How to Start a Spice Business from Home

Posted by Damian Roberti on

Hey guys, it's Damian from Marketing Food Online. So I've had a lot of questions about where to buy spices in bulk, how to actually get them in wholesale, and I've given a variety of websites to choose from. So I'm actually going to dive into my laptop here on my desk and walk you through 14 different sites that I have found that will be great for you to source your spices from. Now, we're going to go over several different variations as far as the price points, some that offer free shipping and some that don't, and a little bit of the pros and cons of dealing with the different websites in my opinion. So we're going to dive into those 14 sources for your spices right now.

"Is a Spice Business profitable"

All right. So, as I mentioned in the introduction, I'm going to cover on my laptop here 14 different spice companies that you can actually get your spice blends from, or even just assorted spices and make your own blends. I'm going to give you some of the pros and cons, and then talk about some of these websites that offer free shipping with some of the minimums that they have, and even get into Alibaba, which is actually a great place to get spices from.

"How do I Start a Spice Business"

But there are a couple of things with Alibaba that I'm going to go over to make sure that you get the right source and that you get the right pricing and quality. So let's dive right into it. I've got 14 of them open here on my laptop. And the first one right off the bat is Spice Jungle. Now, a lot of these websites that I'm going to cover are going to offer free shipping. Of course, they're going to do that with minimums. Most of the ones that I wanted to show you specifically in this video are going to have relatively low minimums, especially if you're a business or you're looking to become a business that's going to be selling spices or reselling them or repackaging them.

 

Many of them have between $50 and $75.And some of them have about $200 or $300, which is actually still relatively low to get free shipping. Because at that price point, you're going to be buying a lot, and it's going to weigh a lot. So if you can get free shipping, that's even better. So the first one is spicejungle.com. All right, spicejungle.com actually has not only a bunch of spices, as I'll show you here briefly, but they do offer baking ingredients. They have a lot of salt and peppercorns that are whole-kerneled peppercorns. They have loose-leaf teas and a whole bunch of other products. But mainly, we're going to look at the spices. So now let's go through here and I'm going to just randomly grab some of these and look at the price points.

 

When you look at most of these, they're going to say as low as a certain dollar amount, okay. And what that means basically is that it's one of the largest. Let's look into the black garlic powder. That's going to be their lowest price point for the largest purchase that you can make as far as the price per pound. So some of these will go lower. So, for instance, you can get, here's what I mean. So if you go over here and you've got a one-ounce bag, it's going to be $16.14 for one ounce. Normally these websites, and as I've mentioned, I'll go through them, okay. Most of these are going to be best when you purchase them at about a five, 10 or 25 pound price point, obviously. Many of them may offer pretty good pricing for one pound.

 

This particular product is a little bit pricey because it's black garlic powder, and that has a tendency to be a little more expensive because it's a really unique spice blend. But what you really want to look for is the spices that are going to give you that five and ten-pound price point. So let's go back over here. Let me show you what I mean by that. So cardamon, cardamon is also one of the super unique spices that this website has.Ground cardamon, and then I'm going to show you the cayenne pepper. All right, so let's take a look at this one really quickly. So you can get this one for as low as $5.59, and let's see if that's per ounce or per pound. So this one's $13.79. So, for one pound, that's a little pricey for a cayenne pepper.

 

I would go up to about five to 10 pounds. See, once you get to the 10 pound point, you're looking at about $5 a pound. Okay, So what I'll do is just take a look at some of the websites and give you some of the price points that are really good and the best way to actually purchase them as far as the weight goes. The next one is Spiceology (Spiceology.com). Now they have a variety of spices that are set in either 12 ounce or 64 ounce containers. They offer wholesale pricing; this is actually for the food service side.

