The concept of beauty is ever-changing. Nowadays, it encompasses both physical appearance and overall well-being.

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If you're thinking of venturing into the health, beauty, and wellness industry, it's crucial to understand that ecommerce has transformed the landscape. With current sales surpassing $73 billion and projections estimating it to exceed $99 billion by the end of 2023, there is immense potential for growth.

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By providing specialised products that align with emerging trends and establishing a smooth order fulfillment strategy, you can capitalize on this growth and enhance your chances of success in the industry.

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In this blog, you will learn how can D2C brands scale their health and beauty business, when is it time to outsource D2C health and beauty fulfilment and what to look for in a fulfilment partner for health and beauty products.

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How can D2C brands scale their health and beauty businesses?

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D2C brands in the health and beauty industry can scale their business by focusing on the following six key points:

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1. Innovative product range

In order to stand out in a crowded market, D2C brands need to offer innovative and unique product ranges that cater to the needs of their target audience. They can do this by investing in product research and development and studying industry trends.

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2. Competitive pricing

Pricing is a crucial factor in the success of any D2C brand. To scale their business, D2C brands must offer competitive pricing that is in line with industry standards. They can achieve this by optimising their supply chain and manufacturing processes, and by offering discounts and promotions to attract customers.

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3. Fast shipping

In the age of Amazon Prime, customers want fast and reliable shipping for every online order. D2C brands can scale their business by focusing on efficient logistics management to offer fast shipping options.

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4. Easy returns

‍Returns are an inevitable part of any ecommerce business, and D2C brands must make it easy for customers to return products that do not meet their expectations. By offering a hassle-free returns process, D2C brands can improve customer loyalty and reduce the risk of negative reviews and customer complaints.

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5. Great customer experience

‍Customer experience is critical for the success of any D2C brand. Given, D2C brands directly deal with their customers and continuously focus on strengthening their relationship with them. By delighting their customers, D2C brands can build a loyal customer base and increase Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV).

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6. Robust marketing and branding

Finally, D2C brands must invest in marketing and branding to increase brand awareness and attract new customers. This can be done through various channels, such as social media, influencer marketing, and advertising.

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When is it time to outsource D2C health and beauty fulfilment?

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Here are some factors to consider while outsourcing ecommerce fulfilment to a 3PL (third-party logistics) provider:

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1. Rapid increase in daily order volume

If a D2C brand experiences a sudden surge in orders, it may not have the infrastructure or resources to fulfil them all in a timely manner. Outsourcing fulfilment can help to alleviate this pressure and ensure that orders are delivered on time.

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2. Slipping fulfilment standards

A D2C brand can be struggling to meet its fulfilment standards, such as delivering orders within the promised timeframe or maintaining order accuracy. In such scenarios, outsourcing fulfilment can provide specialised expertise and technology that can help improve these metrics.

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3. Poor customer experience

If a D2C brand receives negative feedback from customers regarding their fulfilment operations, such as no visibility of their orders, it can impact their reputation and lead to customer churn. Outsourcing to a 3PL provider with a proven track record of delivering exceptional customer experience can help to improve customer satisfaction and retention.

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What to look for in a fulfilment partner for health and beauty products?

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1. Ultra-fast shipping powered by multiple fulfilment centres

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Health and beauty products are often time-sensitive and customers expect fast delivery. However, providing lightning-fast shipping speed proves to be a costly affair for D2C brands.

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As a solution, you can partner up with a 3PL like Eshopbox to store your inventory in a distributed network of fulfilment centres across the country. Moreover, Eshopbox has tie-ups with major and multiple courier companies. This enables D2C brands to offer same-day delivery, next-day delivery and other express delivery options to customers across 29,000+ pin codes in India while saving 45% off shipping costs.

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2. Easy returns and exchanges with profitable returns management

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A hassle-free return experience will enable you to keep your customers happy even while returning a purchase. Otherwise, you'll be bombarded with hundreds of emails or calls from frustrated customers.

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Eshopbox enables your customers to initiate return or exchange requests via the customer portal in a few clicks. In addition, you can delight them more by giving colour, size, and style recommendations for exchanges.

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However, an easy returns policy backfires and results in massive costs. Luckily, a fulfilment partner like Eshopbox with a profitable returns management system can help to reduce the cost of processing returns for your D2C brand. Eshopbox aligns the return pickup with an upcoming scheduled delivery in the same or nearby location to save on return shipping. Once you receive the returned product in the fulfilment centre, Eshopbox conducts quality checks to find out if there is any defect or damage in the returned product.

