Photo: Collected
In as little as six years, ecommerce has changed how people buy and sell coffee. During the pandemic, enforced closures shut roasters’ and cafés’ doors, and many businesses moved online quickly to recover lost sales. As consumers tried to recreate their usual orders at home, online coffee sales grew sharply. In the UK alone, one in five people drank more coffee during Covid-19, and some coffee companies reported a 175% rise in sales within a few months.
Since then, coffee ecommerce has held its ground. Many customers still queue in cafés, and some café owners continue to buy through sales representatives, yet online channels offer clear advantages. Above all, they remove geographical limits, giving both retailers and consumers access to a wider range of roasters than before.
“Retailers and customers, both professionals and consumers, can now order from artisan roasters anywhere, without relying on a local distributor or a sales representative,” says Yassine Turki, CEO of RoasterCup. The online marketplace connects independent artisan producers of specialty coffee, tea, and bean-to-bar chocolate directly with consumers and wholesale clients.
This wider access to roasters and cafés around the world continues to drive specialty coffee forward, as the industry relies on flavour discovery and diversity to grow. However, online coffee retail keeps changing. Subscription models, hyper-personalisation, and new technology all influence how people buy and sell, so ecommerce platforms need to adapt to the shifting demands of retailers and consumers alike.
Physical and online coffee spaces co-exist
Brick-and-mortar shops will continue to play an important role in the coffee industry. They give people a place to enjoy coffee, help build local communities, and let baristas speak directly with customers. For these reasons, physical cafés and roasteries remain central to specialty coffee.
However, physical spaces have limits. Customers may face long waits to pick up a bag of coffee, and limited storage space often means retail beans sell out. As convenience and choice matter more to consumers and retailers alike, many now use online channels to buy and sell most of their coffee.
The shift stands out in fast-growing specialty coffee markets such as the Middle East. A study of the United Arab Emirates found a significant correlation between ecommerce and specialty coffee sales during the pandemic, with some businesses reporting a 280% increase in sales. In such a competitive market, online channels give roasters and cafés a clear edge.
Addressing challenges of buying and selling coffee online
Online coffee marketplaces still face difficulties, though, and logistics pose the biggest challenge. Freshly roasted coffee tastes best for a short time, so roasters must balance roast dates, packing schedules, and delivery timings for every order.
“Coffee is at its best for a short time after roasting, so every order becomes a race between the roaster’s schedule and the courier’s,” says Yassine. “Most marketplaces are built to move volume, but a small roaster batches, roasts, and ships in a very different rhythm, and the platform seldom reflects that.”
To address this, online marketplaces such as RoasterCup support roast-to-order fulfilment. This model helps independent specialty roasters, artisanal tea brands, and chocolate makers expand reach while keeping their products fresh and maintaining quality.
“Scaling a roastery usually means holding more stock, but it can quickly age and go stale,” Yassine says. “Roasting to order breaks the link. A retailer roasts against confirmed orders rather than forecasts, and buyers receive coffee close to its roast date.
“We offer a full digital solution. Once a B2B or B2C customer places an order on RoasterCup, the roaster follows instructions on the artisan application to prepare their products,” he adds. “When an order is ready, our system and carriers handle shipment and delivery.”
Hyper-personalisation & subscriptions
Coinciding with the sharp rise in at-home coffee consumption, coffee subscriptions boomed during the pandemic. Data from the Specialty Coffee Association showed a 109% increase in subscription coffee sales in 2020, and convenience still drives usage today.
By 2023, more than 6.2 million active subscribers across North America and Europe were using monthly coffee subscription services. In the same year, more than 1,400 brands worldwide offered coffee subscriptions, with over 740 operating in the US alone.
The category continues to mature, with interest in competition and micro lot subscriptions rising, but Yassine explains convenience and ease of use still remain essential to the model.
“With RoasterCup, consumers select the products and right frequency of automatic deliveries that match their needs,” he says. “We then process payments automatically based on scheduled frequency and trigger the fulfilment of the subscribed products.
“Customers can then modify upcoming subscription deliveries and reprogram as needed; all from your customer account page.” See more.
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Source: Online/GFMM
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