Cosmetics & Beauty Fulfillment: 7 key takeaways for D2C Brands

The development of e-commerce is a beautiful thing. It’s now simpler than ever to reach large audiences and boost online sales thanks to social media. Online sales of cosmetics are anticipated to continue their upward trend in the coming years due to the growing purchasing power of millennials and the move towards social media influencer marketing. Retailers of cosmetics that want to expand their online company need to provide an engaging digital shopping environment. 

How can merchants preserve profitability while guaranteeing a stunning experience from the internet to the doorstep? This blog discusses the particular difficulties that beauty fulfillment businesses have while fulfilling online orders and offers solutions to help them get beyond these barriers in order to boost sales and client loyalty.

Inventory Management

1. Reevaluating current inventory management, product handling, and storage techniques is the first step in order beauty fulfillment optimisation. 
2. The more goods your online beauty and personal care company sells, the more SKUs you will need to keep track of. 
3. Ineffective inventory holding of SKUs with low sales is reduced by good inventory management. This is crucial when working with several SKUs. 
4. Recall that your margin decreases with the amount of time an item spends sitting in a warehouse. 
5. With most cosmetics and personal care goods being small, your warehouse space should be set up to best store and retrieve little things. 
6. Organise your storage space so that you can see every SKU with ease, and include shelves that make it easier to get little goods.

Year	Revenue ($bn)	Revenue Growth
2016	294.5	1.8%
2017	301.7	2.8%
2018	312.7	3.7%
2019	323.7	3.5%
2020	335.6	3.6%
2021	344.4	2.6%

Table: GLOBAL COSMETICS MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY REVENUE

Source: IBISWorld2016 

Maximizing Efficiency through Kitting

1. In addition to reducing beauty fulfillment time and improving customer happiness and retention, kitting may assist boost efficiency and order accuracy. 
2. Check to see whether any of your individual product offerings may be packaged by your manufacturer as a kit with a special kit SKU. 
3. You may package and sell items as gift sets on your website if they match nicely and are frequently requested in pairs. 
4. In addition to improving productivity and order accuracy, this can boost sales by recommending the purchase of a set as opposed to a single item. 
5. Preparing the products in advance speeds up order processing and guarantees that promotional inserts aren’t overlooked while packing orders, especially when running promotions like “buy one, get one” or “free sample with purchase.” 
6. Kitting comparable goods at production might save a lot of time for subscription beauty boxes. 
7. When assembling products that come from different manufacturers, kitting them at the receiving point instead of choosing them helps guarantee precision and uniformity.

Items & Accessories	9%
Oral Hygiene	1%
Perfumes	10%
Makeup Products	13%
Skin Care	25%
Hair Products	42%

Source: Venera

Packing

1. It is noteworthy to acknowledge the enchantment of the “unboxing” encounter. User evaluations of the unpacking process may be found in more than 16 million YouTube videos (and counting). 
2. A little imagination combined with tasteful packaging may result in a memorable unpacking experience that boosts client happiness and loyalty. 
3. Custom packaging is a unique chance for beauty fulfillment firms to set themselves apart. Create a packaging approach that will increase sales. 
4. Tissue paper and filler, gift wrapping, handwritten messages, samples, and stickers are examples of packaging upgrades. 
5. These enhancements to an otherwise conventional packaging process can raise the order’s perceived value and improve the unboxing experience. But be aware of the additional expenses linked to improved packaging. 
6. Select the components that are essential to your brand and those that may be omitted.
7. Compare the price of labour and materials to the value of adding further packing elements, then cut out any extraneous items.  

Shipping

1. The ultimate choice to buy made by an online shopper is greatly influenced by shipping prices and delivery schedules. 
2. In the eyes of 89% of consumers, quick shipment is two days or less! Orders sent in the US can be delivered in two days without incurring the costly fees associated with expedited delivery. 
3. Orders can be processed and dispatched out of central warehouses, west coast warehouses, and east coast warehouses near your final consumer. 
4. Your shipping costs and the time it takes for your consumer to get their product will go down if the overall distance traversed is down. 
5. Remember that a little bit of negotiating goes a long way! Particular carriers provide lower shipping costs to established merchants that consistently generate a particular amount of business. 
6. By taking advantage of years’ worth of high-volume, everyday shipments, big beauty fulfillment companies are able to provide their customers with lower delivery prices. 
7. Even while smaller retailers might only offer modest discounts, even little savings add up!

