The resale of supplements in Italy and Europe is widespread. Even not exactly specialised shops such as bars and the entire Ho.Re.Ca. sector are now well supplied with this category of products. On the other hand, supplements is a product category that has expanded to include parapharmaceutical or pharmaceutical products as well as confectionery or meal replacements.
Many retailers realise the better opportunities of selling a product under their own brand name, i.e. made for third parties, but are not equipped to assess which route to take.
Sommario
- Understand who you are, i.e. what your business is
- When to choose contract manufacturing of supplements
Understand who you are, i.e. what your business is
The supplement retailer can be a specialised shop, an herbalist’s shop or a pharmacy/parapharmacy – individual or belonging to a brand or group of shops. These types of shops may or may not have an online resale portal, i.e. an eCommerce. Then there are non-specialised shops such as grocery shops, bars, sporting goods shops and especially gyms that display an area dedicated to supplements. Finally, supplement retailers include individual professionals such as pharmacists, nutritionists, personal trainers who choose to sell this type of product to their customers.
Whoever the retailer is, he or she must understand the number of customers he or she can reach and the needs of those customers (the type of clientele).
A grocery shop will have a good number of hits per day, but the majority of customers will be oriented towards basic necessities, confectionery or household items and only secondarily to other references; a personal trainer (who is not a famous influencer, but works by word of mouth) on the other hand knows that his customers are all interested in performance products, i.e. on target, but that the number of acuisti is limited to his ability to acquire new trainees. A pharmacy often has high-end and high-priced products in its assortment among supplements, a grocery store often (but not always) relies on more generic products depending on the type of customer.
To summarise, it is necessary to understand:
- The potential sales volume of an item;
- The type of item being targeted (Vitamins, Protein Products, Meal Replacements, Endurance Supplements etc.);
- The price positioning (how much is my customer willing to spend?)
What type of retailer you are:
- Groups, signs or chain shops;
- Specialised shops (herbalist shops, supplement shops);
- Non-specialised shops (bars, sports shops, grocery shops);
- An individual professional (personal trainer, nutritionist)
When to choose contract manufacturing of supplements
If you are a retailer and are considering switching to selling your own brand, there are two reasons for this:
- related to marginality, i.e. economic, as contract manufacturing allows better margins;
- related to quality, therefore related to the decision to customise the product according to precise standards.
The transition from reseller to sub-contractor therefore goes through a feasibility assessment. Therefore, evaluate a manufacturing company that meets your volumes and has:
- a Minimum Order Quantity that meets your potential customer base;
- Is able to realise your idea from a technical and format point of view
