How To Sell Coffee Online: A Step-by-Step Guide (2026)

People love buying coffee online—so much so that the global ecommerce coffee industry is valued at $45 billion. 

Almost three-quarters of Americans drink coffee every day, so it’s no surprise that America is the world’s biggest coffee market. 

Whether you’re a local roaster looking to take your sales online or an ecommerce entrepreneur just getting started selling coffee, we’ve developed a comprehensive guide to help you create a successful online coffee business.

Ahead, learn how to start selling coffee online, plus get five tips for growing your online coffee business.

How to sell coffee online in 6 steps

1. Determine your target audience
2. Decide what products your coffee store will sell online
3. Choose a business model
4. Find your coffee supplier
5. Develop your brand identity
6. Set up your online coffee shop

If you’re a café owner or roaster looking to move your retail coffee business online, you’ll want to skip ahead to step six. If this is your first foray into the coffee business, your journey will start at the very beginning.

1. Determine your target audience

To cultivate a dedicated customer base in a competitive market, you’ll first need to identify a target audience for your online coffee business. 

To figure out your target market, ask yourself:

• Who is your ideal customer? For example, does your ideal customer buy single-origin specialty beans to grind and brew at home, or do they opt for convenient options like espresso pods or ground coffee? Are they interested in trying coffee trends, or do they take their coffee the same way every day?
• What are their specific needs and pain points? Do coffee lovers in your target market have difficulty finding specialty coffee beans with flavor options like hazelnut? Or have they been looking all over for specialty decaf coffee beans? Try to home in on a pain point in order to discover the best business opportunities. 

Examples of different niches you could target include: 

• Specialty coffee enthusiasts 
• Health-conscious consumers
• Low-acid varieties
• Flavored coffee
• Single-origin coffee 
• Fair trade coffee
• Organic coffee 
• Socially conscious coffee

When brick-and-mortar coffee shop Grind expanded into direct-to-consumer online sales, its founder David Abrahamovitch had to identify target customers and their pain points.

“We wanted to be the antithesis to the coffee shops where you went in and were made to feel silly because you didn’t know if you wanted the Guatemalan or the Ethiopian single origin,” David said on an episode of Shopify Masters. “It was, ‘You know what? I just want a flat white, but I just want it to be much better than it is from those guys next door. But I’m not necessarily here for a coffee education.’ That was the customer that we wanted.”

Grind has come a long way since it opened its first physical storefront in London, but its ecommerce arm has maintained the attention of its audience—and Grind’s strong brand identity that caters to those loyal customers.

“I knew that we had this brand that people loved,” said David. “They don’t just like it, they love it. And that’s a really special thing.”

2. Decide what products your coffee store will sell online

Selling coffee online isn’t just selling roasted coffee beans. You might consider selling coffee pods, instant coffee, jugs of cold brew, single-serving cans of coffee, and even coffee-making supplies.

As you consider your product offerings, ask yourself: What problems can my products solve for my ideal customer? For example, Grind decided to innovate on the Nespresso coffee pod to make it more environmentally friendly without sacrificing convenience.

“We needed to find ways to take Grind out of just our physical stores and bring it into people’s homes,” David said. "So we started looking into it, and I decided that doing Nespresso pods was a really great way to get into people’s homes, because Nespresso pods are really, really convenient. They’re very easy, and they don’t make any mess. But they’re pretty terrible for the environment. Less than one in three pods are actually recycled."

David and the Grind team loved the idea of coffee pods, but they weren’t willing to add to the already-staggering environmental problem. So they looked for a solution that would resonate with their target audience, and decided to create compostable pods.

They invested heavily in this new offering, and it paid off—thanks to both their vision and fortuitous timing. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and regulars couldn’t frequent Grind’s storefronts, demand for online coffee sales went through the roof.

3. Choose a business model

Typically, online coffee shops supply roasted coffee beans to customers in one of three ways: roasting their own coffee, reselling wholesale coffee brands, or dropshipping (a form of reselling).