Safety Training Compliance

1. Did you know that the US Department of Transportation may classify everyday cosmetics and personal hygiene products as hazardous materials? 
2. Liquids, glass, combustible objects, and dangerous commodities have different carrier requirements, and incorrect packing and labelling may incur fines. 
3. Examine if additional marking for hazardous materials shipment is necessary for items like nail paint or hairspray that could have chemical qualities. 
4. When handling hazardous goods, employees need to be properly trained in safety procedures and adhere to DOT, EPA, and OSHA labelling and packaging rules. 
5. Certain carriers may be subject to shipping limitations for hazardous items, in addition to labelling regulations. 
6. Certain things are completely forbidden, while others can only be shipped by land transportation! 
7. If you are unclear about limitations on particular items, consult an expert to prevent errors and fines.

Customer Satisfaction

1. In the beauty fulfillment industry, client happiness is influenced by factors other than the first pre-purchase encounter. 
2. There is no longer any space for mistakes or unmet client expectations in the expanding beauty fulfillment sector due to fierce competition. 
3. Online merchants need to improve the post-purchase customer experience—order processing speed, order correctness, shipment speed, and hassle-free returns—in order to stay competitive and attract repeat business. 
4. Recurring business is encouraged and client connections are strengthened when consumers are kept informed about the status of their orders throughout the beauty fulfillment process. Don’t pass up this chance to cultivate a loyal client base. 
5. After making a purchase, customers anticipate updates and are more likely to check their email correspondence from your company at this time. 
6. Take advantage of this by mentioning impending sales in emails about order status to entice them to come back. 
7. Client loyalty is largely dependent on the post-purchase customer experience. 
8. Providing a satisfying experience to customers at the end of the sales process results in satisfied clients and profitable sales. 

Return Policy

1. It may seem counterintuitive to give simple returns, yet doing so is crucial to establishing confidence. 
2. Even though not every item may be returned, those can be made as simple as possible.
3. Easy returns that provide peace of mind might persuade a buyer who isn’t sure about buying a new product. 
4. A strict or ambiguous return policy could discourage people from trying new items. 
5. To set expectations for returns processes and processing timeframes up front, include a clear returns policy on your website. 
6. After a consumer initiates a return, make sure you keep them informed of developments. A satisfied consumer may carry that impression with them for the rest of their life.

Freight Efficiency

1. Out of all the onerous expenditures that eCommerce sellers encounter ecommerce fulfillment, 50% are related to transportation. 
2. Optimising freight is a crucial stage in beauty fulfillment orders, whether you are shipping big quantities of goods to a physical store or importing inventory from your manufacturer into your warehouse. 
3. Employ a seasoned freight broker; there are no up-front expenses. A seasoned freight broker with solid relationships may access pricing that the typical store is unable to match. This is a fantastic chance to cut costs! 
4. Managing several domestic and international freight shipments takes time and difficulties, which is something a freight broker may help you avoid in addition to cost savings.
5. Less-than-truckload (LTL) shipments and sophisticated scheduling can help you save even more money on freight shipments. 
6. Planning beforehand prevents the dramatically increased expenses associated with faster service. 
7. With careful freight planning, advanced planning enables retailers to take advantage of the shared LTL shipping option and only pay for the actual space utilised.

Conclusion

To stay competitive in the quickly developing eCommerce beauty sector, fast-growing online cosmetics and beauty fulfillment seize every opportunity. Retailers may raise their share of sales by optimising beauty fulfillment to improve customer experience and loyalty. Also read about flipkart fulfillment.

With the correct shipping and beauty fulfillment plan, the particular challenges of satisfying beauty items may be solved, dazzling consumers and increasing profitability. Focusing on certain aspects of the beauty fulfillment of marketplace process can help to optimise opeffrations and provide a great client experience.

Supercharge your fulfilment with WareIQ now, contact our team.

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