 

The great thing about this is $40. You get free shipping in the continental US for only 40 bucks. That's really, really low. Okay, And again, you want to look at, if you're going to do this as a wholesale, as a business, you want to go buy them in bulk. Always try to go to the largest within your budget. Try to go with the largest packaging they offer because that'll cost a lot less than, of course, smaller packages, but you're not going to resell their package in 12 ounces. Now, from there, I always get the question here, "If I buy Damien, can I get a product and break this down and put my name on it?" Yes, you can. If you buy a product, no matter what it is, in a large package, you get it in a bulk size. You can bring it into your facility and break it down and put your label on it. Now, the only thing that you can't do is, for instance, if you bought, let's say, M & M's, and I know this is an odd example with spices, but if you bought a candy, let's say M & M's, and it's trademark. It has the logo.

 

You can't put your own name on it and say that it's your M & M's because M & M's are obviously a trademarked candy. And that's something you can't do. When it comes to spices, though, you can buy them in bulk, however big you want, and put them in four-ounce bags, six-ounce, eight-ounce, one-pound bags, whatever you wish, and you can put your name on it. Okay? You can slap on your private label. Spiceology. You can put your own logo, whatever it may be, on it. All right, let's move on to the next one. This one, I love. This is Webstaurant. Now I've done some videos on my YouTube channel about Webstaurant, but believe it or not, they have some amazing spices that they offer. A ton of them, actually. These are 15 pounds of cinnamon sticks. You can get 25 pounds of black peppercorn.

 

They have a variety of medley peppercorns. This goes on and on and on. Now, let me show you really quickly how the website works. This is restaurantstore.com. They come whole, in flakes, granulated, ground, or minced. So you can designate based upon what you want to look at and you can get it on the ground. Let me show you this really quickly: already ground up. So depending on the type of spices you're looking to get, if you want to do whole, if you're looking to have them minced, ground, or even granulated, or even in flake form, you can get those pre-done with webstaurantstore.com by buying them in larger boxes, and again, just breaking them down.

 

Prices on these will vary. The only thing that I do is that I do love the variety that webstaurantstore does have. The only thing I don't like is the shipping. Unfortunately, you do have to pay for shipping. They do have a program set up. It's very expensive, in my opinion. It's about a hundred dollars a month. You get free shipping on any order, anywhere in the US, no matter the size, but if for one month you don't necessarily order anything, you're still paying a hundred dollars every month. You get free shipping for that. Otherwise, they do charge you shipping. Is it a lot? It's actually not that bad. I recommend that if you place an order with webstaurantstore.com and you're buying spices wholesale, make sure you get about $200 to $300 with a product. For some reason, the shipping does drop around the $200-300 mark.It goes down considerably. Of course, it will vary based on where you are, of course. But anyways, webstaurantstore.com, as you can see, and I won't go through every single spice, they have a ton. And you can obviously pick and choose whatever you want. If you want, again, ground or flaked or minced or whole, you simply just pick that over here. So next up, So now, Alibaba.com.

 

Can you get spices on Alibaba? Yes. And to be honest with you, the reason why I have a smile on my face is that this is one of the better sites for bulk spices, in my opinion, that you can get brought in from outside the US. And actually, some of these suppliers are within the US as well. But you can literally pick out any particular type of spice that you're looking for. You can also get spice bottles from Alibaba for a very low price, which is one of the things I wanted to show you in a second.Now, you do have to buy quite a few of them, though. But if you're looking to start a spice business, obviously you will need a large quantity of spice bottles and containers. I'll show you that in one second. So pepper, chili pepper, cinnamon, turmeric, round seeds, if you have, or sticks, whatever it may be, but you type in spices, bulk spices even, in the search box and here we go. Let me show you really quickly, and it pops up here. And now some of the minimums may be a little higher than what you need, but look at this, almost 13,000 spices that you can choose from. That's pretty crazy. And again, I won't go through all 13,000 spices in the video, so you can take a look at this. But can you get it from Alibaba? Yes. Here's what I wanted to show you. On the left hand side, you can actually choose the country that you're looking to buy from. Okay? So if you want to, and you prefer to work with someone in Canada, simply tick the box and it will give it a second. It'll pull up all the suppliers in Canada. You can see right here the flag, the country's flag there in Canada. And now this one has a lot of really high ratings.

