Health & Supplement Fulfillment

As a vitamin and supplement 3PL provider, we’ve handled various products from vitamins, protein powders, herbal supplements and more.

Track & manage lot numbers and expiration dates with ease.

Fulfill subscription box orders with ease and precision.

Prioritize fulfillment by first in first out or first expired first out.

Fragile packing procedures for glass supplement bottles.

D2C and B2B order fulfillment capabilities under one roof.

Ship internationally to 220+ destinations with DDP or DDU.

Integrate with major carts and platforms like Shopify and Amazon.

No management fees & industry leading shipping rates.

On-Time Shipment

With today’s wellness focused landscape, the vitamin and supplement industry is going stronger than ever. Whether you’re selling vitamins, supplements, protein powders, or just about anything else, getting your products to your customers quickly and accurately is critical.

The process of getting your health and wellness products to your customers, is better known as vitamin and supplement fulfillment.

What Is Vitamin and Supplement Fulfillment?

Vitamin and supplement fulfillment or 3PL (3rd party logistics) is the process of storing, packing, and shipping dietary supplements after your customers place an order. It’s a specialized type of ecommerce fulfillment that caters to the unique needs of health and wellness brands.

This includes the processes of inventory storage (often with lot/expiration tracking), order processing, shipping, return management, and more.

Due to supplements being ingestible products, they’re subject to more regulations and requirements compared to regular consumer packaged goods. This means choosing the right fulfillment partner is more than important, it’s essential.

How Does Vitamin & Supplement Fulfillment Work? Step by Step

Receiving

The first step of any health and wellness fulfillment operation is inventory receiving. This is the part where you send your products to the fulfillment center. Prior to sending your goods, you’ll need to create a receiving order so the warehouse can receive against it. This ensures your manufacturer sent the correct products and quantities.

During this process items are also weighed, measured, and inspected to make sure they are in sellable condition. Additionally, lot numbers and tracking numbers are received into the system with the products so you have access to that information at anytime.

Storage

When the receiving team completes checking your items to make sure you got exactly what you ordered, the items are then put away into dedicated bins, shelves, or pallet spaces.

Each lot and SKU you send will need an individual location for tracking, inventory management, and order accuracy purposes.

Picking

Once order start coming in, they’re sent to the picking team which goes to the aisles of the warehouse your vitamin and supplement products are located in, and picks the items into dedicated bins.

Your products are barcode scanned during this stage and lot numbers or expirations verified for accuracy.

Packing & Shipping

After the order has been completely picked into its dedicated bin, it then heads down to the packing station to be packaged. At this stage the pick bin is scanned and your items are packed into regular boxes or custom branded boxes according to your requirements.

Once packed, the box goes onto the shipping scale where they’re weighed and shipping labels are generated. The package then gets picked up by the carrier for which the shipping label was generated.

Returns/Reverse Logistics

When the need arrises for a customer to return or exchange one of your health and wellness products, RMA numbers or return shipping labels are provided. Once the items arrive back to your vitamin and supplement fulfillment center, they are inspected and returned to stock if they are in re-sellable conditional.

What to Look for in a Supplement Fulfillment Partner

Not all fulfillment centers are cut out to fulfill health and wellness products. Here’s what to look for when choosing your supplement 3PL.

Compliance Requirements

Choose a partner who understands compliance requirements and operates FDA registered warehouses. This ensures safe handling of your vitamin and supplement products.

Lot & Expiration Tracking

A fulfillment provider who specializes in supplements should offer lot and expiration tracking. This enables you to set FIFO (first-in-first-out) or FEFO (first-expired-first-out) to help you reduce waste from expired overstock. This also ensures your customers never receive expired products that need to be returned.

Technology & Integrations

The need for robust fulfillment management technology is essential. This gives you real-time visibility into your inventory, orders and more. Plus you’ll need to integrate your ecommerce platform like Shopify and marketplaces like amazon to make sure orders flow seamlessly.

Omni Channel Capabilities

Even if you’re strictly doing ecommerce right now, having a partner that supports retail and B2B fulfillment is fundamental for scaling your brand in the future. This gives you the opportunity to sell to retail partners and big box stores. This way when the opportunity arrises, you won’t be scrambling around to switch fulfillment providers.

Custom Packaging Capabilities

Branded unboxing experiences create customer loyalty, influence repeat purchases, and help you create a buzz on social media. Therefore it’s paramount for your fulfillment partner to offer custom packaging services, kitting, bundling, assembly and flexible customization capabilities.

On-Site Customer Support

Yes, responsive customer support is important, but what if your customer support rep is overseas and needs to reach out up the ladder just to get a request processed or question answered. Therefore it’s highly recommended to go with a supplement fulfillment company that has in-house support staff that actually on the ground in the warehouse, and still responsive.

Final Thoughts: Why It Matters

When dealing with vitamins and supplements, trust is everything. Customers expect their products to arrive on time, fresh, and in pristine condition. A professional vitamin and supplement fulfillment partner not only ensures a smooth operation but assists you in building your brands credibility.