Everyone Loves Grandmas Sauce Or So They Say
I bet Grandma makes the best spaghetti sauce youve ever tasted, tangy and not too spicy. So why not start selling it? Well, have you ever paid Grandma to make it for you? Or have your friends offered you cash for a jar? Theres a huge difference between liking a product and it being truly good enough that strangers will spend their hard-earned bucks on it. Taking time to understand this difference from the start will be key before you embark on this journey.
Start Selling Groceries On Amazon
Just a year ago, 36% of consumers said they purchased groceries on Amazon. Since the start of COVID-19, that number has shot up to 43% and counting. With the online grocery shopping trending up, there has never been a better time to start selling in the grocery category on Amazon. By selling groceries on Amazon, you can help customers find the products that they need while making a healthy profit.
Let us know in the comments if this guide helped you get ungated in the grocery category! If you have any more questions about selling groceries and food on Amazon, please dont hesitate to ask us.
Finding A Wholesale Distributor
You can start by searching for wholesale grocery distributors on Google and see what results come up.
A company that I have personally used, along with many other Amazon sellers, is called Frontier Co-Op Wholesale. Theyre a legitimate wholesale distributor of thousands of products. Most importantly, Amazon accepts their invoices.
Your first step is to selling products from Frontier is to create a membership account with them if you dont already have one.
To open an account, youll need to provide them with your taxpayer information via your TIN, EIN, or SSN. Once they approve your account, you can start buying! Per Amazons verification requirement, youll need to purchase at least 10 units of a grocery product.
Before you go ahead and buy a grocery product from Frontier, make sure you first find a matching Amazon listing for it. That way, Amazon can see that you will be selling XXXX products on XXXX listing.
Here is an example of a Frontier Co-Op Wholesale listing:
And here is the matching Amazon listing:
At this point, it does not matter if the product your order for verification purposes is profitable on Amazon. You just need to have purchased 10 units of a productany productfrom a legitimate distributor so you can get approved to sell in the grocery category.
Be sure to highlight the important information on your invoice to help it stand out for the Amazon representative. Sometimes, the verification team overlooks things, causing them to deny your application.
Don’t Miss: How To Make Chicken Alfredo With Jar Sauce
Start Selling Hot Sauce At Your Own Online Store
These are online stores that you can set up yourself but you will need to drive the traffic. A fully functioning online store can be set up using templates provided by the host that gives the store a professional appearance.
16 ] Shopify
Shopify and sites similar are becoming more popular on the internet. These stores are an excellent way to engage with an international demographic and enter online retail. There are only a few regions of the globe where hot sauce is not as popular as other areas .
| Shopify |
|---|
| You have to create the traffic |
Other sites
There are many web site that are dedicated solely to the sale of hot sauce. These are sites where people are coming specifically for a new hot sauce product. These stores are not as large as Amazon and dont have the same criteria to get in. Hotsauce.com and Hotsaucefever.com are two of the top sites. Some unique features are that you can search by ingredient, type of sauce or SHU ranking.
Sell Hot Sauce To Friends Coworkers And Acquaintances
1 ] Friends
It shouldnt seem like an odd approach to ask your friend for money for a hot sauce that you just gave them, especially if they are a good friend and want to support you. I would not make a cold approach to someone and expect to be able to sell sauce steadily. This is assuming that they already know that you make hot sauce and are also helping you with feedback on how your sauce looks and tastes. This feedback is important.
If anyone wants to see you succeed at selling hot sauce and help promote your hot sauce it should be your friends and family. If your grandmother doesnt buy your sauce
2 ] Co-workers
These are your friends at work so they probably know you have begun making hot sauce as well. This is where you want your sauce to have a professional appearance. Offer them a discount price and treat them to one of your most favorite recipes using one of your sauces. This can be promoted before an upcoming casual work event like an annual outdoor gathering, sports related event or holiday get together.
| Friends, Co-workers and Acquaintances |
|---|
| It could be months before they purchase again |
3 ] Street Food Vendor
Because of the small space needed to display hot sauce, you could team up with a vendor and both you and the vendor could thrive. There are specific regulations to selling as a vendor but the operator of the business will be familiar with that.
| Street Food Vendor |
|---|
| They may already have their own specialty sauce, they may only be in large cities |
| Food Truck |
|---|
Recommended Reading: What’s In Buffalo Sauce
Actual Production & Roll
Picking up will be slow at first therefore, you can start with limited distribution, scaling up as the client base expands. Local shops and malls should be your first targets since they can take products in bulk. Forming a partnership with any restaurant that you can find is also another form of marketing.
To save on costs, form partnerships with nearest wholesale bottle suppliers who can deliver jars and bottles for packaging straight to your plant.
