food is protected in transit.
