Amazon distributes so many products across the globe these days. It is clearly enticing for chemical manufacturers and distributors to use this outlet for their e-commerce sales. Preparing your products to meet Amazon’s requirements can be challenging. Nexreg is here to help you through that process by ensuring you have the required compliance documentation.
Amazon has their Global Product Compliance Handbook which outlines regulatory requirements for product sales as well as their company policies surrounding expectations. At 114 pages currently, we realize this can be a daunting document to review. Even more cumbersome can be the Amazon portal which often seems to deny and invalidate products that are deemed non-compliant by the online retailer. These warnings are often difficult for the supplier to understand and thus correct. This is where Nexreg’s consultants can assist you. Our best advice is to be proactive! Ensure you consider all applicable legislation requirements first, not after you try to sell your products. Nexreg has the expertise to know what regulation requirements apply to your products and what documentation Amazon is going to request from you. If you run into any complications, we can help!
Amazon obviously sells products world-wide. This article is going to focus on key jurisdictions and issues that our clients face on a weekly basis. If you need assistance with another area that is not covered here, then feel free to reach out to us directly to discuss.
Amazon Label Compliance
Ensuring labels are complaint is always important when selling products. Amazon has also implemented systems recently to ensure products that go through their channels meet the necessary regulatory requirements. A top area that we are asked a lot about at Nexreg is CCCR requirements. Chemical products sold to consumers in Canada must comply with the Consumer, Chemicals and Container Regulations (CCCR, 2001). Nexreg can review your formula and physical data to determine if any hazards apply to the product, in turn determine the required label elements and text sizes, and outline all these requirements in an easy-to-read report. Your graphic designers can then create the label artwork, or if you need a graphic designer, we can refer you to an expert in the industry. Once your label artwork is ready, our consultants will review it to ensure all requirements have been met and add Nexreg’s stamp of approval. We can also create a letter certifying compliance if you need it. When label artwork is already created the process is nearly identical in order for us to ensure the label content is correct. If throughout this process you need a laboratory to complete any product testing such as flashpoint for liquids or flame projection for aerosols, Nexreg has several ISO certified partner labs around the world that we can refer you to.
Amazon has established a requirement for 3rd party testing in order to ensure that packaging and labelling meets the CCCR requirements. Since the CCCR regulations themselves do not require such labelling certification, some say that Amazon is establishing unnecessary demands by going above and beyond the federal requirements. Nexreg has partnered with multiple laboratories that can provide cheaper alternatives than the expensive certified labs suggested by Amazon. Most importantly, Nexreg’s consultants can guide you through the entire process, from the start of formulation to the finished packaging, by ensuring your products are fully compliant and guide you through any complications by offering solutions every step of the way. Remember this is the best process to be proactive about! Don’t wait until you have issues to ensure your labels are compliant.
In the USA, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA), and as a result Amazon, requires certain testing and certification to sell products. These requirements depend on the type of product and Nexreg can help navigate which regulations apply to your products under the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s (CPSC) jurisdiction. Check out Nexreg’s Retail/Consumer Label Review page for more service and regulation details.
Amazon SDS Compliance
At Nexreg it seems every week now we get asked by clients if we can help confirm if their SDSs are compliant since Amazon has rejected them. Our consultants have experience checking and generating SDSs that are used around the world. We can review to confirm if your SDSs are indeed already compliant, if they need corrections, or if it is best to just have a brand new SDS authored. Then you can submit your SDSs to Amazon with certainty that they will be accepted so your product can proceed to sale.
Most recently we have been looking at US SDSs, UK SDSs and European SDSs for clients to confirm if they are compliant for Amazon sales. We can help with any country then, just ask us to take a look! Our SDS Authoring and SDS Review service pages have more country specific details, or reach out to us for more information.