My suggestions would be:

- have some actual shots of the bags/coffee rather than a dynamic image. It might not add actual authenticity to the coffee, but it makes it feel less fake.

- Add more information about where the coffee is coming from. I see that some descriptions have the farm of origin, but honestly, you could write whatever. How do you know it's sourced ethically? How do you know it comes from those farms? Again, you can't sell guarantees, probably, but how you present yourself makes a big difference.

- Ultimately, for all I know, you are just reselling 5$ coffee for 20$ with a new "hacker" label. If you want to incentivize me to buy, your job is to somehow show me this is not the case.

> have some actual shots of the bags/coffee rather than a dynamic image. It might not add actual authenticity to the coffee, but it makes it feel less fake.

I completely agree. The images right now are a stop-gap to get running and I plan to take actual photos within the coming week. In part, I wanted to keep a low barrier to entry for starting this and grow it as I get customers, so I started with the cheapest option.

> Add more information about where the coffee is coming from. I see that some descriptions have the farm of origin, but honestly, you could write whatever. How do you know it's sourced ethically? How do you know it comes from those farms? Again, you can't sell guarantees, probably, but how you present yourself makes a big difference.

Great input. I'm planning a site re-design soon that will allow me to have a few tab options within the product to detail more information in a clean way, and I'll plan to have more of that in too. For the purpose of this comment here and now, green beans are hand-selected directly from each farm after traveling there to sample and source.

> Ultimately, for all I know, you are just reselling 5$ coffee for 20$ with a new "hacker" label. If you want to incentivize me to buy, your job is to somehow show me this is not the case.

Aside from the mentions you've made, do you have other suggestions on gaining trust? When I think of other major roasters, most of the time I've heard from them through word of mouth and I don't particularly think twice about fact-checking, but I'm also a sample size of one. Hearing the process of how others choose their coffee to buy would help.

This is a major, major point that you should absolutely highlight! We are hackers, we love the behind the scenes. You should try to show what this process of selection works.

You are right that word of mouth is important, but if I were to see something advertised (e.g. this post) how do I get to the step of believing that you are a legit seller? Show don't tell. Show me how you chose the coffee, how you roast it, how you brew it etc...

Alternatively, I think there is absolutely value is selling coffee with novelty bags, but the price-point needs to reflect that and there is no need for (possibly very expensive) claims.

Not much "show" yet but at least some more detail.

> Alternatively, I think there is absolutely value is selling coffee with novelty bags, but the price-point needs to reflect that and there is no need for (possibly very expensive) claims.

Can you explain the "possible very expensive claims"? I'm somewhat toeing the line of novelty bags but also at the same time delivering actually good coffee (I understand I need to figure out how to explain that better). The price point is because the cost of the coffee (and shipping) is high, I'm not making a super margin on this. That's not exactly something you just advertise out, so I need to learn ways to instill confidence in the quality/price.

I think that if you claim you are ethically sourced and high quality, you need to back it up, and that can be expensive. E.G. trips to farms, process to check on them, constant quality control etc... But if you are upfront and just say "this is a random coffee we slapped a funny sticker on lol" then, you could do without all those--but the price should reflect that.

This is critical value add. I looked for an “about” section or a blog to describe the selection process. I realize “About Us” or “blog” pages are too often drafted mostly for SEO, but I use them a lot to make buying decisions. I’m not in a position to visit coffee farms - lucky you! - but for $16+ a pound I’m buying the story and the selection and roasting process, not just the (really nicely executed) nerd dad jokes. That said, I’ve still bookmarked this for holiday stocking stuffers for my programming friends…

Edit: Thanks to your recommendation, I added a preliminary about-us page. https://hackerbrews.com/pages/about-us

And that's what I'm missing from your site. I mean, I will not read that epic 10 page story of how you discovered your spiritual calling but actually tells me little to nothing about your operation. But how about having some hard facts: Where do you ship from? Can I buy the coffee at a local shop? How is the coffee roasted? Do you roast yourself or are you a reseller? What's your roasting process? You already differentiate the different kinds of roast, why not add some info like time and temperature? We are hackers, we love that hard data that would confuse "mere mortals". Judging from your website, you might have the orders dropshipped from somewhere in SEA or you could be a manufactory somewhere in the US with a dedicated team of coffee experts and an incredible roasting process with every order freshly roasted. It's impossible to say.

Also, my preferred supplier offers various trial packages of 4x9oz (and a bigger 8x9oz) with some discount applied. So I can order that, see which roasts I like most and then get those in their bigger 35oz packages. At the previous job, they would regularly deliver us 20 of the big packages; though I am not sure if that was a fixed arrangement or someone was tasked with ordering the big load of coffee on demand. Either offering might be something for you.

I got a name: "Product #12648430" (= 0xc0ffee)

Also, love the name. I'll add it to the ideas list and keep your attribution noted if it ends up on a coffee.