How To Sell Groceries On Amazon
Brian Connolly
When it comes to selling products on Amazon, Id bet the majority of new sellers go for the most popular categoriesHome & Kitchen, Sports & Outdoors, or Toys & Games, to name a few. While those categories can be lucrative, theyre among the most competitive.
A category thats often looked over but rising in popularity with both buyers and sellers is Grocery. In fact, our Consumer Trends Report shows consumers are purchasing grocery products online 49% more frequently since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
How can you take advantage of this upward trend? By learning our expert tips for selling groceries on Amazon! Selling in the grocery category features some challenges you wont experience with elsewhere. Despite these hurdles, taking the extra steps to succeed in this growing niche will be worth it.
Heres what youll learn in this guide:
- How to get ungated in the Grocery & Gourmet Foods category
- Grocery category requirements
- Methods for selling grocery products
Recommended Reading: What Can I Substitute For Soy Sauce
How To Get Approved To Sell Groceries On Amazon
For new and even most experienced Amazon sellers, the Grocery & Gourmet Food category will be restricted at first. You will need to receive category approval from Amazon in order to sell groceries.
Now, if your account is a few years old with great metrics and strong selling history, it is very possible for you to be automatically approved to sell in the grocery category. Heres how to check for pre-approval: copy an ASIN from the grocery category, go to Add a product in Seller Central, and click apply to sell. Then click Request approval. Amazon may auto-approve you.
If thats not the case for your account, you will need to provide Amazon with some documents before you can sell groceries.
B Shelf Life Requirements
When learning how to sell food items on Amazon, you need to know about shelf life. Through Amazon Seller Central, you have access to providing information on the shelf life of your products. The shelf life, or expiration date, indicates how long customers can eat your food.
With shelf life, you have two requirements:
- You must ship food with enough of its shelf life remaining so that the customer might enjoy it.
- If you are selling raw agricultural commodities, they must meet quality requirements and arrive during the time of ripeness.
In this case, think of a reasonable amount of time someone might take to eat something youve sent them. For a bunch of bananas or apples, your shelf life may not last beyond a week. For bulk soup, customers might stretch out the natural expectation to a few months.
Do not modify the expiration date. Amazon will not allow you to do this via your inventory settings, and you are likely to lose your allowance to sell if you try and force the issue. You may also end up causing food poisoning or other complications resulting from tampering with release dates.
Recommended Reading: Good Pizza Sauce To Buy
Choosing The Right Plan
When it comes to selling food products on Amazon, choosing the right plan is key. Selling food products requires a Professional account which comes with a subscription fee of $39.99 per month. The benefits of a professional account is that it waives the per item fees. This particular fee is typically the cost of payment processing per item when Amazon collects the payment for the item listed, taxes and shipping and then disburses the appropriate amount to you, the seller. On an individual plan, this fee is typically .99 cents per item. On the pro plan, you skip the fees. For a complete list of fees associated with creating an account to sell food products on Amazon, .
Nando’s Peri Peri Hot Sauce
This blend of four chiles, including cayenne and African bird’s eye, plus lemon and garlic, started out at a Portuguese restaurant in Johannesburg, South Africa. It’s now the signature sauce of a chain of fast-casual restaurants. As you can tell from the logo, and the restaurants, it goes well with chicken, but I think you’ll find plenty of other things to put it on, too.
You May Like: Knorr Four Cheese Sauce Mix
To Sell Food On Amazon Or Not To Sell Food On Amazon
One thing that is abundantly clear is that selling food on Amazon is not a straightforward decision or process. Thats because Amazon recognizes that no two businesses are the same and has created many variables to keep itself and your business agile and adaptable.
Weve shown you everything we think you need to know to make an informed decision, but how do you actually make it? Begin by weighing the size and stage of your business.
If your business is brand new, you will need to give serious consideration as to whether you want Amazon to be your sole retail platform.
If you do, the FBM model is likely to be the most cost-efficient model for you. You will need to consider a marketing plan within and beyond Amazon to both drive people to the site and to capture people within it. You will not earn a great brand presence on Amazon without investment.
If you already have wide distribution, good brand awareness and a business model that allows you to easily absorb additional costs, then you might choose to go all in sign up for an FBA partnership, invest in algorithmic pricing, invest big in paid media on and off-site and get down to earning that Buy Box.
For everything in between, remember that all of those options mean you have the ability to test, try, fail and try again.
Theres no need to overcommit from day one and put your business at risk. Instead, start small and increase your investment as you need to.
How To Promote Your Hot Sauce
Give away free stuff
Simply put the word FREE is a great marketing tactic, but you are not making any money. Giving products away for free can lead to sales. free stuff can mean information, infographics or other digital product related to your hot sauce.
