Pre-Shipment Inspection
How Pre-Shipment Inspections Work to Help You Easily Manage Quality Control for Your Amazon FBA Product Sales
Do you have plans to subscribe to Amazon FBA for your online sales business? Then ensuring high-quality standards for the items you’ll be selling is extremely critical.
More important to note is that this quality control process starts right from your manufacturers/suppliers in China. We’re talking about pre-shipment inspections that we’re going to discuss shortly.
If Amazon finds you selling low-quality products on their platform, you may lose your listings. Even worse, they could end up canceling the entire set of your listing privileges on Amazon FBA.
And even if Amazon weren’t on your neck because of low-quality items, would you rather have too many poor ratings from your buyers? You definitely don’t want this to happen. Instead, you are looking to scale up your business and earn good money from it.
Can We Now Delve Into Pre-Shipment Inspection Already?
You’ll need to send a quality inspector to the factory in China where your products are being made so that they can check them. This typically happens when your order is around 80% complete.
Based on a quality standard dubbed Acceptable Quality Limits (AQL), the inspector will check a specified number of items in the order. Normally, if they’re less than 1,000 units, inspecting the entire consignment is recommended.
Quality Inspection Checklist: What the Inspector Looks for?
Your inspection services company can help you come up with this checklist. Details vary from product to product.
For instance, if your shipment contains coffee pots, are the lid closing properly? Are the pots free of scratches? Are they completely sparkling clean inside?
Top 3 Critical Checks to Ensure You Meet Amazon Standards
When it comes to quality and standards, Amazon is extremely strict. So, make sure your inspector checks the following:
1) Labeling: All labels must have a white background, be very clearly readable, bear only accurate details about the product, be easily scannable, and have only one correct unique barcode.
2) Packaging: Must be suitable and strong enough to avoid item breakage or leakage even during transit, and prevent any dirt from reaching the product inside it.
3) Quantity per Carton: Outer cartons need not have mixed-up SKUs. Also, all cartons need to contain the same quantity of items.
But is the Inspection of Your Shipment Really All that Important?
As an Amazon FBA seller, product inspection is not only important but critical. The cost and effort of hiring that inspection firm is really worth it.
In fact, you could end up with even bigger losses if you don’t do your quality control right at the supplier’s factory.
Imagine if you had to hire somebody to rework most of your shipment units once they reach the US? What if this reworking can only be done back at the Chinese factory you sourced them from?
So, what role does a 3rd-party inspection company play?
When the production of your items is nearly complete, your inspection firm will dispatch a quality control inspector to China where they’ll conduct the pre-shipment inspections at the factory according to the guidelines we’ve already discussed above.
BONUS TIP:
To keep costs reasonable, you’ll have to find the right balance between pricing and quality. You can download our FREE white paper “Price vs. Quality” to learn more about this.
More:
Amazon Business Starts from Sourcing in China?
4 Steps that Amazon FBA Sellers Should Not Skip When Sourcing in China.