Something’s shifting in the Bendigo food scene, and it’s not just the menu. Over the past 12 months, a growing number of small food producers across the region have been moving to online ordering systems — and from what I’m hearing, it’s actually working.

I’ve been chatting with producers around the Goldfields area, and the stories are surprisingly consistent. Whether it’s artisan cheese makers out near Harcourt, olive oil producers around Maiden Gully, or craft breweries in the Bendigo CBD, there’s a common thread: COVID forced them online, but the economics are keeping them there.

It Started With Farm Gates and Markets

Most of these businesses didn’t start digital. They were selling at the Bendigo Community Farmers Market, through local IGA stores, or direct from the farm gate. That worked fine until it didn’t.

When foot traffic dropped, producers who’d been thinking about online sales for years suddenly had to do it in weeks. Some cobbled together systems using Shopify or Square. Others went with simpler options — Instagram DMs and bank transfers, basically.

The ones who stuck with it, though, have built something pretty solid. Take the example of a small cheese producer near Lockwood who told me their online wholesale orders now make up about 35% of revenue. A couple of years ago, it was zero.

What’s Actually Working

From the conversations I’ve had, three things keep coming up.

First, bundled subscription boxes. A few producers around Strathfieldsaye and Kangaroo Flat have started doing monthly or fortnightly boxes — curated selections of cheese, preserves, olive oil, honey, that sort of thing. One producer told me their subscription retention rate is about 70% after six months, which is genuinely impressive for a small operation. The beauty of subscriptions is predictability. You know roughly what you’re making each month, so you can plan production accordingly.

Second, restaurant wholesale through digital platforms. Several Bendigo restaurants — and increasingly cafes in Castlemaine and Daylesford too — are placing wholesale orders through simple online portals. It’s nothing fancy. We’re talking Google Forms linked to spreadsheets in some cases. But it’s replaced the old system of phone calls and scribbled notes, and the error rate on orders has dropped dramatically.

Third, the smart use of demand data. This is the one that surprised me most. A few of the more tech-savvy producers have started using their online ordering data to forecast demand. One craft brewery in central Bendigo is using basic analytics to predict which beers will sell best at different times of year and adjusting their brew schedule accordingly. They reckon it’s cut their waste by about 20%.

Some producers are going further, using AI-powered tools that analyse purchasing patterns and seasonal trends. It sounds like overkill for a small business, but when your margins are tight and your product is perishable, knowing whether to make 50 or 80 kilos of ricotta next week makes a real financial difference.

The Challenges Nobody Talks About

It’s not all rosy. Logistics remains the biggest headache, especially for producers outside the Bendigo urban area. Cold chain delivery to Melbourne is expensive, and there’s no Amazon Fresh coming to pick up your goat cheese any time soon.

Several producers mentioned that the tech setup was harder than expected. Not the ordering platform itself — that’s the easy bit — but connecting it to everything else. Inventory management, accounting software, delivery scheduling. Getting all those pieces talking to each other is where small businesses get stuck.

There’s also the marketing side. Having an online store means nothing if nobody knows it exists. The producers who’ve done best are the ones who were already active on social media, particularly Instagram and Facebook. They had an audience before they had a shop.

Business Victoria has some decent resources for regional businesses looking to go digital, including small grants that can help cover setup costs. Worth checking if you haven’t already.

What’s Next for the Region

What excites me most is the collaboration I’m seeing. A group of producers from the Bendigo region have been talking about a shared online marketplace — a single website where you can order from multiple local producers in one transaction. It’s still early days, but if they pull it off, it could be a model for other regional areas.

Regional businesses that want to go further with data and forecasting can find a Melbourne-based firm who understands country Victoria and works with businesses outside the metro area too. You don’t need to be in the city to get decent tech advice these days.

The Bendigo food scene has always been strong. Great soil, great producers, great community support. What’s different now is that these businesses are finding ways to reach customers beyond the Saturday morning farmers market. And for a region that’s always had more to offer than people realise, that’s a genuinely exciting development.

I’ll keep tracking how this plays out. If you’re a producer in the Goldfields region who’s made the switch to online ordering, I’d love to hear your story. Drop me a line through the site.