3 tips to remember when sourcing cosmetic products

Today, I would like to share 3 tips to remember when sourcing cosmetics products. I have been involved in a project of sourcing a Korean cosmetics brand into the EU market, and I would like to share my thoughts on it.?

If you are also trying to source cosmetics products outside of the EU, my article will be helpful for you to know what to prepare for. Of many things to prepare, I would focus on regulatory compliance.?

Without further ado, let's get started.?

1. Responsible person?

If you bring cosmetics products into the EU market, you need to select an entity who will serve as a responsible person (RP). The EU cosmetics regulation requires the cosmetics products to show the information of the RP on the packaging.?

The RP has many roles to fulfil and one of those roles is to maintain an information docket for cosmetics products. It is to ensure that these cosmetics products are safe and do not cause any harm to the ordinary consumers.?

The RP guarantees the safety of the cosmetics products and it is the must-have component if you want to import your cosmetics goods into the EU.

Without designating an RP, it is not possible to bring your products into the market, so you need to be careful in choosing your RP. An RP can be a consulting firm who has a legal expertise on the subject or a distributor who brings the goods into the EU market.

The distributors would tend to ask the manufacturers to select a separate entity as a RP. They don't want to take the risk of guaranteeing product safety.?

They would like to focus on making sales and distribution rather than ensuring legal compliance.?

So, you can start searching online to see what kind of professional entities are offering service for their RP responsibility. You can read their website and make your contact to see what they can offer.?

2. Language?

Language is one important element for bringing cosmetics products into the EU. Since the EU has many languages within the market, you need to figure out how to design your packaging to reach the widest customer base possible.?

If you are a distributor working for the EU market, you need to select which regions are more important than another. Since the Western Europe tends to have more purchasing power than its Eastern counterparts, it will be better to focus on the Western part first.?

If you aim to distribute cosmetics products to the Western Europe, it will be wise to put various languages on the product packaging. If you put user instruction in major languages like English, German, French, and Spanish, your coverage will become bigger.

For other mandatory information like ingredient list or product weight, it may be possible to write them in English. It may be enough to write ingredients in English since these substances have standardised wording in the market.?

So, when you design your cosmetics packaging, you need to figure out where you want to sell your product with a single packaging. Otherwise, it would be difficult for you to manage the stock since you may need to handle your SKUs in various languages.

Such a situation will be a burden for your logistics operation without producing anything good. So, it would be better to put various languages on your packaging design to reach the widest customer base in Europe.?

3. Best Before Date?

Best before date (BBD) is a part showing until when the product is usable. It shows customers that they should use the products till a certain date otherwise the product may lose its quality.?

The BBD is also a good barometer for retail clients on whether they should accept the goods or not. They may ask their distributors to send the goods with a BBD more than a year, and if not, they would return the goods.?

If the BBD is too short for these retail clients, they may not be able to sell the goods on time. It would incur unnecessary cost of storage, logistics, and discarding of goods later.

So, if you want to reach out to your retail clients, you need to figure out what kind of BBD could be applicable to your products. You have two options for showing your BBD according to the EU regulation on cosmetics.

First, if your product can last longer than 30 months, you can show a period that product can last after an opening. You don't need to specify the BBD for the product itself if it lasts longer than 30 months.?

Next, if your product can't last more than 30 months, then you need to put a specific date till when the product is viable for usage. If the date is over, it is not something that you can sell in the market.?

If your products can last more than 30 months, it would make sense to put the period after opening to show your BBD. You can sell your products as? long as it is not open, and it will also be easier to deliver these goods to your retail clients.?

So, find out how long your product can last and put an appropriate best before date information to increase your chance to sell. If you have any doubts on the BBD you can check the website of CosmeticsEurope to know more about it.?

4. Wrap-up?

I hope you now have some idea on how to proceed with bringing cosmetics goods into the EU market. You need to consider the RP, language, and BBD when you devise your sales strategy for your cosmetics products.?

These elements are one of the most important parts for importing cosmetics goods. I hope my article would help you to navigate through the process.?

If you enjoyed reading my article, please put your thumb up and share it with others who may also like it. I thank you for your reading, and I will see you in the next article.