Supply Chain Management Best Practices for Beauty Products

Companies looking to expand their business in the beauty products industry need to be aware of common challenges in beauty and cosmetic supply chains. They should also follow supply chain best practices to strengthen their position in the marketplace.

When considering supply chains for beauty and cosmetic products, here are some of the most common challenges for you to keep top of mind.

The key ingredients that go into creating your beauty products will likely come from locations all across the globe, such as botanicals that are only available in areas conducive to their growth and harvesting.

You will have to work across multiple countries in a complex global supply chain. Doing so may demand special experience and expertise that you lack in-house, which leads to forming a partnership with third-party logistics or 3PL experts.

You should carry out periodic audits of your supplier partners to make sure that they continue to address regulations as well as adhere to current best practices. Regulations in the beauty product industry are strict to protect customers. The last thing you’d want is for an unapproved ingredient to find its way into your finished product, which could result in a mandatory recall and public relations disaster.

In the beauty products industry, the role of social media influencers has helped shorten the typical product life cycle. Trending products can be difficult to predict, which can complicate your efforts to maintain a good supply of ingredients to continue meeting customer demand.

Certain products may experience volatility in demand, such as based on a spurt in popularity or when cosmetics fall out of favor as customers jump to the next new thing. You also have to contend with seasonality, such as beauty products designed for use during summer to help protect people’s skin and lips from the harsh sun and UV radiation.

It’s common for beauty product companies to sell in a variety of channels. You may see sales through brick-and-mortar retailers as well as direct-to-consumer sales and e-commerce. Customers expect to be able to connect with you via text message, social media, websites, and phone.

Under such circumstances, you will need to master omnichannel fulfillment. Often, the best approach is to partner with 3PL professionals with vast experience in the supply chain for beauty products and cosmetics.

Your customers are becoming accustomed to buying beauty products from companies that prioritize transparency. You will want to ensure you follow sustainable business practices and demonstrate that you source materials in an environmentally sustainable and ethical fashion. You can partner with a 3PL team that has experience in working with clean, certified suppliers and organizations that strive to reduce their carbon footprint.

When you have a better awareness of the potential pitfalls and challenges of moving beauty products from the point of origin to the final destination, you’ll want to take advantage of the following tactics and strategies for optimizing their management:

Raw ingredients and finished cosmetic and beauty products often require specific storage, transportation, and handling conditions. If your products need temperature control, it’s essential to use reliable monitoring technology to ensure consistent conditions. Partnering with a supply chain provider experienced in handling beauty products will help maintain quality and compliance throughout the process.

Ideally, you will track historical data about the raw materials that you use to create beauty products inventory. This helps you more accurately forecast demand and withstand seasonal changes in product orders.

Maintaining this data in a centralized location allows you and fellow stakeholders in the supply chain to monitor information 24/7 rather than needing to be at your corporate headquarters to keep track of things.

Make a point of collaborating more effectively with your suppliers so you can minimize pollution and demonstrate a smaller carbon footprint. You will want to find suppliers that can readily document that they follow ethical sourcing protocols and pay providers a fair amount without exploiting local workers.

It’s best to take a data-driven approach as you forecast demand and understand seasonal ordering patterns. Gather this data with your 3PL partner so you can avoid running out of products just as consumers start placing a higher volume of orders. With precise details, you can bargain for better terms on raw ingredients, for example, or ensure that you have sufficient supplies even as your competitors scramble to fulfill their own orders.

It’s not prudent to rely on a sole supplier since it may face problems ranging from issues sourcing key ingredients to maintaining enough employees to produce materials. You’ll want to diversify your suppliers so you can leverage one if another tries to raise prices or cannot meet your demand for product.

In the beauty products industry, you face a variety of challenges that take resilience and planning to address. Often, it makes sense for companies to partner with experienced 3PL professionals to ensure they can contend with problems in the global supply chain (such as labor unrest, war, natural disasters, and inclement weather).

You will also likely need assistance addressing regulatory compliance.

Furthermore, cosmetics often have short product life cycles, and there is usually demand volatility or fluctuations based on seasonal shopping behavior, companies, which underscores the importance of maintaining strong supply chains and optimizing their performance.

To learn more about our approach to warehouse inventory management to optimize the supply chain for beauty products, please contact us today.