Roasting or producing 

This means you’ll buy whole bean coffee from a supplier and roast the beans yourself. That empowers you to retain full control over this step in the production process. If you roast your own beans, your beans will be the foundation for your entire coffee product line.

Reselling from wholesalers

In this model,you’ll buy roasted coffee beans or pre-made coffee drinks from a wholesaler, store them, and ship them to your customers yourself. If you choose to sell coffee online this way, you’ll need to account for storage and shipping costs, and you’ll also need to develop an inventory management strategy that ensures product availability while minimizing spoilage.

Dropshipping 

With a coffee dropshipping business model, you retain control over your marketing efforts, but relinquish quality control responsibilities to a trusted dropshipping partner. Dropshipping is growing in popularity, especially among entrepreneurs who want to test the market without significant upfront investment. Plus, you can outsource storage and order fulfillment to a wholesale coffee supplier who works with dropshippers. 

If you choose the dropshipping route, you can streamline your operations by using dropshipping apps that integrate with your Shopify store. These apps connect you with supplier networks, automate inventory management, and simplify order processing, allowing you to focus on marketing and customer service while your suppliers handle fulfillment.

Equipment for coffee roasters can be expensive and takes expertise to operate. If you have the capital and the interest in the craft, or if you’re a café owner with an established setup, this option might be best for you. If you’re looking for a simpler and more hands-off option, you might consider reselling or dropshipping instead of competing with other coffee roasters.

Understanding coffee profit margins

As of late February 2026, the cost of coffee per ounce is at 19¢ and $6.91 per pound. The price of coffee has risen astronomically in the past three years, up almost 130%.

Because of this, coffee profit margins are shrinking. A report from NYU on profit margins shows average gross margins for retail grocery and food items at 26.31%. However, coffee businesses may be able to charge more, with one source advising 40% to 60%.

When pricing your coffee offerings, it’s helpful to use a profit margin calculator to ensure your online sales always net in the positive. Things like warehouse space (if needed), labor (if needed), wholesale costs, shipping, packaging, software-as-a-service (SaaS) tool pricing, and marketing acquisition costs can all affect your profit margins. 

Subscriptions can help, as they allow you to lock in customers without having to pay to consistently acquire them. 

4. Find your coffee supplier

There are four main types of coffee beans: Arabica, Liberica, Robusta, and Excelsa. With nearly 60% revenue share in the coffee market, Arabica is the most popular type of coffee bean. Each type of bean has a distinct flavor profile, so choose one that will be popular among your target audience. For example, coffee aficionados might be curious to try a non-Arabica bean. 

Here’s what to consider when choosing a coffee supplier:

• Product quality. Request samples from your potential supplier to ensure their coffee product meets your standards, especially if you’re looking to sell high-quality coffee.
• Customer service. Your supplier should be able to answer any questions you have about how they source and prepare their coffee beans. If a problem arises with availability or quality down the line, you should be able to trust your supplier to clearly communicate the issue.
• Price. Compare different suppliers’ prices to find one that allows you to make a profit on your product. To determine whether or not you’ll be able to make a profit, you might want to design a preliminary pricing strategy for your online coffee store.
• Quality assurance (QA). What is the supplier’s quality control process like? Ask all potential suppliers how they QA their beans to maintain a high standard on every roasting batch.
• Customer reviews. Look into reviews of all potential suppliers. Sites like the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and Trust Pilot can help. If possible, connect with current customers and ask about their experience. 

Coffee-specific fulfillment considerations include: 

• Shelf life 
• Type of packaging 
• Roasting date and processing time
• Order timing, e.g. after the coffee is roasted, how quickly does it get sent to customers? 
• Storage conditions 

If you’re interested in connecting with established coffee suppliers without holding inventory, you might consider using Shopify Collective to browse coffee products from verified Shopify brands. Collective is a free supplier network for eligible Shopify users that makes it easy to contact suppliers and import product listings to your store. 

At checkout, Collective calculates shipping rates and routes orders to suppliers for delivery to customers. This can be particularly useful if you’re exploring the reselling or dropshipping business models mentioned earlier.

