The health and beauty industry has gotten a major makeover in recent years, and the way that consumers shop continues to evolve. With more consumers opting to shop online, health and beauty is one of today’s fastest growing eCommerce categories. In addition to department stores and retail giants selling makeup, hair supplies, and skin care products, new digital-born, single-brand beauty and cosmetics companies are popping up and thriving.
With the amount of online purchases on the rise, so is the need for health and beauty fulfillment services. Due to the large amount of time and resources that are required for self-fulfillment, many eCommerce merchants opt to outsource to a 3PL services partner.
How do health and beauty fulfillment services work?
Health and beauty fulfillment services offer end-to-end 3PL solutions for eCommerce retailers selling products including, but not limited to, cosmetics, hair products, skin care products, and vitamins and supplements. When you partner with a health and beauty fulfillment services company, you send them your inventory, and they organize and store it on the shelves of their warehouse or fulfillment center. Each time a customer places an order, the products are picked, packaged, and shipped out. If an order gets returned, your fulfillment partner can manage this as well.
That’s a quick overview of how fulfillment services work, but now we’ll explain in more depth the following steps of fulfilling health and beauty product orders.
What do fulfillment services do?
That’s a quick overview of how fulfillment services work, but now we’ll explain in more depth the following steps of fulfilling health and beauty product orders.
After choosing the right 3PL services partner for your business, the first thing that a merchant must do is send them your inventory. From there it will be sorted, organized, and added to the shelves of their warehouse or fulfillment center. If you’re selling products that are required by law to be handled in facilities that are FDA-registered and cGMP compliant, it is extremely important that you partner with a 3PL that has these certifications. Outsourcing to an FDA-registered fulfillment center ensures that strict guidelines are being followed so that your orders arrive in immaculate condition.
When an order is placed on your website, your fulfillment services provider takes care of everything needed to get the ordered merchandise on its way to the customer. First, they pick the ordered products from the shelves or bins that they were being stored, and scan and double check them for accuracy. From there, the items are packaged, and kitted if necessary. Once the package is fully assembled, it is sealed, weighed, labeled and shipped out.
After being shipped, orders can be tracked by merchants using a web portal. The customer also has the ability to receive information so they can track their packages as they eagerly await their arrival. Upon arriving on the customer’s doorstep, the process is complete- unless the customer wishes to return their order.
Returns happen on about a third of all orders, which is another reason why eCommerce merchants opt to outsource to a 3PL services partner. A fulfillment services company can streamline your reverse logistics process, resulting in happier customers and merchants.
