Selling Health & Beauty, Sports Nutrition in Amazon is challenging. Product packing and handling itself is complicated in these categories. Sellers must take precautions while packing since the product is generally made of liquid, powder or cream. Also, sellers cannot make large orders. Handling of a large order is not easy. In addition, keeping large quantities of beauty items in warehouse demands a lot of care and maintenance. On the other hand, Health, Beauty, cosmetics is one of the largest markets after grocery. Huge potential for growth, evergreen demand in the market and great ROI attracts many retail sellers. Also, Amazon is one of the giants in selling these products to customers. One can look at the subcategories in online marketplaces, which clearly shows the interest of customers in the sector.
The primary force in the Health & Beauty, Sports Nutrition, or cosmetics market is brand. Generally, customers won’t change the brand easily. So there will be a demand for particular items throughout the year. Not only a brand, but the seller should also focus on the quality of products. Fast-moving items are better in this type of areas. Customer will leave bad reviews if sellers ship them the old items, although products not yet reached expiry date. Else, the quality might degrade day by day. Using selling history, trend and other factors, amazon sellers can identify the fast-moving product. Also, having knowledge of health and diet (if sellers are selling nutrition-related items) is important while selling nutrition and other supplements.
Amazon’s Health & Household Category
There are many types of products come under health & household. Health & Household is the main category, in this Personal care, Baby and Child care, Household Supplies, Medical Supplies and Equipment, Oral care, Health Care, Stationary % Gift wrapping and Wellness & Relaxation are subcategories. Sellers must look for gated categories and obtain approval from Amazon before making a huge order. Also, there will be brand restrictions, product restriction and product regulation one must read before the application for approval.
Some of the sellers such as health care professionals, or nutrition specialists sales supplements and other nutrition-related products easily. Also, their experience will allow them to find a high-quality source for a cheaper price. Similarly, some of the experienced retail sellers also make their way towards health and household sector of amazon.
Let’s look at some of the challenges in selling Health & Beauty, Sports Nutrition, or Cosmetics products:
1) Gated Category
Health & Beauty, Sports Nutrition, or Cosmetics is a gated category in amazon. Meaning one must take approval by Amazon to sell these products. By submitting supplier Invoice, certificate of business registration or any other type of proof is required. Also, sellers must provide significant experience in selling on Amazon marketplace. If you are already a well-established seller, then this is just formalities. Amazon collects $1500 as approval fee for new sellers, which non-refundable.
2) Inventory Management and Shipping
Generally, Health, Beauty, Nutrition products physical state is of cream, powder or liquids. It is difficult to handle as well as storage. There are several online marketplaces which are dedicated to health and nutrition products. This is because of the storage and handling process. If sellers ship products and the product gets damaged while in transport, customers will return the product. This seriously damages the seller’s reputation. Using FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon) is the best way to deal with shipping & Storage problem with extra packing. However, sellers who use Amazon FBA often worry about storage and product handling in the warehouse. Some sellers use their own facility which ensures 100% satisfaction to customers as well as sellers. Ultimately this will come to the nature of products.
3) Sourcing
When selling health, beauty and nutrition products the important factor sellers must consider is the relationship. To sell reputed beauty products, sellers must have sufficient skills and infrastructure to present the product. Having a team of healthcare professional is much needed to convince top brands and gain manufacturer trust. Brands focus on quality and reputation. Experience If sellers don’t present well or do some damage to brands by selling poor quality or badly handled items. This will impact badly on the companies.
Sellers must visit the companies and establish a good partnership before selling health and beauty products. Also, having experience in online selling and good track record in the Amazon marketplace is an added advantage. Also, having a good relationship with manufacturers help in dealing with counterfeit problems.
4) Counterfeit Claims
Counterfeit is another big challenge sellers face in amazon. If there is a small defect or dissatisfaction on the product, customers will immediately report as fake. This will get sellers to account suspension until verification. Sometimes, buyers simply ask for a refund because the product didn’t meet their expectations. Also, they will leave negative feedback.
Sometimes sellers will be selling the older version products, when the manufacturer releases new products, customers will get into confusion and report the old items as fake. Amazon automatically recognises some of the keywords like Fake, Not Genuine in the reviews and start taking action on sellers.
Sometimes the brands itself report you for selling genuine items as well. This is because sellers might don’t have authorisation certificate by Brands. In this case, sellers must speak immediately with their suppliers and try to resolve the issue between Brand and Amazon sellers. Sometimes suppliers will have an authorisation certificate, and they will serve as suppliers to retail sellers in Amazon.
Finally, selling Healthcare and Nutrition products has huge potential with great ROI. Also, sellers must have significant experience in the respective area. For new sellers, this type of dynamic market not recommended.