You might also want to partner directly with coffee farmers, though cultivating those relationships can take a long time. 

On an episode of Shopify Masters, Aaron Zack, the vice president of sales, marketing, and strategic projects at Propeller Coffee, discussed how his coffee business started working with a farm in Brazil.

“We’re a small Canadian roaster based on the west end of Toronto, so really we need to work upstream through our community of suppliers and brokers and other intermediaries to find those farmers and make those connections,” said Aaron. 

“So in the eight-and-a-half years that we’ve been roasting, we now have relationships with a wonderful family farm in Brazil that has been winning cups of excellence awards in Brazil for 25-plus years.”

It’s also important to consider the ethical implications of the coffee trade—both for the environment and for workers. If sustainability and social responsibility are important to you and your target market, consider getting your coffee brand certified by Fairtrade America—and be sure to incorporate your commitment to ethical sourcing into brand messaging and values statements to your audience.

“Great coffee is grown by farmers who care,” Aaron said. “And who care not only about the plants and the coffee and the environment that they’re grown in, but also about their workers and about the community that they’re growing their coffee in.”

5. Develop your brand identity

Building a strong brand identity is crucial in the coffee industry: Your customers already want coffee, you just have to make them want it from you. After you identify your niche market, you’ll need to align your brand marketing with your target audience. 

Define your value proposition

What value do your products provide customers, and how are your products different from those of other coffee brands? Whether it’s your commitment to sustainable farming practices, emphasis on freshly roasted beans, or anything in between, make sure to clearly communicate your value proposition to your customers.

Choose a name and slogan

Pick a store name and website domain name that’s memorable and communicates not only what you sell online, but the soul of your brand and its mission. You might also want to develop a slogan, which you can do with the assistance of Shopify’s free slogan generator.

Cultivate a brand voice

Choose a brand voice and use it across all of your marketing materials to maintain consistency in your branding. Ask yourself: How does my ideal customer speak about coffee? You might then decide to mirror your target buyers. For example, if you sell coffee online to aficionados with a depth of knowledge about different types of beans, you might decide to use a scientific voice and employ industry jargon to exemplify your expertise. Alternatively, if your goal is to appeal to coffee drinkers who don’t already know a ton about the industry, you may want to develop a brand personality that’s more approachable and educational in a welcoming way.

Design your visual brand identity

Pick a logo, brand colors, and typography, and use that clear and consistent branding across all the different facets of your brand. These elements of branding design can make your company instantly recognizable to customers and help you stand out from your competition.

6. Set up your online coffee shop

Whether you’d like to take your brick-and-mortar café online or develop a business from scratch, consider the following steps to start selling coffee online:

Select an ecommerce platform 

You can set up your online coffee store with a free three-day trial from Shopify. Select a pricing plan to get started.

Choose a theme and customize it 

If you’re using Shopify, you can head to the Shopify Theme Store to find a web design theme that fits your visual brand identity. You can then customize your theme to further develop a distinct visual brand identity for your coffee business.

Set up essential pages

Prioritize your homepage design, then add essential pages like shipping FAQs, return policy guidelines, and your Contact page. It might help to reference other coffee shops and local roasters to see how they organize their websites to sell coffee online.

Add products and collections

Take product photos, write product descriptions, and start creating your product pages. Organize your products into collections and featured products to make it easier for customers to navigate your online coffee store.

Set up shipping options

Buy and print discounted shipping labels directly from your Shopify admin to make sure your customers get their coffee products quickly and inexpensively. You might also consider setting up a local delivery option for nearby customers.

Set up payment options

Make sure that you’ve enabled a payment processor like Shopify Payments so that you can start accepting payments from your online coffee shop customers. Decide what types of customer payment methods you want to accept, then make sure your checkout page clearly displays those options for customers.

Do you need a license for selling coffee online?

Generally, you need at least a business license and seller’s permit to sell coffee online. Below, read up on other permits and licenses you may require. This content is for informational purposes only. For legal or tax information, consult a lawyer or tax adviser. 

