Small food business ideas

There’s a common saying that goes, the way to a human heart is through their stomach. In today’s world where everything is a click away, the heart wants a wide variety of diverse unique food from all over the country at it's doorstep. Moreover, to sell food online, you do not need a shop or a restaurant. You can sell them directly on an online marketplace to crores of customers who visit the Amazon.in platform and buy different kinds of food products daily.

If you are wondering how to sell food online, we suggest you go through our step-by-step guide on how to sell products online. This category is open to all existing and aspiring online sellers, however, to help you understand the possibilities of selling food online, we have categorised existing businesses that should consider registering themselves on Amazon.

Home Cooks: Whether it’s our mothers who officially own the title of being the best cook in the world or in certain cases the fathers who prepare authentic Mangalorean fish curry at a coastal village in Karnataka. The homemade masala that goes into the fish curry is the magic ingredient that fish lovers in Kerala would like to have access to. Home cooks across the country have their unique local ingredient that usually has excellent shelf life. Create a good catalogue for these unique products and list them on Amazon.

Food truck owners: In India, food trucks could loosely translate to ‘’Thelas’’ (a four wheeled wooden platform that serves fast food). However, today in modern India, there are more authentic Food Trucks that serve full-fledged meals. They create their own unique sauces and chutneys that have decent shelf life. Cities like Surat and Baroda thrive on Food Trucks that also sell dry snacks like Khakra, Thepla, pickles, Jams etc. These food products could easily be listed on Amazon.

Homemade Tiffin Makers: Thousands of office goers live on homemade food made by small time business owners who cook meals for a nominal cost and get it delivered to your doorstep daily. These business set ups are usually manned by a family or a group of women. They also make homemade masalas, a variety of churan and dry papads from scratch. Selling these online will be a great way to expand their business and have a regular reliable income opportunity.

Bakeries and Individual bakers: If you miss the Choco chip cookies your local bakery used to freshly bake every day, request them to list them on Amazon. Baking has quickly caught up as an aspirational hobby. The ones who excel at it, do business with it, the rest relish it. Individual bakers who bake customised cookies in the shape of Chota bheem or Batman, should list them as unique products on Amazon. Apart from cookies, you can sell chocolates, cream rolls, Sandwich spreads, special sauces, season specific cakes etc. You can also register yourself as a brand and launch your dream business.

Grocers or Grocery shop owners: Grocers have a variety of food items that can be easily listed on Amazon. Pune based grocers will have locally made Bhakarwadi, while a grocer based out of Karnataka will have a variety of Nippat and Papad. These products could be easily available in a place they are made locally. However, for somebody in Kolkata, a packet of Bhakarwadi will be a unique addition to accompany their evening chai (tea).

Café owners in remote locations: Whether it is Meghalaya’s Shillong or Mc Leod Ganj from Himachal Pradesh, quaint little cafes are sprouting across the Indian subcontinent. These cafes serve a variety of food items and many times the accompaniments with the main course is unique to the location. For example, the sauce made out of Bhut Jhulokia chillies unique to Meghalaya or the dry pork pickle from Mc Leod Ganj.


There are various people across the country helping farmers by sourcing their freshly grown products and directly putting them in touch with the customers. They sell this fresh produce (the ones with longer shelf life) on online marketplaces like Amazon, giving farmers a platform they had never imagined existed. If this inspired you and made you want to sell food online, please click here.