 

So this is definitely someone. This is something you want to look at as well. You want to look at the rating and the feedback. Also, the amount of time they've been on here. A lot of these vendors have been on here for years, and they have really high ratings. I would definitely trust them if you're looking to buy in bulk. Some of them have really high minimums. Some of them don't. For instance, if 90 tons is the minimum, that's probably someone who's got a huge manufacturing facility. If you're just starting out, though, you can still get great bulk pricing on spices. Alibaba.com All right, next up, AmericanSpicecompany.com. The American Spice Company also has an enormous number of blends and seasonings here. And again, you can designate what you want to look out for on this side. So let's say BBQ rubs. It's going to give you a variety of them here. And we'll take a look at those. So you can get anything you can imagine. Again, let's take a look. This is their basic BBQ rub, called Knucklehead Rub. And from here, let me show you, you can get a five-pound bag, which is actually not bad at all. That's around eight or nine, about nine bucks, or nine and a change a pound. That's pretty decent. And, of course, it gets even cheaper as you go up. Eight bucks a pound and so on. So definitely check out American Spice.com.

 

They have a huge variety of products as well. And even more than just spices, they even have flavoring powders, sugars, and baking supplies as well. Next up, Nuts.com. You probably have had some of my videos where you've heard me talk about nuts.com. I actually used them as well. There are a handful of ingredients I get from them from our candy business. They have a lot of great products. The quality of their products is outstanding. As far as shipping is concerned, they do have a minimum. Here it is, $59. So, for $60, you get free shipping.This is fantastic. Especially again, if you're just starting a spice business and you want to sell spices online, maybe you can order a smaller quantity and get them at a free shipping price point because you don't have to buy 800 pounds or 500 pounds.

 

Okay? And, once again, they have 268 spices, which is a good selection.They don't have as much as the other companies, but this is actually a candy and snack business that also sells spices. As a result, the domain is nuts.com.Next up, foodservicedirect.com. This is a little different. If you want to get into the reselling business, or if you want to actually buy these types of products that have brand names, Purchasing them, reselling them on, you know, E-bay or Amazon, bonanza.com or walmart.com, or even your website on Shopify or Weebly, you can purchase these in bulk because they come in like case packs. And let me give you an example. You can simply buy this product, put it on your website, mark it up, and sell it. If you're not in the business of making your own spices, So for $30, you can get an eight-ounce jar of Toni Chacheres, which is roughly equivalent to a 12-pack.That's like a little less, about $2 and change. I think the retail stores sell this for around $4.99 to five bucks. So you can double your money on this type of spice product. So again, you can go to foodservicedirect.com and you can actually purchase these products and simply resell them if that's what you want to do.

 

Now next up, myspicer.com. This is kind of a really cool website. They have a variety of whole types of spices that are whole. You can also get powders if you are looking for something ground up. What's really great is that they have a huge number of products here, aside from spices. So if you're looking to get into the spice business and add other types of products to your line just to make more money, These types of websites are also great because they offer baking supplies, cooking supplies, candy making, and dry flavorings, et cetera, et cetera. Okay, So, for instance, barbecue grilling. Let's take a look at that one. And again, here, you can see a ton of them. And again, depending on the size, let's go to their basic barbecue season.

 

Depending on the size you get, you get an obvious bigger discount with the size. So here is the size. So let's say you've got 25 pounds, 147 bucks, and you're all set to go. Again, this would come, and also, this gets free shipping on $75 or more. Another low-minimum website where you don't have to buy $800 worth of products to get free shipping. So let's go to the next one. Next one up, we've got spiceforless.com. This was actually a pretty cool site that I just came across a few weeks ago while researching for this video. And they have a huge variety of different seasonings. For instance, adobo seasonings. Keep in mind that, as previously stated, you can buy individual spices and blend your own, or you can buy these pre-made spice blends and simply put your name on them to save time.I've actually done a handful of my client consults. I did recently with a gentleman who was doing spices, and I mentioned to them, "Hey, I know you have your own brand. You have your own mix. You have some stuff. You can also look into just adding pre-made existing blends to your product lineup. "And again, you want to look at the five pounds.

