I harvest stuff from time to time, and I sell them whole sale. I was thinking maybe if I can make small packets and sell them online I may be able to get a little bit more money.
I can develop websites which I do for a living these days, and just want to get an idea about the actual demand. Therefore I am asking, do you generally order spices online? Do you order from abroad? Most importantly, how do you find the websites you buy from?
I just want to figure out if there would be at least a few sales a week, and how to reach buyers. I am not sure Facebook ads would convert a lot of visitors. Just trying to figure out a way. Thanks for your answers 
Most spices I use are fairly common so are readily available at the supermarket. A few are more specialised - things like pul biber - but I get these from a local Turkish or South Asian shop. That said, I’ve not been to them since the pandemic started. I’ve needed to order online for some Eastern Mediterranean foods but havent yet needed to include spices on those orders.
To answer your other questions…no, I’ve never ordered food products from abroad. As to how I’ve found the websites - well, as ever Google is my friend.
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I do pretty much the same thing as @Harters for my spices. I get common ones from my local grocer and shop at many specialized grocers especially Korean, Southeast Asian, Turkish, Caribbean and Latin American. I like these because I can get large quantities at good prices. I never did before but I have ordered spices on line for unusual ones that harder to find since the pandemic., including some I learned about on HO. I will continue to do so.
It looks like Etsy has spice sellers. That may an entry into on-line selling.
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Shipping plant materials (even dried leaves) across borders invokes all sorts of customs issues and phytosanitary certificates.
Not impossible, but be very sure what you’re getting into.
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I’ve not ordered any spices or groceries for myself online.
My only online food purchases have been sending gifts to relatives in the States (chocolate, smoked salmon, gift boxes).
I have sent my uncle a set of Indian spices I purchased online, that included shipping, and I received a gift of Szechuan spices from the Mala Market.
I ignore FB ads. Sometimes I flag them as offensive. Some ads on Instagram have caught my attention.
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Looks like selling online is not such a good idea. I weigh a single answer on a cooking forum 10 times that from a “research tool” because the responses here are from actual buyers.
I should better try to get a few orders from wholesalers abroad it seems.
Like others, 40% of my cooking spices, I buy in supermarkets or general Asians spices in local stores here. 30% I buy in food salons, fairs, expos, farmer markets. About 20% of my spices, i buy online including more exquisite, rare or hard to find or better quality stuff. Usually those are small independent online stores. Those spices include Kampot, Sarawak pepper, saffron, vanilla… I’ve ordered online Phu Quoc 20 yrs old black pepper just to test.
I think it’s possible to sell online but it takes time to get known and have good reputation. Honestly most supermarket stuff are really expensive for the quantity.
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Ads within your feed or marketplace? We seem to have a robust underground trade of both prepared foods and farm stand type operations.
That’s in marketplace. I was thinking about starting a thread but hadn’t done it.
Ads in my feed. I don’t use FB Marketplace.
I go to farmers’ markets/orchards/farm stands in person, and support some local businesses that sell locally made jams, tomatoes sauces, maple syrup, etc.
My local orchard shop started selling local sausage, made from local pigs (raised 20 min from where I live) , which I’ve started buying. Helps me avoid supporting Cargill etc.
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In my academic experience, it is better to have a few big customers than many small ones. Packaging, shipping, customer service add up.
I buy the overwhelming majority of spices in my local grocery. If there is something I want that I can’t find I check Penzeys which is a known US brand. After that I mostly do without unless I happen to pick something up on my travels.
As a small business person myself my experience with paying for ads is that it is a net loss. I get much more traffic from content on social media than advertisement. Content and word of mouth feed my business.
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