One of the most complicated areas in the industry of fulfillment is the spectrum of regulation that applies to different materials and products. Some products require no special environmental conditions for safe storage, retaining their quality despite temperature changes and other factors. At the other end of the spectrum, there are more sensitive food and medical products that must be kept in a climate controlled facility from the time they are manufactured until they reach the end user.

For an organization looking to engage a 3PL provider for fulfillment services, it is critical to know what criteria its products have for environmental conditions and to ensure that their prospective fulfillment partner is able to provide those conditions reliably while the products are in their care. Spectra has recently emerged as a valuable partner for organizations in a specific field: regulated health and wellness products. Here are the credentials that make Spectra an important fulfillment partner for manufacturers, distributors, and customers in this industry.

Climate Control

In the United States, air conditioning and heating are nearly universal features of the indoor spaces that we inhabit. In warehouses across the country, however, that’s not the case. The majority of warehouses used for third-party fulfillment are little more than walls and a roof, keeping products out of the rain and direct sunlight but offering little by way of temperature regulation. These warehouses can become very cold in the winter and very hot in the summer, depending on their location. 

While Spectra’s fulfillment facility is located in South Carolina, where the summers do get very hot and sub-freezing temperatures do occur in the winter, we offer a climate controlled environment that is suitable for a wide range of different products. We are FDA registered to store nonperishable foods, supplements, and medical devices that require temperatures to remain within designated parameters. These conditions also make Spectra’s facility a great place for manufacturers of peptides and other regulated health and wellness products to trust with their inventory management and shipping.

Scalability

Due to new research, expanded applications, and promotion by prominent leaders in the medical community, products like peptides have experienced a dramatic rise in interest among the public. Companies that were already producing these products, as well as new businesses looking to launch their own lines of products, expect to see orders increase at a very fast pace.

Distributors who have previously worked with very small fulfillment partners to handle inventory management and shipping for peptides are likely to find that the increased demand among B2B or B2C customers is beyond the capabilities of those partners. Orders are likely to increase from several hundred to tens of thousands of orders per month, and a 3PL provider that is not equipped for these large volumes will quickly be overwhelmed.

Spectra regularly handles large fulfillment projects for national and international clients, applying the same high quality of accuracy and timeliness to large volume as well as small volume fulfillment tasks. For well over 20 years, Spectra’s team has continually upgraded its fulfillment practices and technologies to stay on top of the industry’s changes. Even through unexpected challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic, Spectra has proven that it is agile and experienced enough to keep its clients’ products moving.

Speed

The fast pace of the regulated health and wellness industry means that a newcomer to the space needs to be able to get its fulfillment chain up and running very quickly. This is extremely difficult, or even impossible, to accomplish with an in-house fulfillment department, given the complexity of fulfilling these types of orders at scale. The initial advantage of partnering with Spectra for fulfillment of specialized health and wellness products is the fact that Spectra’s fulfillment system is already established, powerfully equipped, well staffed by experts in the space, and ready to start processing orders right away.

This speed in standing up a world-class fulfillment system includes integrating the Spectra systems with the new client’s various softwares, platforms, and protocols for managing customer orders. Clients onboarding with Spectra find that integration is seamless, painless, and incredibly efficient. 

This is true for the longtime distributor who is looking to switch to a larger, more scalable fulfillment partner, but it is also true for the brand new distributor who doesn’t yet have a CRM set up. For these clients, Spectra serves as an invaluable advisor and guide, helping set up an intuitive, powerful system that keeps the client informed in real time about the state of their inventory and order metrics.

Readiness

In any industry, but particularly in a new, rapidly growing, and constantly changing industry such as regulated health and wellness, a key to success is flexibility. As government regulations shift, new FDA guidelines are published, and the public’s stance on various products change, successful organizations in the space are ready to adapt as quickly as possible to keep their products in the forefront of the competition. 

Spectra keeps its entire fulfillment system agile and able to adapt to each client’s particular needs, a quality that is very rare in the 3PL field. Our clients are able to make specific requests about spot testing their products, implementing pest control measures, following unusual packaging protocols, and other activities. These requests are impossible for many 3PL providers to fulfill, at least without an exorbitant increase in monthly fees, but at Spectra we do everything possible to accommodate special requests within the client’s budget.

For an organization looking to either break into the peptide market or to scale up its distribution in response to rapidly rising customer demand, Spectra is the fulfillment partner of choice. More information about Spectra’s FDA registered status, climate controlled facility, and proven inventory management systems is available on our website. As a team, we are very excited about the growth of the regulated health and wellness industry in the coming years, and proud to be involved in getting these important products from the manufacturer to the end user on a reliable basis.