The initial attraction for me to iHerb was price. I was hard pressed to find items cheaper. There may have been a couple online retailers with marginally lower prices on certain products, but for the most part iHerb had lowest overall prices on the products I was looking for. They also have price matching, and a 60 day return policy. Taking into account their discounts and shipping costs, iHerb was the winner for me.
Free UPS ground shipping for orders over $40 in the contiguous US. Or $4 flat
International shipping by airmail between $4 - $6
They have a very large selection of products including vitamins, supplements, hair care, skin care, health foods and carry all the top brands from Now Foods to Natural Factors to Aubrey Organics.
There are a number of ways you can navigate and find the product you are looking for: by product type, brand, type of health care, alphabetically by name, or simple name search. It was rather simple to find things I was looking for. The product reviews on site were also very helpful. One search feature they could improve upon would be if they could introduce a “narrow by” search, as some group of products come in different sizes, and it becomes time consuming going through 3-4 pages to get the size you want.
One other main attraction of iHerb is how they store their products, keeping them in airconditioned warehouses, cold rooms and freezers for items that require it, as they claim. This is very important when buying products such as coconut oil or probiotics.
My experience with them has been very good. Products arrived in good condition, and seemed to be fresh stock, as opposed to old inventory close to expiry; I could tell this by expiry dates and updated ingredient lists from manufacturer websites.
So far I have ordered from them twice, and shipping was extremely quick. Ordered Friday afternoon, and it arrived in my city on Saturday using DHL. Delivered on Monday. I have never experienced this kind of speed from an online retailer, especially cross-border shipping.