Key permits and licenses 

These are the core licenses you need to run a business online. Requirements may change and vary by location. Check with your local jurisdiction for the most up-to-date and accurate information. 

Coffee businesses that operate under a dropshipping model will likely only need to acquire the following: 

• Business license. This is a general document that allows you to run a business within a set jurisdiction.
• Seller’s permit. A seller’s permit, also known as a sales tax license, allows you to collect sales tax on items you sell so that you can remit it to the government.

Manufacturing permits and licenses 

If you choose to work directly with coffee beans, you’ll need additional permits. This includes roasting, sorting, packing, or handling the food product in any way. 

• Cottage food permit. When running a food business from your home, you might qualify for a cottage food permit. These permits allow entrepreneurs to prepare low-risk food items within residential spaces. Every state has different cottage food laws, so check with your local jurisdiction to see if your coffee business qualifies. 
• Food handler’s permit. This permit shows that you’ve completed a food safety preparation course that’s been approved by your state. 
• FDA approval. If you choose to roast and/or package your own coffee, the facility must be inspected and approved by the FDA as required by the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). 
• Processed food registration (PFR). Some states require a PFR registration for manufacturing.Consult your state’s department of health or department of agriculture to learn more and start the process. 

The first step to get properly licensed is to obtain a business license. To get one, consult your state’s licensing requirements and apply via your local government’s website.

How to grow your online coffee business

1. Establish a coffee marketing strategy
2. Engage in storytelling
3. Consider brand partnerships
4. Diversify your product offerings
5. Expand into new areas of the coffee industry

Once you’ve launched your online coffee shop, it’s important to find creative ways to help your online coffee business thrive.

Here are five online coffee store growth tips to help you get started:

1. Establish a coffee marketing strategy

Once your online coffee store is open for business, it’s time to get the word out to potential customers. To do that, you need to develop a marketing strategy.

Start by considering where your target audience is active online and what types of content and topics they’d care to see from your coffee brand. For example, if you’re an existing coffee shop with an email list and social media following, you might try email marketing and social media marketing campaigns. If you’re a newcomer, now’s the right time to open social media accounts for your coffee company so you can start to develop a following.

Additional marketing tactics include: collecting and sharing user generated content (UGC), creating educational content, launching seasonal campaigns, and more. 

Whatever else you decide to do with your marketing strategy, make sure you don’t overlook the power of showing up in Google searches. Getting your own Google Business Profile is one free way to update your business listings online and earn credibility with your audience. You should also invest in search engine optimization (SEO) tactics that will help your online coffee business show up on relevant search engine results pages (SERPs). Developing an SEO strategy is a content marketing best practice that’ll help you grow brand awareness—a crucial need in the early stages of your coffee brand.

2. Engage in storytelling

In the saturated coffee market, you can stand out from the crowd (and provide value to customers) by educating your audience about coffee and telling different stories. 

Those might be your origin story, how your brand makes a positive impact, or even the vibe you want customers to feel when they’re enjoying your coffee. 

Take Propeller Coffee, for example: The company shifted from a largely wholesale business model to a direct-to-consumer (DTC) model during the COVID-19 pandemic. On Shopify Masters, Aaron Zack talks about how marketing an ecommerce company is different—and how he realized the importance of storytelling in the competitive ecommerce coffee space.

“The way we’ve decided to focus our storytelling is just to be as nerdy as we are. In our storytelling, there’s a lot of facts and a lot of education and information about our coffee or our processes,” Aaron says. “Whatever it is we’re talking about, we try to be focused on whatever the topic is and not so much on ourselves. People want to hear a little bit about us, but mostly I think they want to learn.”

Canyon Coffee took a more visual approach to storytelling. Founders Ally Walsh and Casey Wojtalewicz asked themselves what artist Georgia O’Keeffe’s imaginary coffee company might look like.

“After visiting her home in New Mexico and seeing a Chemex resting naturally among her belongings, we understood that coffee could feel quiet, intentional, and at home in everyday life,” Ally told Shopify Masters. 

