Selling Sicilian food products online: what you need

Preserves, cheese, olive oil, sweets, coffee. Sicilian producers often have customers all over Italy and abroad who discovered them on holiday or at a fair. Without an online shop, those customers buy once and then drift away. Here is what you need to sell Sicilian food products online, from shipping to labels, with three companies we work with as examples. If you produce and want your shop open before Christmas, write to us now.

The story counts as much as the product

The "typical products" market is full of industrial packs with a Trinacria on the label. Online, customers cannot taste. They tell a handmade jar from an industrial one only by what they read and see.

Three things are needed: who you are, where you produce, how you work. Caseificio Spina Santa has made cheese in Nicosia for generations. On the website we put the family and the land first, then the products. Visitors know where that cheese comes from before they look at the catalogue.

Photos are the most important part of a product page. The open jar, the texture, the product on a plate. Natural light and the same background across the catalogue work best. You pay for them once and use them for years.

Shipping delicate products

Shipping is where many food shops lose money or customers. Broken glass, cheese that arrives warm, parcels stuck in a depot for three days.

The choices to make before opening:

• which products to ship. Preserves, oil, wine and dry sweets travel well with the right packaging. Fresh and dairy products need insulated packaging and express couriers, and it often makes sense to limit them to some areas or months;
• which courier for which area. For Il Sole del Sud, which makes artisan preserves in the heart of Sicily, we set up SDA for Italy and Crono for Europe;
• how much to charge for shipping. A free-shipping threshold encourages customers to add one more jar to the cart. Il Sole del Sud uses one to raise the average order value;
• which days to ship. Many producers ship fresh goods only early in the week, so parcels don't sit in a depot over the weekend. Say so on the shipping page.

Packaging costs belong in the price or in the shipping fee. Boxes with dividers for glass and insulated bags cost money, and on a small order they weigh.

Labels and mandatory information

Food sold at a distance falls under EU Regulation 1169/2011. The mandatory label information must be available before purchase, on the product page: name, ingredients, allergens, quantity, storage conditions, name and address of the producer. The use-by or best-before date is the exception: it must be there at delivery.

In practice every product page repeats what is on the label, with allergens highlighted. In the Il Sole del Sud shop, gluten-free products are marked in the catalogue, so people with an intolerance find them at once.

Online sales must also be notified to the health authorities and the local council, usually by updating the business registration. Procedures vary from region to region, so ask your adviser before opening.

A catalogue that works like the shop counter

People buying typical products online rarely search for a product code. They look for "something for pasta", "a gift", "breakfast sweets". The catalogue should follow how the customer thinks.

Il Sole del Sud has four lines: condiments, spreads, traditions and sweet treats. The shop is in Italian and English. Kafè, which makes flavoured and traditional coffee, has its catalogue split by flavour and format. The brand on the pack is the same as the online shop, because we designed both.

Christmas: gift boxes

For many food producers December is the month with the most orders. Gift boxes sell to private customers and to companies buying gifts for clients and staff.

If your shop already exists, here is what to do by mid-November:

• create the boxes as products of their own, with photo and price, instead of letting customers put them together;
• state on the home page and in the cart the last order date for delivery before Christmas, area by area;
• prepare a page for corporate orders, with quantities and a personalised card;
• check your packaging stock, because in December suppliers deliver late.

Selling abroad too

Many customers of Sicilian products live in northern Europe or are tourists who have gone home. They need the shop in English, shipping costs by country and written delivery times.

Then there is VAT. Above €10,000 a year of sales to private customers in other EU countries, the VAT of the customer's country applies, paid through the OSS scheme. Wine and spirits also carry excise duties, with different rules in each country. We covered customs and currencies in the article on selling abroad with your online store.

Frequently asked questions

My own shop or a marketplace?

Marketplaces bring customers who don't know you and take a commission on every sale. Your own shop serves the people who already know you and want to reorder. Many producers use both.

How much does it cost to open the online shop?

Our online store starts at €699, one-off, with custom design, payments, shipping and technical SEO. Hosting and domain remain, as yearly costs paid to the provider, plus the fees of the payment networks. The price goes up with very large catalogues, integrations with your management software, or if you need photos and copy.

Can I manage orders and products myself?

Yes. Products, prices, orders and discounts are managed from a dashboard, and training is included. Kafè's catalogue, for example, is updated without going through us.

Open your online shop

We build online stores with custom design for producers and shops, with shipping and payments set up. See the other projects on our websites and online stores page. Write to us on WhatsApp at +39 389 591 6034 or through the contact form with what you produce and where you want to ship. We reply within one working day.