With trends evolving continuously and demand for products changing with the seasons, it’s no surprise that health & beauty is one of the most dynamic and fast-growing sectors. The rise of online shopping accelerated by the pandemic has transformed the way beauty products are purchased around the world.
Social media has become a key driver of trends, and an increasing number of independent brands offer consumers choice like never before, challenging the dominance of established brands. Beauty is big business, and with the rise of trends like K-beauty and post-COVID-19 changing our shopping habits, cosmetics businesses may now need to fulfil orders from much further afield.
In such a fast-paced industry, it’s crucial to stay on top of changing customer expectations. So how can brands, small and large, ensure that their health & beauty logistics meet growing demand? Here are some of the key points to consider.
Scalable logistics for growth
While the journey starts on your website, you need to make sure it continues smoothly after an order is placed.
By choosing a logistics partner that integrates with e-commerce platforms, the transition between ordering and fulfilment is seamless, allowing you to focus on planning and growing your brand. A third-party logistics provider (3PL) can take the pressure off you by taking care of the whole e-commerce fulfilment process. They can look after your stock and offer scalable retail logistics solutions encompassing everything from warehousing, pick & pack to shipping and last mile, giving you the flexibility to put all your time into running your business.
A seamless fulfilment process gives you flexibility
Health & beauty items are often needed at short notice (and sometimes bought on a whim), causing spikes in demand that require a quick response time from brands. Looking for a logistics partner that can handle sudden demand is vital.
At Sprint Logistics, our skilled team will carefully check the stock you send us, finding it a home in one of our strategically located warehouses. Our global network of distribution and warehousing facilities is coupled with innovative stock control systems, providing you with cost-effective storage solutions that are tailored to you, as well as full visibility of stock levels. Having this flexibility allows you to forecast and plan ahead.
Our cutting edge-technology allows us to retrieve orders automatically for rapid fulfilment and dispatch, while keeping you and your customers updated in real time. Once orders are packed and ready to go, they’re allocated the most efficient shipping service before being dispatched.
Shipping and condition monitoring
The cosmetics industry faces many unique challenges when it comes to logistics due to the sensitive nature of the products. The different textures, colours and compositions of liquid and solid compounds need to remain unchanged through travel. Yet spoilage occurs easily with products that are vulnerable to a wide range of adverse effects from temperature, humidity, light and shock.
This makes quality control during freight crucial. It’s key that you work with a logistics partner that is experienced in condition monitoring and can maintain controlled environments. You need visibility of the product throughout transit, using detailed temperature data logging. This requires specialist transport affecting suppliers and carriers, and can be complicated to navigate without the right logistics partner for shipping.
Our team has technical and commercial freighting expertise covering all transport disciplines and product types, including fragile, temperature-controlled and high value products.
Traceability
Full traceability will be instrumental in the event that a defective batch is encountered. It will allow you to trace the steps so that the batch can be recalled, and enable you to also identify where in the chain things went wrong, so the problem can be rectified.
Traceability isn’t important just to meet legal requirements – any quality defects, damage or spoilage issues can impact your bottom line.
The right logistics partner
Trends towards natural skincare and clean cosmetics mean that consumers don’t just expect high quality raw materials and organic ingredients, but transparency. An interesting article from Proven skincare, explains why the best natural ingredients are so important.
With the right logistics partner, you can ensure your clients and in turn their customers have a positive experience throughout. The good news is that because health & beauty products are often highly personalised, customer loyalty is high – people stick to good experiences and the products that are right for them once they’ve found them.
Sprint Logistics
At Sprint Logistics, we can help you by providing worldwide 3PL logistics services and create effective solutions to place and ship orders. We offer everything from warehousing to last mile and returns, creating bespoke solutions to meet your customer demands. Our process is simplified, cost-effective, and fully traceable, helping you grow your health & beauty business worldwide.
If you’d like to know more about how we can help your business, get in touch today.
