It’s a common practice for nutraceutical companies to hire fulfillment services to help carry the load that comes with such complicated order processing.
Instead of having just a few SKUs to track, you may have hundreds of different sizes, strengths and types of supplements to juggle. You need more than a few bins in your basement, you need a professional 3rd party fulfillment service!
Features of the Ideal Nutraceutical Fulfillment Company
With so many delicate products to track, it can seem nerve-wracking to turn your fulfillment over to a 3rd party fulfillment company.
But many are already set up with your type of business in mind. Not only will they track your SKUs just like you would, they’ll send those packages out at speeds you could never attain on your own.
Look for these features when shopping for a nutraceutical fulfillment company:
- Smart software. There’s no one thing that will make a nutraceutical fulfillment company stand above the rest, but having the smartest software is a pretty big plus. Instead of struggling to know where your products are, how many have sold and how many orders are processing, a 3rd party fulfillment company with smarter software can provide you with easy to access reports any time of the day or night.They can even take the hassle out of reordering products by auto-generating orders to your suppliers when your warehoused inventory reaches a set threshold.
- Continuity management options. Many supplements and vitamins today are purchased using a subscription service. They’re not just trendy, they’re what your customers demand for nutraceutical products. If your 3rd party fulfillment company can handle this for you automatically, so much the better. Instead of having to put in a manual order each month for certain customers, an order will automatically generate and their cards will be charged. It couldn’t be easier!
- Environmentally-friendly disposal procedures. Even though you always want to sell everything you have in the warehouse, it’s just not always going to happen before nutraceuticals expire. Even the best inventory management system can leave you with boxes of product that are unfit to sell. In these cases, you have to find a way to safely dispose of this unwanted and unusable material. Check with your nutraceutical fulfillment company and learn about their disposal procedures instead of just leaving your dead products to chance.
Partnering with a nutraceutical fulfillment company can be a boon to your supplement store, but only if you find a 3PL that’s on top of their game. Your products are fragile and loss can be massive and costly, so having the best warehousing and distribution possible is the goal.