 

Look at this. This is about eight bucks. That's really cheap for a pound of spices. This is around $8 a pound. And, of course, it goes down and down from there. It's around $7 and so on. So you want to stick with a price point of five, ten, or twenty pounds.That's going to be the better price for you. Okay, And again, I'm just going to go through these websites. I'll have a link down below to our blog post that has all of these specific links, and you can simply click on them as you need them. Okay, Next one, Monterey Bay Spice Company. They have some really high quality spices on this website. And then again, they've got a variety of curry powders and chili blends. And this is great because it's super easy to do. You can either get a quarter pound or a pound, one pound, like, for instance, chili blend, at $6 a pound. That's insanely cheap. Now, if you want to, again, you can get some of the full-course spices that are whole and then blend them yourself. Now, this one particular item, I don't think it's got free shipping. Not at all.I didn't notice any free shipping on this.

 

I may be wrong, but I don't see that they have a minimum. You don't get any free shipping for that. Next up, Mount Hope Wholesale. Sorry about that. There it is. Mount Hope Wholesale has spices in our blends as well. This was great too. If they are over $60, you get free shipping. Again, the very minimum amount. They have a huge variety as well. Check out this huge lineup. It goes on and on and on with a fantastic selection of products there. Next one, myspicesage.com. Okay, So I've had a handful of you check out my other video I did about the spice business. Now the one thing that Spice Sage does that I like and don't like is that I do like the huge selection of products that they have on My Spice Sage. The only thing is that their pricing is a little bit on the higher side, in my opinion, for the product. You do get free shipping, but you do have the price point for the five-pound and ten-pound bags. It is a bit pricey. Okay? And when you begin to break it down, you could make a good margin, but definitely check it out for yourself.

 

Make your own decision. But My Spice Sage is another great one as well. Next up, this is something that I'm excited to show you guys. This is an actual directory. This is a spice export directory list. They have a view. They have different types of spice manufacturers in the US, by suppliers, wholesalers, and so on. This is a huge resource. This, specifically, is not a spice website itself. They don't sell anything. You can find a bunch of suppliers through this, a directory. Okay, guys. So you definitely need to check out this website. It is a huge resource for starting a spice business online.

 

Again, I'll have a link to this one as well on our blog. In the description, there'll be a link to the blog. It'll take you just right over there, and you can click on any of these. Okay? So lastly, last but not least, Olam Spices. This one I like too, because of the variety. It has a huge variety. And the price point is not that bad at all. Let me show you this. This is, for instance, a 50-pound box. Cayenne red pepper, 50 pound box, $2.67 a pound. That is insanely cheap. You can put this in a half-pound box and charge, a half-pound bag or even, and charge about 10 bucks a pound or 10 bucks for eight ounces. This is a great website because of the price point, but also because the selection is huge.

 

So Olam Spices is going to round up our 14 websites for your spice supplies. Definitely let me know down below if you've got any questions about these suppliers, or if you've even dealt with them and you've had an experience. Let us know in the description. If you have any questions, I'll try and get back to you as soon as possible as well. So definitely check out these. These are some great wholesale spice suppliers that allow you to resell online. If you want to start an online spice business, if you want to sell spices on Amazon, you want to sell spices on eBay or Etsy, check them out as well. So, I hope that these guys helped you out a lot. If it did, give me a big thumbs up and I'll see you guys on the next video.

-[Narrator] Thanks for watching Marketing Food Online. And if you are looking to create your own food truck, start a home-based food business under the Cottage Food Law, start a packaged food business, private label your own food products, sell on Amazon, get your own online store, or sell food online,