While Amazon does provide an excellent platform for those who want to sell various products, it is vital that each product goes through the right product inspection.
Unless your products are inspected by a competent third party inspector, you may not be able to become successful. Delivering damaged or substandard products on various online platforms including reputed ones like Amazon will result in negative reviews and negative image for the sellers. When such things happen, competitors will most certainly take advantage and it might reach a point of no-return for the sellers who have been impacted negatively.
Try to compete when you got an overall 2 stars on your ASIN.
Hence, it would be better to understand and implement the right 3rd party inspection protocols. Understanding more about Amazon FBA could be useful in ensuring that as a seller, you have only certified and quality products available on the various Amazon sites. Though there are many such 3rd party production inspection guides available elsewhere, this guide aims to take any Amazon FBA sellers through what they need to know about product inspection.
Why Do We Need Product Inspection?
Amazon has well laid out strict rules and regulations and sellers are required to follow the same so that they are able to meet the rigid quality standards for Amazon’s customers.
Getting a product inspection can only be beneficial for the sellers and also the customers. Both the sellers and the buyers can be sure that they are selling and buying only good quality products. The unique thing about product inspection is that it ensures your manufacturers complies fully to your product requirements and catch any product flaws that may arise in the production run.
Therefore, many online sellers make use of these third party services to ensure that they are in line with the strict rules and regulations of Amazon. The checklist that forms a part of the inspection guide is quite exhaustive and the manufacturers are kept in check to always produce good quality products that your customers will always love.
Always engage a 3rd party inspection company. Do NOT accept the inspection company which your manufacturer recommended.
Tip for sellers
What Does The Inspection Service Consist of?
There is a list of checklist you can prescribe to your manufacturer. These are proven and time-tested and ensure efficient as well as effective results. The inspection companies are mandated to complete this process when the goods are being packed and are being made ready for shipment. The checklist is quite exhaustive and we are listing down the most important ones:
- Quantity and numbers, based on the order of the customers.
- Information about the product specifications to ensure quality requirements.
- Personal visits to the production line to make sure that products are of the right quality.
- Also make sure that the packing cartons are of the right dimensions and weights. This will ensure that these are as per the FBA requirements.
- The shipment should also be made as per the packing requirements laid down under Amazon’s requirement
- Once the audit has been completed, inspection companies are required to give a complete and total list and report their non-biased findings to the client
We always recommend a pre-delivery inspection at the location of the manufacturer. This way, any fault found can be fixed quickly before shipment. This also gives you the green light to pay the remaining amount (I usually do 70% payment here) to your manufacturer once inspection passes.
Tips for sellers
Why Is Inspection Important?
Amazon FBA inspection is vital and important because experience has shown that many companies do not complete to follow the rules and regulations pertaining to packing and other important requirements. Manufacturers are after-all, there to make a profit as quickly as possible and sometimes, lapses do happen.
Hence, to overcome this problem and avert the possible risk of rejection of the goods or even worse, negative reviews from customers, product inspection is now becoming essential. Additionally, there are other advantages too associated with it and here are a few of them.
- The quality of goods sold is improved with no bad surprises.
- Proper labeling and packing is also ensured and this prevents rejection from Amazon at receiving centers
- Negative reviews from customers can be avoided because of the quality of the products.
- Prevents loss that may result in case of rejection of goods at customs.
A Look at an Product Inspection Report
The good thing about these inspection reports is that it provides a complete, total and comprehensive report once the inspection process has been completed.
The report is exhaustive and takes into account any possible defects or shortcomings in the products that the inspection team may come across during the process of inspection. Each finding is backed with evidence and nothing is left ambiguous. The report takes into account the following:
- Workmanship and visual checking findings. This section talks about the information about the quality of the labor hire by the manufacturer and highlight anything that may be serious in nature.
- Conformation to Quality: This section will help the seller and the customers to gain access to information that talks about the quality of the products taking into account customer requirements.
- There are also other mandatory conformations that are part of the inspection report. These are with regard to product conformation, meeting Amazon Label Requirements and also strictly adhering to Amazon Packaging Requirements.
- On site test reports are also a part of the inspection report.
- Measurement section also is there and it deals with measurements issues, if there are any.
- The report also takes into account various aspect of carton dimensions and weights.
Which Inspection Companies are Recommended?
We recommend Effition Inspection for their professionalism in this strictly a 3rd party inspection even when the manufacturer tries to engage them. They charge US$118 per man day of inspection which is very reasonable for the checks that they provide.
You can check them out here: http://www.chinaqualitycheck.com/
What Is Unique About Amazon FBA Inspection Report
The Amazon FBA report is comprehensive and it could help address many issues before the goods are shipped. It helps quite a bit in saving money, time and effort.
How is The FBA Inspection Done?
There are well laid out processes and steps as far as the actual FBA inspection is concerned. The inspection team undertakes complete and total checks and covers various aspects including quantity, quality, packing, labeling and product specifications.
Packaging & Labeling Guide of FBA
We need to bear in mind that Amazon FBA has come out with various labeling requirements and here are a few of them:
- FNSKU Labeling
- Suffocation Labeling
- Labeling based on Sold As Set
- Suffocation Labeling
- Shipment labelling
Apart from the above there are also some tough shipment labeling requirements that have been set by Amazon. These cover loose products, products that are sold as a set, products that are sold in poly bagged units, etc.
Conclusion
If you are serious seller of various products on Amazon in particular, then it is obvious that you have to follow the above detailed third party inspection guide that is in practice.
If your products pass the stringent Amazon FBA requirements, you can be sure that the product that is being sold by you are good in terms of quality, quantity, packaging, freshness and other such attributes. You can sleep easy and stay away from the risk of possible rejections, bad publicity and other such avoidable problems.