Do you sell cosmetics or beauty products via your webshop, marketplaces, or both? Then you've come to the right place. You probably started with smaller sales volumes and soon realised that with increasing sales, the storage, packaging, and shipping of your products become an increasingly big challenge. In short, you're looking for a scalable solution for your cosmetics or beauty product fulfilment. In the next 5 minutes, you'll gain insightful information on the following topics:
- Cosmetics and beauty products in e-commerce
- Features and peculiarities in shipping beauty products
- What is important for fulfilment in this industry?
- Scalable fulfilment solution for cosmetics and beauty products with byrd
- Conclusion
Cosmetics and Beauty Products in E-Commerce
The Cosmetics & Beauty industry is one of those markets that did not let itself be knocked off its feet by the pandemic. Guess what, growth from $483 billion in 2020 to $511 billion in 2021 was mainly due to online sales. The good news, the market is set to keep growing. In 2027, the beauty & personal care market is predicted to grow further to $784.6 billion.
The beauty and cosmetics sector has managed to glide through the pandemic with its head held high, all thanks to a boost from online shopping! We’re looking at a jump from $483 billion in 2020 to $511 billion in 2021, and it’s mostly thanks to people buying online. And here’s the kicker, it’s not stopping there! We expect to see the beauty & personal care market reach a whopping $784.6 billion by 2027!
So, who’s leading the charge? The cosmetics segment is taking centre stage with a projected growth of 32% between 2019 and 2025, closely followed by skincare at 24.3%, and personal care products chipping in at 18.7%. Even before everyone was shopping from their sofas, traditional shop sales were on the downturn. But the rise in online shopping has bumped up the overall market value.
Now, here’s the cool part: buying beauty products online is giving smaller and medium-sized companies a chance to mix it up with the big boys (and girls)! A study by Nielsen highlighted this: in the high street, the top 20 manufacturers snag 96% of sales in this category. But online? Those same big names only pull in 14% of sales! Simply put, the online world in the beauty sector is a welcoming place for smaller and up-and-coming direct-to-consumer brands.
Special Considerations and Challenges in Shipping Cosmetics and Beauty Products
Selling beauty products online can be rewarding, but it also comes with its own set of challenges, especially when it comes to shipping and storage. Let’s look at these challenges a bit closer.
1. Expiration Dates
Products with natural ingredients can expire. It’s important to track expiration dates closely and ship older products first to avoid waste.
2. Organic-Certificate
There’s a growing demand for natural and organic products. This means online sellers need to be extra careful about storage and shipping of organic products.
3. Temperature
In addition to accurate tracking, segregated storage is not only important but also mandatory to obtain an organic certificate. In addition, for many cosmetics, beauty, and hygiene products, the storage temperature is crucial and usually lies between 15-20°.
4. Environmentally-Friendly Shipping
It is fair to assume that customers who buy organic cosmetics and the like will also attribute greater importance to environmentally friendly shipping. In cooperation with parcel delivery services like DHL, DPD, GLS, fulfilment companies like byrd offer climate-neutral delivery options.
5. Packaging
Packaging is the first thing customers see and touch. In this industry, even more so, aesthetics and sustainability are key success factors. A great unboxing experience can also earn free publicity on social media.
6. Trending Products & Assortment Changes Regularly
Beauty trends change quickly. Sellers need to be smart about inventory to avoid stockouts or getting stuck with unsold products. Flexible contracts with suppliers can help manage this risk.
7. Customers Expect Fast Delivery
In the beauty industry, customers often want their products super-fast, sometimes by the next day, especially for impulse buys or unexpected needs (such as acne occurring before a certain event).
How to Handle Fulfilment for Cosmetics and Beauty Items
While there are unique challenges in selling beauty products online, there are also effective solutions available. Here are some key strategies to consider:
1. FIFO Method for Shipping Cosmetics and Beauty Products
FIFO stands for first-in-first-out. Products stocked first are dispatched first, mitigating the risk of products exceeding their sell-by date and averting additional disposal costs and unsustainable practices.
2. LoT Tracking in the Logistics of Cosmetics and Beauty Products
LoT tracking facilitates the control and surveillance of products, rendering it simpler to manage product recalls and warnings promptly, averting adverse effects. This tracking is also integral for refining inventory management and eliminating the dispatch of expired products.
In addition, accurate batch tracking is also crucial for optimizing inventory management. It allows you to keep track of your inventory at all times, subsequently increasing efficiency. In addition, LoT tracking simplifies the aforementioned FIFO method and accidental shipment of expired products can be ruled out.
3. Inventory Planning for Cosmetics & Beauty Articles
There isn't a universal solution for managing inventory of trendy products. However, deploying tech-assisted analysis and real-time inventory overviews can aid in making knowledgeable decisions. Some fulfilment companies provide these services to assist retailers in avoiding typical inventory management errors.
4. Strategic Fulfilment Centre Locations
The location of fulfilment centres is pivotal - full stop! Choosing a centre close to customers results in quicker, more economical, and eco-friendlier shipping. Utilising a fulfilment provider like byrd, which has numerous locations across Europe, allows for strategic and flexible distribution, fortifying logistics and offering a variety of parcel services catering to local preferences.
A simple solution is to use a fulfilment provider like byrd. byrd has a wide network of fulfilment centres in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Austria, the UK, Spain, Italy, and more, making it a top provider in Europe. byrd's network allows for smart and adaptable distribution, leading to many benefits. For instance, your logistics become more resilient - if one warehouse or parcel carrier has issues, others can take over. Plus, you can use local parcel services that customers prefer, which can be an important factor in their buying decisions.
Fulfilment for Cosmetics and Beauty Products - Here’s How byrd Can Help
At byrd we have years of experience with the fulfilment of cosmetics and beauty products. So, of course, we offer all the solutions mentioned above to help you overcome the challenges in logistics.
This includes well-thought-out and efficient processes and concepts from storage to returns management, as well as close-meshed tracking of your products. This in turn allows us to hold various organic certifications, which are strictly monitored and controlled regularly.
Our dashboard helps you stay on top of things, even if you use multiple fulfilment locations in parallel. The data is collected and can be viewed individually by the logistics centre, country, or as an aggregated overview. We also offer the possibility to use branded and environmentally friendly packaging material and to enclose flyers.
There is also the option to choose climate-neutral shipping and byrd offsets its carbon footprint every year with climate projects. Last but not least, pricing at byrd is fair and transparent. So if you want to learn more, we would be more than happy to talk to you to assess the fit without any obligation.
Conclusion
As you can see, the sale of cosmetics and similar products offers many opportunities - but you know that just as well as we do. You've probably already encountered the various challenges that come with this line of business. When it comes to fulfilment, we'll be happy to help you and take some of the work off your hands. We look forward to talking to you and wish you further success with your project.