3 Things Super Food and Nutritional Supplement Retailers Need from 3rd-Party Fulfillment
Not very many people know it outside the industry, but health supplement retailers have special needs when it comes to logistics and order fulfillment. Because of those special needs, it can be difficult for retailers to find a third-party fulfillment team that meets their unique requirements.
If you’re looking to find a partner that will actually simplify and streamline the process for you, then there are at least three things specifically that you need your fulfillment team to do.
1. Deal With the Co-Packing Partner
Probably the biggest difference between normal retailers and nutritional supplement retailers is that the product can’t be “assembled” by just anyone. So even if the logistics team provides kitting and assembly, they won’t be able to do it for your supplements. Your raw ingredients have to be shipped to a co-packing location, where they are mixed, bottled, and packaged. Then, once they’re all boxed up, they have to be shipped to a warehouse for storage. Dealing with all that transportation can be quite a hassle.
If you choose the right fulfillment partner, though, they handle all of the transporting for you, shipping your raw ingredients to the co-packing location, and then shipping the finished products back to the warehouse to await shipment to the customer.
2. Track Expiration Dates
Since you’re working with ingredients and products that have expiration dates, it’s important to keep track of what can still be shipped, and what can’t. Shipping an expired product can have some severe negative consequences, so failing to do so is a really bad idea. The problem is, if you’re having someone else store the product, you have no way to check the dates personally, and will be wholly dependent on your logistics partner.
Choosing the right partner means being able to track not just the expiration dates for the product, for the raw ingredients as well.
3. Track Inventory and Logistics
The best fulfillment teams give you real time inventory and logistics tracking, so you know exactly how much product is in the warehouse, and exactly where your shipments are during transit. All of that information should be accessible from an online portal, making it easy to check it from anywhere in the world.
For more information about how an excellent fulfillment partner can help you grow your nutritional supplement business, contact the Utah shipping service experts at Elite Ops today.
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