Leading US Organic Supplement Company Gets an Adaptable, Flexible Supply Chain Solution

The Challenge:

Links Warehousing & Fulfillment has a client who is based in the US, and had an ever-increasing number of orders shipping into Canada. Their Canadian customers were growing frustrated with high shipping costs out of the US into Canada, shipments being held up by Canadian customs and duties being charged, all of which were deterring them from completing their online shopping cart orders at the e-commerce level.

Our client needed to find a Canadian Public Warehouse (3PL) that had the necessary Health Canada Certification to warehouse and distribute Natural Health products, Vitamins, Supplements and Nutraceuticals and who could fulfill their e-commerce orders and offer same day shipping. They also required the warehouse to process their returns as well as any other reverse logistics requirements.

Our Approach:

Links Warehousing & Fulfillment together with our Health Canada product and site licensing consultants went through the process of setting up Health Canada product and site licenses which were obtained in under 3 months.

Inventory was placed inside our custom built storage area within Links Toronto warehouse which was constructed according to Health Canada requirements and which is temperature, humidity and pest controlled and fitted out with a specialized flow racking system ensuring first in first out shipping of inventory.

Links manages our customers customs brokerage and clearance by acting as Importer of Record (that means we bring product into Canada at cost rather than wholesale cost therefore you pay tax and duties on the lowest possible price). Our customer also does not require a Canadian business number and is not required to file monthly GST or annual tax returns.

Our client required Links to use their own warehouse management system online portal to tie in with their US system requirements, to which we had no objections but also integrated our WMS so we could keep track of the inventory as well.  

Links provides transportation management and WMS shipping carrier integration with UPS, FedEx, Canada Post and Purolator terminals in our warehouse. We also committed to same day shipping on all orders transmitted to us by 1pm.

Links Warehousing & Fulfillment Value:

The doctors and clinics receiving the products are delighted with the fast turnaround and accurate pick levels on orders. Our client is satisfied knowing that we are a fully licensed facility that is managed by experienced professionals and follow all of their and Health Canada standard operating procedures (SOPs). The client also has the comfort of continuing to use the warehouse management system that they are familiar with, avoiding the cost of re-training staff on a new system. Also having Links facilitating the cross-border product movement eases the burden on our client and allows them to focus on product and marketing rather than logistics which are what Links Warehousing & Fulfillment specializes in. With our experience in the Warehousing & Fulfillment of Natural Health Products and Nutraceuticals Links Warehousing has been able to assist this client to avoid potential problems and ease their entry into the Canadian market saving them both time and money. This is The Canadian Distribution Advantage™

Return on Investment:

Links offers warehousing and fulfillment services in Canada to other companies in the Natural Health, Vitamin, Nutraceutical and Supplement industries. Our expertise is second to none, and we take great pride in our ability to ship fragile, sensitive products accurately and safely. Our customers, many of whom have been with us for many years place their full confidence in us knowing that we are a fully compliant Health Canada approved facility with a track record that speaks for itself.