12 tips to reduce the cost of your cosmetic spray (or just any aerosol)

How to sell more aerosols ? How to get your product sold to a wider audience ? How to improve your selling margin ? Unless you have an unique product, it is really difficult to charge a higher price. Therefore the cost element is critical for decision makers, whether to go or pass on a new product/market… If you are reading this article, you are probably involved with the launch of new aerosols for a current or prospective project. The advices and strategies described below are particularly helpful for companies involved with big volumes (e.g. products dedicated for the FMCG), but also start-ups planning on launching new products.

Before we start to dig deeper on those strategies, I have chosen to put into perspective with this quote of Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba. As you will discover below, most of the content below tracks back to the relationship you have with your aerosol filler and the level of services they can offer you.

1. The bigger the volume, the better. Nothing new under the sun. With bigger volumes, you obtain better negotiation power, hence better prices
2. Use standard can. For each family of products (hair styling, shaving foam, deodorants etc…), there is a set of standard dimensions. Specific diameters and sizes always come with a price impact
3. Use standard and already approved formula to reduce the cost of raw materials
4. Have a deep knowledge and understanding of the components’ providers and their industrial settings. Depending on your volumes (low or high), choose carefully your suppliers. There are competitive suppliers specific for lower volumes and others that are only competitive for big volumes
5. For projects with a smaller reach, don’t hesitate to start with a low MOQ to reduce the risks. There is nothing worse to start big and not being able to sell. You take the risks of having outdated: raw materials, printed cans or labels
6. For orders inferior to 5.000 pieces, use the diffusers that your aerosol filler has already in stock. Otherwise, diffusers come by palet, meaning with a high MOQ
7. From 15.000 pieces onwards, always opt for printed cans whenever possible. You will save on the cost of the labels and putting the labels
8. If you know you will reach 15.000 cans in separate orders over a year, buy the whole lot of 15.000 cans at your first order and stock them at your aerosol filler’s warehouse
9. Work with fillers that are already specialized within your industry. Not only the company (production, R&D, etc) will be used to works under the same norms and standards as you, it means also they will be more competitive with their raw
10. Visit the factory where your aerosols will be filled, to be sure you are working first hand with an aerosol filler and not a middle man. There are some unscrupulous companies selling aerosol filling, but subcontract, because they have no machines to do it
11. Choose a filler that have the industrial settings adapted to your products and your needs. If your filler only has high-speed production lines, they will be able to offer you very competitive prices but surely with a high MOQ. If you are looking for flexibility and high reactivity, it is better to look for a filler able to change quickly its production lines
12. Develop a partnership relation, rather than a contractor/subcontractor, with your filler. The more your filler is integrated into your supply chain, the better the level of service becomes (productivity, quality, logistics). Last but not least, you reduce the potential of mistakes

Here below, we have decided to include a bonus section with hidden costs. Not all the costs come directly detailed on the quotes. Please find here below our 3 bonuses for you to check:

• Be careful with the hidden costs: printing boards for aluminium cans, PIF (or Product Information Files) for cosmetics products sold into the EU
• Focus on a specific hidden cost: non-quality cost. Be sure to establish specifications before the first production to status on the expectations and responsibilities of each party. A quality audit before a first collaboration is always a good idea to avoid bad surprises. Non-quality in the aerosol industry is a huge risk: customer’s complaints, destruction of the cans…
• Group transports. This is a point often neglected on the quotes, but that has an economical (and environmental) cost. If you can group transports with different references of yours, or with clients of your fillers in the same area than you, you can also save some money

In total those 15 points make an exhaustive overview of all the things you should have a look at when you are trying to get a better price for you aerosols. As you can see, the critical factor in this matter is the relationship with your aerosol filler (5 out of the first 12 points rely on that relationship).

If this article has been helpful and/or you wish to receive more information, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at info@proersa.com

The PROERSA Team