A friend of mine sent me some food items from ImpromptuGourmet.com to try out, and I must say that I’m impressed. I never ordered meals over the Web before and I am surprised at the quality, speed of service, and yes, even taste.
This made me realized the vast potential of the Web for food product manufacturers.
If you have a food business (PowerHomeBiz.com has an article on Starting a Food Business), you need to seriously consider tapping the Web to sell your pies, cakes or chicken dishes online aside from your storefront for neighborhood groceries.
Start by doing research. There are now a lot of food vendors on the Web that you can use to research — from how they present their food items to how they price the items to show they ship the items and how they package the food items.
In particular, packaging the items for shipping will be a significant challenge.
The JiveTurkey.com http://www.thejiveturkey.com/ for example, first puts their turkeys in an oven bag for reheating. They then place the turkey in an insulated foam cooler before placing it in a leak-proof corrugate box. Products are shipped overnight, and reheating instructions are included inside the packaging.
New York-based LittlePieCompany.com http://www.littlepiecompany.com/ ships their scrumptious pies all over the United States by first putting the pies in a shrink wrap to maintain freshness. The pies are then placed in a 12x12x6 foam filled corrugated box with reheating or preparation instructions placed inside. The pie rests on two 8-ounce gel packs that stay frozen for as long as 48 hours (their slowest and cheapest shipping option is 2 days).
Hmmm … writing about food makes me hungry :o)
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Joannah