Nutraceuticals, food-based products with health or nutritional benefits, such as dietary supplements, are in high demand worldwide. The global nutraceuticals market size surpassed $458 billion in 2024. Experts project the number will jump to over $500 billion in 2025 and go beyond $986 billion by 2032.
With reliable nutraceutical fulfillment, you take advantage of the soaring demand by delivering products to customers quickly, accurately, and safely. Throughout the fulfillment process, you comply with US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations and any other relevant rules for nutraceutical companies.
What Are the Key Components of Nutraceutical Fulfillment?
Nutraceutical fulfillment is the process of storing, picking, packing, and delivering nutraceutical supplements to your customers. Here are its three main elements:
Online Order Fulfillment
Once a customer buys nutraceuticals on your eCommerce store, you start the fulfillment process, which often follows the steps below:
- Receiving the order: Your fulfillment team captures the customer’s details, the purchased nutraceutical product, and the delivery address.Â
- Preparing the order: The team picks the item from inventory, packs securely, and attaches a shipping label with delivery information.
- Shipping the product: Once the order is ready, you hand it over to a shipping carrier and share tracking details with the customer so they can monitor the entire delivery process.Â
- Processing returns: If something is wrong with the delivered order and you have a return policy, the customer sends back the package for a refund or replacement.
The goal is to make sure every customer gets exactly what they ordered as fast as possible.
Climate-Controlled Warehousing
Keeping nutraceuticals outside the appropriate storage temperature and humidity can ruin their quality. According to the National Sanitation Foundation, dietary supplement tablets may develop impurities, while components in liquid nutraceuticals may separate.
When that happens, the products become ineffective and fail to deliver on their label claims. This can cause legal trouble; the FDA can take action against adulterated nutraceuticals once they reach the market.
Climate-controlled warehousing in nutraceutical fulfillment eliminates these risks. It ensures you keep products under the right environmental conditions from the moment they arrive at the storage facility until you ship them to customers.
FDA-Approved Nutraceutical Fulfillment Center
The FDA doesn’t approve nutraceuticals before they go on the market. However, it does inspect facilities that make, label, package, or store nutraceuticals to ensure they follow current good manufacturing practices (CGMP).
All fulfillment centers in the US that handle nutraceuticals must register with the FDA for regular assessments. Facilities that pass the inspections are considered FDA-approved.
What Role Does a 3PL Play?
Outsourcing fulfillment to a third-party logistics (3PL) company like AMS simplifies and improves the process:
Leverage Reliable Inventory Management Techniques
Some nutraceuticals, such as fish oil and medicinal herbs, spoil quickly. Others don’t go bad easily but lose their potency over time. In such cases, 3PL providers implement effective inventory management techniques to reduce waste.
For example, the first-expired, first out (FEFO) method ensures nutraceuticals with the shortest lifespan in a particular category are sold first. The first-in, first-out (FIFO) method, on the other hand, prevents non-perishable products from going bad as a result of sitting too long in storage.
Use Specialized Equipment to Handle Nutraceuticals Properly
3PL companies have specialized equipment for handling nutraceuticals. AMS, for instance, offers climate-controlled environments for products that require specific temperatures while in storage. That way, your inventory stays fresh and effective the whole time they’re in storage.
Save Money and Time
With a 3PL provider, you only pay for fulfillment services. You don’t incur costs of owning supplement fulfillment infrastructure (storage space, warehousing equipment, etc).
Additionally, the provider handles the entire order fulfillment process for you. As a result, you get more time to focus on critical business activities, such as expanding your customer base and increasing sales.
Access Compliant Facilities
A 3PL company like AMS runs nutraceutical fulfillment centers that are FDA-registered and have passed all inspections. That way, you comply with the FDA’s current good manufacturing practices.
Best Practices in Nutraceutical Fulfillment
What can you do to make your nutraceutical fulfillment process more effective?
- Process orders accurately: Connect your eCommerce store with your order management system (or directly with your 3PL’s platform) to transfer order details automatically. Automation reduces manual errors in order processing.Â
- Use climate-controlled storage space: If maintaining this specialized environment in-house is too expensive, partner with a 3PL company that operates temperature and humidity-controlled fulfillment centers. Outsourcing is often more affordable because you don’t need to own a storage facility.
- Comply with regulatory requirements: Work with a third-party logistics provider that is FDA-registered and complies with all nutraceutical handling requirements to avoid legal issues.
Technology in Nutraceutical Fulfillment
A warehouse management system (WMS) is one of the robust tech solutions in online order fulfillment. As you stock, distribute, and sell nutraceutical products, the tool instantly and automatically records the changes.
As a result, you monitor your inventory levels in real time. Tracking your inventory that way lets you restock before you run out, ensuring products are always available for customers. You also avoid overstocking by reordering inventory just at the right time (when replenishment is necessary to meet demand).
With Internet of Things (IoT) tools, such as barcodes, sensors, and radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, a WMS shows you the real-time location of inventory inside your storage facility. This makes warehouse pickups faster and more accurate.
Nutraceutical fulfillment service providers use advanced logistics technologies, including warehouse management systems, which you can access by outsourcing fulfillment to them.
Adapting to Consumer and Industry Changes
Consumer expectations and priorities change over time.
In 2022, a survey found that fast delivery was the top priority for online buyers. But by 2024, it dropped to fifth place. What mattered most instead? Affordable delivery, followed by clear shipping updates, easy returns, and flexible delivery options.
Nutraceutical brands that want to stay ahead should implement logistics strategies that adapt to customers’ evolving priorities. 3PL providers offer the flexibility you need to meet customer expectations.
Additionally, laws governing the nutraceutical industry change regularly. Working with a reliable fulfillment partner helps you stay on top of changes in nutraceutical regulations.
Improve Nutraceutical Fulfillment With AMS
Want to make nutraceutical fulfillment more effective?
The primary areas you should focus on include speeding up fulfillment processes to enhance customer satisfaction, storing products in the right environmental conditions to prevent spoilage, and staying compliant with nutraceutical regulations to avoid legal issues.Â
All these are easy to achieve if you partner with a reliable 3PL company like AMS. Contact us today to learn more about our nutraceutical and supplement fulfillment service.