On sale items
Sales and discounts have been part of promoting a product for centuries. Sometimes they are not even a significant reduction in the price of the product. These sales pitches can be offered through advertising, offering a discount code or email drip campaign.
Although many of the suggestions in this article are easy to set up and the first hot sauce bottle sold is always a milestone, I would promote a hot sauce where people are looking for it. There are many sites available where hot sauce is the main condiment being sold.
Also Check: Classico Roasted Garlic Alfredo Sauce
One: Getting Through The Gate
The grocery category on Amazon is gated. Thus, only select sellers can list groceries on the eCommerce site after approval from Amazon. Selling consumable goods allows no room for error, as consumers can get sick.
So, the very first step in selling Amazon groceries is to get ungated.
Often, gated categories include more lucrative goods. As well as groceries, other categories with gates include music, DVDs, alcohol, cosmetics, jewelry, vitamins, and much more. In your first several months, it should be a goal for any ambitious Amazon seller.
Seeking approval to sell in a restricted category is all about reputation. Amazon can check your selling history, customer reviews, and all other data associated with your account. Simply put, you cannot get approval to sell groceries if Amazon believes youre an unreliable or unimpressive seller.
Determine The Best Price For Your Sauce
With the first five steps of starting a sauce business in place, you can generate a profitable price point. To price your sauce, you need to find out what your competitors are charging. If youre planning to sell a specialty salsa, go into gourmet and natural food stores in your area and look at the prices of competing salsa brands.
If youre interested in mass-producing a product, your co-packer will give you a manufacturing price. With that number in mind, go into retail stores and see if the stated manufacturing price allows you to charge a competitive amount and still earn a profit. If not, you may need to adjust your recipe and use less expensive ingredients. After you browse the aisles, research your competitors sales figures to make sure people are paying their asking price.
Don’t Miss: Buy Chick Fil A Sauce In Bulk
Best Practices: Selling Food On Amazon
It isnt enough to know how to sell food on Amazon you also need to do it well. Below are some of the best practices to be aware of:
a) Familiarize Yourself with the TOS
Before you even begin to think about it, please take a look at the requirements behind it. Everything from temperature requirements to individual shipping requirements is available on Seller Central. So if you happen to wonder, how much does Amazon charge for selling, you can answer that question without struggling.
b) Know Your Countrys Food Shipment Requirements
While Amazon gives you the bare minimum to start, they work internationally. As a result, third-party sellers may not have all of the knowledge they need on food shipment. As a result, you will want to go to Google and find your Countrys official guidelines.
Here are some of the most prominent governing boards regarding food requirements to be aware of:
- FDA works with the United States Department of Agriculture to determine meat and vegetable requirements.
- FSSAI is Indias authority for setting food safety standards to ensure healthy food practices.
- EFSA is Europes answer to the FSSAI, and it is not lumped in with the management of medicine.
c) Start Small
When selling food products, you should start small. Unlike textbook rentals, for example, various items are not all handled in the same way. Doing so can cause dangerous situations for you and your customers.
d) Offer to Open a Wholesale Account for Another Product
- Private label
- Wholesale
The Step By Step Guide To Selling Groceries On Amazon
Adam Weiler is a serial entrepreneur who resides in Seattle, Washington. He is the Founder & CEO of Sunken Stone, a results-driven for growing 7- & 8-figure eCommerce brands. Adam loves to cook, take vacations, and spend time with his family when he is not working. If you have questions or want to chat about Amazon, send him an email or reach out on LinkedIn or Twitter.
Can You Sell Groceries On Amazon?
There are several ways that your business can sell groceries on Amazon. Depending on your area, Amazon may accept both local and regional orders.
Regardless of whether you deliver directly to the customer or straight to Amazon warehouses, youll need to follow the rules. Selling groceries is profitable but requires preparation. Your goods should last for months of storage time.
Selling Groceries on Amazon
Your business must be appropriately licensed or approved to sell fresh products from the appropriate government agencies to sell groceries on Amazon. There are also specific Amazon policies in place for grocery and gourmet food sellers. Amazon sets these policies to protect consumers. This category has restrictions for most sellers because of the strict laws with selling and transporting groceries.
Professional sellers must receive approval from Amazon before selling groceries and gourmet foods.
Don’t Miss: How Many Carbs In Soy Sauce
How To Bottle And Sell Your Own Sauce
Food packaging is an essential part of food processing the world over. Bottles, jars, and other forms of containers provide more than storage space for food they also provide the space for branding. Starting your own product line involves a significant chunk of the investment going towards the procurement of packaging material from bottle manufacturing companies.
Sauces are widely used in many homes, and there are world-renowned brands that are already loved and trusted by people. For your product to disrupt this kind of market hegemony, it will need to be unique in both taste and branding. The following are the phases involved in creating, bottling, and selling your sauce.