3. Consider brand partnerships

Developing partnerships is a great way to get your coffee in front of new consumers. For example, Grind developed a partnership with the global social club and hotel chain Soho House. Grind supplies the coffee for all of Soho House’s locations, and Soho House provides Grind coffee in its hotel rooms. It’s a win-win brand relationship.

Just make sure to build partnerships that align with your customer base and brand identity. For example, David considered Grind’s current customer base and London-born brand identity when deciding on the Soho House partnership.

“A lot of our customers are Soho House members anyway,” he says. “We share a lot of values, and I think we were a relatively obvious choice, as a London-born brand, in the same way as I think Soho House is exporting London in a lot of ways.”

4. Diversify your product offerings

Once you start your own online coffee shop, map out a plan for expanding your product offerings over time. This is a great time to establish your store’s product development strategy and set goals for which new products to introduce when.

Take inspiration from the following products as options you might sell online alongside your coffee:

• Coffee makers and accessories. Consider selling brewing kits like kettles, pour-over equipment, or French presses.
• Food items. Cookies, chocolate-covered coffee beans, or chocolate bars are food items that might complement your coffee product offerings.
• Other drinks. Think about selling additional drinks like teas and hot chocolates.
• Branded products. Once you’ve cemented your visual brand identity, you might want to sell branded merchandise like coffee mugs, t-shirts, or tote bags featuring your coffee business name and logo.

Another way to diversify your product offerings is to provide subscription options for shoppers. The two most common types are replenishment subscriptions and curated subscriptions. With a replenishment subscription, customers receive the same item at set intervals. Curated subscriptions are dealer’s choice, offering new products customers may not have chosen for themselves. 

For example, a coffee business could offer a curated subscription where customers receive a different bag of coffee each month based on their preferences. 

5. Expand into new areas of the coffee industry

As you grow your online coffee business, you might want to consider entering new areas of the coffee market.

Take James Hoffmann, who’s created a 20-year-long career for himself in coffee. James won the World Barista Championship, runs the direct-to-consumer (DTC) brand Square Mile Coffee Roasters, and has a brick-and-mortar café called Prufrock Coffee. He’s also an educational coffee content creator with more than two million followers on YouTube.

James expanded his business into the realm of coffee-related merchandise and collectibles with Tens Hundreds Thousands. 

“I’d come up with a product idea for a set of dice that would help you make a recipe for coffee brewing,” says James on an episode ofShopify Masters.

But selling coffee and related goods—not to mention dealing with order fulfillment—was an all-new challenge for James. 

“I was there, sat at a desk stuffing a thousand envelopes by hand, and I was like, ‘This is miserable work. What am I doing? This doesn’t have to be this way,’ says James. 

He decided to start using third-party warehouses and try a print-on-demand model, which integrates with the brand’s Shopify store.

Now, the company sells its coffee-themed posters, specialty ceramics, and clothing in editions of tens, hundreds, and thousands—mirroring the business’s name. This limited edition model turns James’s products into sought-after collectibles, which strengthens the brand’s reputation.

Other expansion paths for coffee brands include: 

• Opening a brick-and-mortar location. This is the biggest undertaking, requiring a commercial space, staff, and significant upfront investment to launch and operate an in-person shop. If you’re not ready to go all-in right at the beginning, consider a pop-up shop. 
• Selling beans wholesale. Grow your coffee business by supplying beans to other brands through a wholesale model. This typically requires a wholesale license and additional permits depending on your location and business structure.
• Selling coffee equipment and accessories. Expand your product line with items like coffee machines, pour-over makers, mugs, and filters. You’ll need reliable suppliers and a fulfillment process.
• Creating and selling merch. Offer branded t-shirts, stickers, sweatshirts, and mugs alongside your coffee. This requires designs, a production method, and a fulfillment solution.
• Releasing limited editions. Generate buzz with unique brews or merch collaborations. Source rare beans for limited runs or partner with brands your customers love to create exclusive, time-bound releases.