How to Sell Food Online

1. Know What You're Allowed to Sell

Start with the law, not the website. Cottage food laws cover many shelf-stable foods made at home. Cooked meals, meat, dairy, and other perishable foods usually need a licensed kitchen. Many cottage food laws also limit sales to customers in your state, and some do not allow shipping at all.

2. Pick Your Sales Channel

• Marketplace apps: fast reach, but they take a commission on each order and own the customer relationship.
• Your own ordering site: you keep your prices and customer list, but you bring the traffic.
• Social media: good for discovery, weak for checkout. Link to your ordering page.

Most small food businesses do best with their own ordering site as home base and marketplaces as an optional extra.

3. Set Up Ordering and Payments

• Photos, prices, sizes, and options for every item
• Order windows and a cutoff that match your cooking schedule
• Quantity limits so you never oversell a batch
• Card payment at checkout, not on pickup
• Automatic confirmations and reminders

4. Publish Ingredients and Allergens

Customers cannot pick up the package before they buy, so your listing should show ingredients and major allergens, and your label should match. FDA labeling guidance is a good baseline even when your state's cottage food rules are simpler.

5. Choose How Food Reaches Customers

• Pickup: no delivery cost; set short windows.
• Local delivery: charge a fee, keep a tight radius, and batch stops.
• Shipping: only for foods that survive transit and are legal to ship; budget for insulated packaging.

6. Get Your First 50 Customers

• Tell friends, neighbors, and coworkers about launch week.
• Post in local community groups with a direct order link.
• Bring a QR code to markets and pop-ups.
• Offer a small credit for referrals.
• Keep a consistent weekly drop so customers build a habit.

Hand-Off gives home cooks an ordering site they own, with order windows, pickup, local delivery, and payments, and no marketplace taking a cut of every plate.

This guide is general business education, not legal advice. Confirm current requirements with your state and local agencies.