In the health, beauty, and wellness e-commerce market, strategies that streamline inventory management, enhance customer satisfaction, and boost sales can help brands gain a competitive advantage. One of these strategies is specialized kitting and packing services. But what exactly is kitting? How does it differ from bundling? And why is it important for health, beauty, and wellness ecommerce brands to consider how their kitting operations effect their supply chain in addition to their customer experience?
In this blog we’ll explore the benefits of kitting for health, beauty, and wellness ecommerce brands, its role in enhancing customer experiences, best practices for kitting, and how to choose the right kitting service provider.
Kitting is when individual items or product SKUs are packaged together to create one product or “kit” that’s ready to be delivered to a consumer. As a single shipment, the kitted products become one new SKU prior to being shipped. Kitting is an effective inventory management and ecommerce technique that packs, stores, and ships related individual products together.
Product kits might be variations of the same product or provide an assortment of complimentary products that tend to be ordered together. They also offer an excellent avenue for retailers to move slow-selling products by kitting them with higher volume items. Kitting techniques are also used for subscription services, which continue to grow in popularity. Flexible kitting operations allow retailers to run promotions related to the time of year, holidays or sales by changing the look of the packaging, adding special inserts, etc. This can be an effective ecommerce inventory control management and sales technique for your brand.
Kitting and bundling techniques ship a selection of individual items in one package. A kit offers value by pre-packaging different items in bulk to create items such as gift sets or subscription service kits ready for sale. A bundle is picked item by item after an order is placed. Bundling is often used as an incentive to buy more and save, while kitting is a strategy often used to move less popular items or sell products through partnerships with several different labels.
Different kitting methods allow you to pivot operations to meet changing customer needs and manage kitting to improve inventory movement. Kitting solutions include:
Kit-to-Stock: This refers to pre-kitting inventory to await specific customer orders and maintaining stock levels to ensure fulfillment requirements are met. An example of this method is subscription boxes. Subscription kits create “experiences” with a mix of themed products sent out weekly or monthly. Subscription boxes are pre-packaged, ready to be picked and shipped under one SKU.
Kit-to-Order: When kits are created as clients send orders, or as customer’s order them. This is also known as ‘On-demand’ kitting. These personalized kits contain separate items selected by customers, assembled when the order is received, and charged as individual SKUs.
Successful kitting requires careful thought to ensure it appeals to customers. This includes:
Kitting is essential for ecommerce success providing several benefits as a strategic logistics management and supply chain solution, including:
Kitting is a seven-step process often fulfilled by a third-party logistics (3PL) provider, including:
When creating kits, you can follow these best practices:
Third-party logistics companies like Metro Supply Chain provide kitting services for ecommerce health, beauty, and wellness brands. Metro Supply Chain offers the following expertise:
Kitting and packing is fundamental to your health, beauty, and wellness ecommerce strategy. In some ways the appearance of the box and presentation of the product has become as important as the appearance of the product itself. Brands looking to convey a cohesive brand identity, an aspirational lifestyle, or a particular message need to design their packages with the un-boxing experience in mind. Working with an experienced 3PL with in-house value-added services such as packing and kitting can ensure you exceed customer expectations.
Metro Supply Chain is a leader in providing agile in-house packing and kitting services across Canada. As your 3PL partner our services we can increase speed-to-market, reduce costs, and risks. Specific co-packing and kitting areas have been engineered in our warehouses to ensure optimal flow and higher productivity. This allows teams to process significant daily fluctuations and allows for same-day ecommerce order processing. We also provide quality assurance oversight, including end-of-line order accuracy checks prior to shipping confirmation.
No matter how unique your packing and kitting needs are, Metro Supply Chain’s team can skillfully fulfill your orders to satisfy you and your customers. Whether you ship stock or offer custom subscription kits, we’ll execute a fast and accurate kitting process, with a personalized touch where needed.