Start with NFSA licensing
The National Food Safety Authority (NFSA), established under Law No. 1 of 2017, regulates food that is produced, marketed or distributed in Egypt, and food establishments need an NFSA license. Selling online does not take you outside that system.
If you cook from a home kitchen, do not assume you are exempt, and do not assume you are covered. Contact NFSA, describe what you make, where you make it and how it reaches customers, and ask what applies to you. Keep their answer in writing with the date.
If you resell packaged food, ask each supplier for their licensing and labelling details and keep the invoices that show where every batch came from. That paperwork protects you if a customer or an inspector asks about a product.
- Product name and ingredients, with common allergens called out
- Production date and use-by or best-before date
- Storage instructions after delivery
- Your store name and a contact number on every pack
Returns: perishables are a different case
Consumer Protection Law No. 181 of 2018 gives buyers 14 days to return or exchange most goods, but perishables are among the exclusions. Packaged dry goods, tools or gift boxes you sell alongside fresh food may still fall under the normal rule. Check the law text or a lawyer for the items you sell.
An exclusion is not a reason to skip a policy. Customers still expect you to fix a late, damaged or wrong order. Decide in advance what you will do, write it down, and apply it the same way every time.
- Ask for a photo on WhatsApp within a fixed time after delivery
- Choose a remedy per problem: replace, refund, or store credit
- Log every complaint with the order, the item and the cause
- Review the log weekly to find the product or area behind repeat issues
Delivery windows and freshness
Promise a delivery window, not just a day. Morning and evening slots per area are easier to keep than a full-day promise, and customers plan to be home. Only offer the areas you can reach while the food is still fresh.
Pack for the trip you actually have. Use sealed containers, insulated bags and cold packs for chilled items, and write the packing time on the label. Hand chilled orders to the courier last, and ask your courier how they handle food and what pickup times they offer in your area.
Some couriers now run same-day delivery between governorates; Bosta and SuperJet launched one such model. Test it first with shelf-stable products and a few loyal customers before you rely on it for anything fresh.
Order cut-off times
A cut-off time turns a stream of messages into a production plan. For example, orders confirmed before a set evening hour are prepared the next morning and delivered in the afternoon slot. Pick times that match your kitchen and your courier’s pickup schedule.
Show the cut-off on the product page, at checkout and in the confirmation message. When a slot is full, close it instead of squeezing in one more order that will arrive late.
For peak periods such as Ramadan and the Eids, open pre-orders early, cap the number of orders per day, and take a deposit on large or custom orders. A clear sold-out message is better than a cancelled order the night before.
Inventory, waste and basket size
Count stock at the same time every day and prepare against confirmed orders, not expected ones. Record what you throw away and why: unsold, damaged, past date. After a few weeks the pattern shows which products to cut, which to make in smaller batches, and which to sell as bundles.
Watch fixed fees on small baskets. Kashier publishes 2.75% + EGP 3 per online card transaction, with no setup or monthly fee and 14% VAT charged on the fee only. At a 120 EGP order that is about 6.30 EGP before VAT, roughly 5.25% of the basket. A minimum order value or bundles keep that share lower.
Running a food store on Vondera
Vondera’s store builder supports products with variants, such as weight or box size, and categories for each menu section. VInbox puts WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook messages in one inbox so your team can turn a chat into an order without retyping it.
VPay supports deposits and partial payments, which suits pre-orders and large event orders, and ties every payment to its order. VShip connects to 50+ couriers with status updates from the courier and COD collection tracking, so you can see which deliveries are late before customers call.