You could chalk this up to yet another example of how Millennials like myself are challenging and often confounding traditional retailers and online merchants (and ourselves) but there is a lot more to consider here.
First let me introduce the source of this particular quandary, I was reading a terrific story on Digital Commerce 360 that got me to thinking about this issue and how it presents opportunity’s for Health & Beauty eTailers, to read for yourself please go here.
Some things really stood out: “A new report from Internet Retailer shows that millennials’ growing distaste for store shopping, as well as retailers’ creative efforts to making shopping fun and engaging, are driving a big shift in health and beauty purchases to the web.”
“Spending on health and beauty products is shifting rapidly to the web. U.S. consumers spent roughly $12.11 billion on health and beauty items via the web last year, nearly double what they spent five years earlier, according to Internet Retailer’s just-released report,” Health & Beauty Online.
“As that shift intensifies, there’s real potential to make some serious money. The margins on health and beauty items are some of the highest in retail, and return rates, at 1%-2% on average, are some of the lowest.”
While it is certainly nice to be standing at the intersection of growth and opportunity, it does leave us with the question of which route to take to arrive at the destination of profit and market share. In a market still defining itself and which has struggled to couple brand loyalty with outreach to targeted markets, how do you prepare your backend systems to provide the flexibility needed to support different selling platforms and capitalize on this trend?
Here at Freestyle we and our customers have encountered these challenges before and we can offer practical advice:
- Make sure your systems support rapid changes to your eCommerce sales channels
- Have established processes to handle promotions, upsells and favored customer statuses to instill brand loyalty
- Master shipping! Set yourself apart by offering expedited service at the least cost to your bottom line and capture the refunds offered by carriers in case they miss their deadline
- Control inventory and make sure you don’t have stock outs or mispacked items, nothing is more frustrating than when a well-designed promotion fails because items are out of stock
While you are thinking about how to conquer the Health & Beauty sales opportunity we will be thinking about how to help you.
If you would like to discuss how we can help your business please use this link to start the conversation.