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3. Memorable unboxing experience with custom packaging

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In recent years, unboxing has evolved from being an occasional delight to an online trend. Instead of a boring brown box, D2C brands can opt for unique packaging to woo their customers.

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Eshopbox powers a fantastic unboxing experience with custom packaging. You can simply select custom options with Eshopbox’s flexible packaging rules for personalised or branded packaging. You can also add inserts like samples, gift cards, custom messages, coupons, pamphlets and more.

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4. Real-time order tracking and proactive notifications

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Customers want to be comminuted about their online orders. Live order tracking can help you keep up with such customer expectations.

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Eshopbox enables you to enhance the customer experience by giving your customers full visibility of their orders at every stage of order fulfilment—order received, order packed, shipped, in transit, out for delivery, and delivered.

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Even in case of a return, refund or exchange, your customers are fully informed. Eshopbox also triggers proactive notifications of order updates to customers via SMS and e-mail. You can also manage and customise notifications by selecting when you wish to send a notification to your customers.

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5. Incredible Customer Experience (CX)

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Apart from fast shipping, order-tracking and unboxing, customer experience governs every touchpoint of customer interaction. That's why, you need a fulfilment partner that focuses on delighting your customers each and every time.

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Let's see how Eshopbox does it:

• Instead of just promising fast shipping, Eshopbox adheres to it. By following SOPs (Standard Operating procedures) in order processing and incorporating ecommerce automation, Eshopbox ensures that every order is shipped and delivered on time.
• Eshopbox performs a quality check and deploys automation to eliminate any scope of error in order processing to maintain an order accuracy rate of 99.67%—meaning your customers will get what they ordered in the best condition.
• Your customers get access to the self-service portal, a secure page that lets your customers do a lot whenever they want. The customer portal empowers your customers and enables you to deliver a great customer experience with ease.

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6. Branded D2C experience

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D2C brands are keen on building everlasting connections with their customers directly. This influences a brand’s image, value and reputation. You need a fulfilment partner that helps you engrave your brand image in customers’ minds.

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Eshopbox creates a branded experience in three ways. First, Eshopbox provides custom packaging according to the needs of your business that showcase your brand. Second, active and branded communication during shipping prevents WISMO (Where-Is-My-Order-Calls). Third, D2C brands have the freedom to create a customised branded tracking page to engage customers.

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7. Transparent pricing

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Finally, pricing is a key consideration when selecting a fulfilment partner. A partner with competitive pricing that aligns with industry standards can help to reduce costs and improve overall profitability.

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The pay-as-you-go pricing offered by Eshopbox ensures seamless ecommerce order fulfilment without draining your financial resources. This usage-based pricing ensures that you won't pay for a service you're not using. Moreover, Eshopbox ensures no hidden costs and complete transparency.

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Health and beauty brands vouching for Eshopbox

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Eshopbox has played an integral role in our company’s success. After our ecommerce sales increased rapidly, we desperately needed help with fulfilment. They jumped into our chaotic situation without hesitation. Their technology and innovative approach helped us to achieve the efficiency we desired in our fulfilment process. They also took away the complexity of selling on marketplaces and tackled it behind the scenes— we were able to focus on business strategy and sustainable growth.

‍— Nikhil Gill- Heads Sales and Operations, OZiva

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We work with Eshopbox for the fulfilment of orders, and their solution has helped us deliver more than 300K orders in 6 months with incredible accuracy. We often run flash sale events for our customers which means 5x orders to pack and ship. Eshopbox handles these sudden peaks in a very organised way and ensures that our orders are delivered on time. We've been able to focus on the branding, product, and other customer-centric aspects of the business, as opposed to fulfilment operations which used to take up a lot of bandwidth earlier.

—Shankar Prasad, Founder, Pureplay

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Our collaboration with Eshopbox has allowed us to serve our customers on Amazon in the best way possible. Owing to the Amazon Prime badge, we receive a lot of orders with stringent delivery timelines. But their team has been able to manage the stringent timelines very well. We have seen an improvement in customer satisfaction leading to better business for us.

—Rishubh Satiya, Co-founder, Plixlife

Wrapping up

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The health and beauty industry is highly competitive, but offers limitless growth potential. In order to expand your D2C business in this industry, it's crucial to have the right infrastructure and expertise. Working with a 3PL partner can help to transform short-term growth into sustainable, long-term business development. In today's consumer-driven world, beauty is defined on an individual basis. By taking a strategic approach to your product offerings and utilising seamless ecommerce order fulfilment, you can empower your customers to define beauty on their own terms.