The way consumers interact with Health and Beauty brands has changed drastically in the past five years. What used to be as simple as visiting a drugstore or a department store makeup counter to purchase cosmetics has become an elaborate online experience fused with an entire digital network of health and beauty experts and superfans.
With the popularity of YouTube vloggers, Instagram influencers and beauty bloggers, brands have had to shift their advertising and promotional strategies to cater to the personalized experiences consumers desire. Combine that with the disruptions coming from Internet retail giants like Amazon and Alibaba, and it’s easy to see the challenges Health and Beauty brands face in keeping up with consumer expectations, competing brands and the ecommerce industry as a whole.
So how, as a Health and Beauty brand, can you overcome these hurdles and deliver an exceptional shopping experience plus a brand experience that your customers are excited to promote? A supply chain makeover, of course.
Step 1: Personalize the consumer experience through kitting
Kitting can be a simple way to up your fulfillment game and provide customized orders to consumers.
At its core, kitting allows you to store products in inventory as individual items and provides the option to combine them into a single, sellable SKU. It’s an advantage for brands whose consumers buy products together frequently (bundled, for example shampoo and conditioner) because it allows product to be purchase together and separately.
Kitting also allows brands to include sample items, discount codes, freebies and more to further enhance ordering options. Whether you’re working on a seasonal promotion, a new product launch, a flash sale or simply want to include a thank you note, the ability to support marketing inserts (in the form of product samples or paper promotions) is an essential component of kitting.
Step 2: Upgrade your packaging to deliver a unique branded experience
Everyone loves when a package shows up on their doorstep, but imagine how much more excited your customers would be to open the box and see an inspirational quote, a pop of color or a clean logo printed on the inside.
Whether you opt for an elaborate packaging upgrade or a low key enhancement, in the world of ecommerce, packaging is crucial to the presentation of your brand. When the outside (packaging) matches what’s on the inside (your product), it communicates that you value quality, and reflects a core truth of the beauty industry.
Step 3: Don’t be afraid of managing a complex product mix with a high SKU count
Health and Beauty consumers are drawn to options. Between color, scent, formula, environmental friendliness and more, there is a laundry list of qualities that consumers evaluate before (and after) making a purchase. Managing a complex product mix can be daunting if you’re managing your own fulfillment. However, leveraging an outsourced provider is a great way to increase your product portfolio without losing control and organization of costs and inventory management.
Through technology like Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) and Order Management Systems (OMS), brands can maintain visibility over their inventory levels while gaining insight into order accuracy, on-time delivery and more. By trusting in 3rd party providers, you can gain the flexibility to quickly and easily expand your product mix, rotate seasonal SKUs and scale your business during peak times.
Step 4: Integrate your technology to keep your customers updated on order status (added bonus: you’ll understand your business better!)
Providing shipping updates is a standard expectation in ecommerce. Customizing those updates is an effective way to differentiate your brand and extend the level of communication that consumers expect.
By implementing an integrated commerce and fulfillment platform (like the Shipwire Platform) and connecting it to a POS system such as Shopify or Magento, brands are able to customize when and how shipping alerts and updates are delivered to consumers.
On top of the benefit to consumers, brands gain incredible insight into data and analytics. Imagine being able to visualize where your consumer base lives, see the channels they are ordering through and view your inventory levels across multiple warehouse locations — all through a single tool. With commerce and fulfillment technology, like the Shipwire Platform, you can gain all of that and more, giving you more power to understand your customers and make stronger business decisions.
Step 5: Partner with a provider who can exceed quality and operational expectations
For Health and Beauty brands, maintaining a quality product is non-negotiable. When outsourcing activities — particularly order fulfillment — it can be a daunting task to trust that someone else will deliver on the level of quality you expect. Will they package the product to prevent damages? Will they hold carriers accountable for on-time delivery? Will your brand integrity be upheld through delivery? All of these are valid questions and your concerns can be addressed through a commitment to operational excellence from your logistics partner.
By working with a fulfillment provider that is transparent about things like Key Performance Indicators (KPIs: inventory accuracy, order accuracy, on-time delivery, short ships and more), you can be rest assured that quality will be maintained.
The Outcome
While we can’t provide a golden ticket to help your brand become the most talked about by beauty gurus, we can help you accomplish a supply chain makeover that will take your brand to the next level. These 5 tips can help you boost brand loyalty, improve customer satisfaction, increase sales revenue and more.
For more supply chain tips, contact us to see how we can help your brand.