The Fastest Way To Grow Your Nutraceutical Business?

Why have companies like Restoration Hardware, Banana Republic, Nordstroms, and Pottery Barn added Canadian shipping to their businesses?

“Canada’s relatively strong economy has made the country a very inviting prospect for many looking for a place to expand into a stable market.”
Steve Mertl, Yahoo Finance

Health and beauty companies looking to expand their growth should look to Canada for an easy way to start transacting internationally.

With an affluent, culturally-similar market of 35 million people located so close to the USA, it’s an easy decision to make to add another country to your marketing targets. Canadians have the same concerns as Americans and crave access to the same solutions that your company offers. Why risk navigating foreign cultural minefields when there is a ripe and ready market so close by?

So what’s involved in doing business with your neighbors to the north? In a nutshell, partnering with the right company to help you make the border crossing easy. Look for a company that can help with:

Importing nutraceuticals from the USA: there are strict regulations you need to know about
Navigating regulatory compliance issues around importation and distribution

Some of the concerns companies need to consider when deciding to do business in Canada include:

Importing nutraceuticals from the USA: there are strict regulations you need to know about
Navigating regulatory compliance issues around importation and distribution

Does your product have a Natural Health Product site license?
Are you importing your product to a fully-licensed Health Canada compliant facility? If not, you could be at risk of:

immediate stop-sale action
immediate suspension of your NPN in addition to any unlicensed products you were attempting to sell
immediate recalls of products from Canadian consumers
fines and penalties

In order to make your launch into the lucrative Canadian market place, you need to find a full-service partner who can take care of both regulatory and third-party logistics requirements.

Should You Do It On Your Own?

It’s a common question among entrepreneurial companies: should you parachute a team into Canada and get started doing business here on your own?

In a word, no. It’s not easy to navigate regulations and restrictions in a foreign company, and as mentioned above, one wrong move could result in fines, penalties, stop-sale action and worse.

Instead of wasting your valuable time researching and investigating regulatory requirements, focus on marketing and media buys, and partner with a 3PL company already on the ground with specific expertise in dealing with health and beauty products to get the fastest results

Your First Considerations When Selecting a Fulfillment Company

When you are looking at launching in Canada, first consider the history of the company. Have they got any experience with Health and Beauty products? What about a Natural Health Product Site License? Getting one can take between sixty and 180 days.

Do they have experience importing products into Canada? What about with labeling requirements?

You don’t want to gamble with your business: find experienced Canadian Fulfillment partners to fast-track your success.

Creating an Excellent Customer Experience

As an experienced nutraceutical marketer, you already know that nobody likes to feel taken advantage of. For Canadians ordering products from the US, the shipping, taxes and duty costs are often seen as usurious, and create a bad experience before the product is even trialed.

By partnering with an experienced Canadian Fulfillment company, you can offer customers a landed price right out of the gate: no surprise taxes or duty charges being assessed after receipt of product.

Storing inventory in Canada also means that products reach customers within days of shipping, not weeks: happier clients mean better retention rates and more profitability for you.

Embracing The Canadian Marketplace

Your neighbours to the north are the ripest market for your expansion and growth plans. Finding success in Canada depends on partnering with a company that can give you turnkey access to the Canadian marketplace so that you’re providing the same level of service north of the 49th parallel as you are to the south. If you’d like help getting your company set up, contact us.