How Beauty Brands Sell More by Optimizing Fulfillment

Apr 18, 2023

Learn how MasonHub’s software helps beauty companies save money and increase the bottom line.  

There’s never been a more critical time to strengthen your back-end operations and optimize fulfillment with a partner that brings expertise, infrastructure and technology to the table. You could argue that order fulfillment services are the most critical part of the retail life cycle. It’s this series of processes that gets your product into a customer’s hands. Using the right provider not only makes fulfillment struggles easier, it frees up time to focus on your business. It can also be more cost-effective and lead to a better customer experience.

MasonHub was created by retailers, for retailers to solve common pain points by placing technology and high-touch services at the forefront of everything we do. We’re trusted by top beauty brands such as Vegamour, Thirteen Lune, Iconic London, Pley and Stratia to deliver an on-time, accurate and unforgettable fulfillment experience. We also save our customers up to 30 percent on shipping costs. Here’s how our products work to optimize your business.

1. Dynamic Kitting and Bundling

In fulfillment, kitting and bundling refers to grouping products into kits or bundles. Dynamic kitting and bundling refers to the automatic adjustment of inventory levels as an item is purchased, whether it’s individually or as part of a kit. This allows you to sell multiple items without having to tie up inventory in a kit. MasonHub’s software also enables you to let your customers choose the components in a kit, of which there can be hundreds of combinations. 

Say you offer single eyeshadows, palettes, mascaras and brow pencils, all in multiple colors. Your customers have the option to buy each item separately, and you can also offer these products together as a kit. Customers also have the option to choose which colors or items they want in their kit. Or, you can bundle multiple items–eyeshadow palettes and face palettes, for example–so customers receive a discount when they buy multiple products. This is a great way to get people to buy more.

The moment a customer places an item in their cart, inventory levels automatically adjust so you always know what you have on hand and when to order more. Read on to find out how you can use our pre-sell and back-order management feature to keep selling even when inventory is not at your warehouse yet. 

2. Oversell Policy and Pre-sell and Back-order Management

There’s nothing more frustrating than when you go to put an item in your shopping cart, and you get a “sold out” message. Setting up an oversell policy can prevent this from happening, while enabling you to make the sale and not miss out on consumer demand. 

When you notice that you’re running low on stock of an item, click “Set up oversell policy” and choose how many units you’ll allow to sell and for what duration. You should base this on the amount of inventory you have coming in, and when it’s scheduled to arrive. Your customers can complete their purchase, while being notified of the expected shipping date. Once the inventory arrives, those orders will be prioritized and get fulfilled first.

Back-order management means that you can continue processing orders for back-ordered items. When the inventory arrives at the warehouse, the system automatically fulfills those orders first. This same technology also allows a brand to pre-sell items such as an anticipated new release or re-stock. Once the items arrive, they are automatically fulfilled first. You can create excitement around these items, and rest easy knowing that everything is taken care of for a seamless fulfillment experience. 

3. Customized Fulfillment Experiences 

In beauty, sampling can be one of your most important marketing tools because it’s a way to get product into customers’ hands. MasonHub’s Fulfillment Automation Marketing Engine, or F.A.M.E. for short, does just that: it translates customer attributes into physical fulfillment experiences. 

Start by tagging customer attributes such as someone with a high average order volume or a repeat customer. Next, set up actions based on these attributes. For example, you can make sure first-time buyers get a sample and a coupon code to encourage them to buy it once they try it. A repeat customer could receive a sample of your most expensive product, and a handwritten thank-you note. You can also set up actions based on order attributes. For example, if someone buys an eyeshadow palette, they will also get a travel-size mascara or free brush. 

There’s no limit to the customizations you can set up using F.A.M.E. And you can be confident that the staff in our fully-owned and operated fulfillment centers is handling your pack-outs. Personalized notes? Custom tissue paper? We got you. We work cross-functionally between your operations and marketing departments to yield great results, and your customers will be delighted by the experience.  

4. Distributed Order Management and Split Shipments 

When a company splits its inventory across multiple fulfillment centers, such as East Coast and West Coast, it allows for optimized speed (the closer the fulfillment center is to the customer, the faster the order can reach them) and cost (the less distance a package has to travel, the less it costs to ship).  

A company can also prioritize speed based on an item’s availability, meaning the order will be fulfilled immediately from the location where inventory is available, regardless of how far it is from the customer. Split shipping refers to when an order contains multiple items, and the items are split up so that they arrive in different shipments. This is another way to prioritize speed of shipping. 

For beauty brands especially, partnering with a fulfillment provider that possesses this technology and multichannel retail expertise can not only save you money, it can increase your revenues and take your business to the next level.