Beauty & wellness · review
iHerb
iHerb is a US supplement and wellness retailer that has spent three decades building the logistics to ship vitamins, supplements and personal-care products worldwide rather than just across America. The catalogue is the draw, tens of thousands of items from brands that are hard to find on general marketplaces, but the free-shipping threshold and the returns process both depend heavily on which country you are ordering into.
Last reviewed 24 August 2026 · scored 4.4/5 by our editors
- Founded
- 1996, Irvine, California
- Ships to
- 180+ countries
- Catalogue
- ~50,000 products
- Standard refund window
- 30 days
About iHerb
Founded in 1996 and headquartered in Irvine, California, iHerb built its business on a category general retailers under-serve: vitamins, supplements, herbs, and specialty diet and personal-care products. Rather than staying a US-only operation, it invested early in international logistics, and now ships from fulfilment centres across the US and Asia to customers in well over a hundred countries. That international reach, not the product range alone, is what separates it from most supplement retailers.
The catalogue is large and third-party heavy: tens of thousands of SKUs from close to two thousand brands, spanning mainstream supplement names alongside smaller wellness brands that rarely get shelf space at a pharmacy or a general marketplace. Authenticity is the pitch, iHerb positions itself as sourcing directly from brands and manufacturers rather than through resellers, which matters in a category where counterfeit supplements are a genuine and persistent problem for shoppers buying online.
The commercial model runs on order thresholds rather than a membership fee. Orders above a destination-specific minimum ship free; below it, a flat delivery charge applies, and that minimum is set per country rather than being one global figure. A Loyalty Credit programme returns roughly 10% of an order total as credit toward a future purchase, and an Autoship & Save option automates repeat orders of everyday items like protein powder or daily vitamins, often with its own separate shipping terms.
How the cost structure works
Standard order
flat delivery fee below the threshold
Most markets need an order over a country-set minimum, commonly cited around $30-40 USD equivalent, to waive the delivery charge. Below it, a flat fee applies.
Order above the threshold
free standard shipping
Cross the destination-specific minimum and delivery is free. The exact figure differs by country and is shown at checkout, not fixed globally.
Autoship & Save
discount on repeat items
Recurring orders of the same product, aimed at everyday items like vitamins or protein, often paired with its own free-shipping minimum.
Loyalty Credit
~10% of order total, back as credit
Earned on qualifying purchases and applied toward a future order. It expires within 60 days, so it needs to be used, not banked.
There is no membership fee. What you pay depends on your destination country, your order size relative to the local free-shipping threshold, and whether you opt into Autoship for recurring items.
What works
A supplement catalogue most retailers cannot match
Tens of thousands of products from close to two thousand brands, including smaller wellness names that rarely reach general marketplaces or pharmacy shelves, all searchable and reviewed in one storefront.
Genuinely built for international shipping
Fulfilment centres across the US and Asia and delivery to well over a hundred countries mean it is one of the few supplement retailers that treats non-US buyers as a first-class market, not an afterthought.
Loyalty Credit rewards repeat buying
Roughly 10% of an order comes back as credit toward the next one, a real discount for anyone reordering the same vitamins or protein monthly rather than a one-off promotional gimmick.
A longer return window on its own-brand products
Standard items get 30 days; iHerb-brand products get 90, considerably longer than most competitors offer on a supplement that has already been opened, tried and possibly disagreed with you.
What doesn’t
Free shipping depends on where you live
The order minimum for free delivery is set per country and is not the same figure everywhere, so what counts as a good deal varies by destination in a way the homepage does not make obvious.
Returns can mean sending the package back yourself
Once a return is approved there is a window to physically ship the item back, and refunds to the original payment method can take a week to over a month for buyers outside the US.
Trustpilot skews lower than the product reviews suggest
Customer-service complaints, mostly logistics and delivery issues that vary by region, pull the aggregate rating down even though on-site product reviews tend to run positive.
How it scores elsewhere
Aggregate public scores, with the source named. We do not publish individual testimonials — we have no way to verify them.
Trustpilot
13,623 reviews
3.8ReviewKong editorial score
our composite across catalogue breadth, international shipping and return terms
4.4
Buy it if
- International shoppers who cannot get a specific supplement brand locally
- Anyone reordering the same vitamins or protein monthly via Autoship
- Buyers who want iHerb-brand products, with the longer 90-day return window
- Shoppers comfortable clearing a country-specific order minimum for free shipping
Skip it if
- One-off small orders below the local free-shipping threshold
- Buyers who need a fast, no-questions domestic return process
- Anyone in a market with a high delivery fee where a local pharmacy is cheaper
iHerb: common questions
Does iHerb ship to my country?
iHerb ships to more than 180 countries from fulfilment centres in the US and Asia, which is a genuinely wider footprint than most supplement retailers manage. Availability of specific products, delivery times and the free-shipping minimum still vary by destination, so check at checkout rather than assuming coverage or terms match another country.
What is the Loyalty Credit?
It is roughly 10% of a qualifying order total, returned as store credit toward a future purchase rather than a cash refund. It expires 60 days after being issued, so it is worth using on your next order rather than letting it accumulate and lapse unused.
How long do I have to return something?
Standard items purchased directly from iHerb have a 30-day refund window from delivery; iHerb-brand products get 90 days, a longer allowance for its own supplement lines. Items bought through other marketplaces that list iHerb as the seller carry their own separate 30-day terms.
Is iHerb cheaper than buying supplements locally?
Often, especially for US brands that carry a big import markup once they reach a local pharmacy or health-food shop shelf elsewhere. But the comparison depends heavily on whether your order clears the local free-shipping threshold; below it, the flat delivery fee can erase most or all of the saving on a small order.
Are the products on iHerb genuine?
iHerb positions itself as sourcing directly from brands and manufacturers rather than through resellers, which is the standard defence against counterfeit supplements sold on open marketplaces. That is the retailer’s own claim rather than something we independently audited, and we have not verified the sourcing chain for individual smaller brands ourselves.
Ready to try iHerb?
Direct sourcing positioning against counterfeit supplements · 90-day return window on iHerb-brand products · Loyalty Credit program on qualifying orders