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Amazon Hygienic and topical products – packaging and sealing requirements

Introduction

Why is Amazon requiring elevated packaging and sealing requirements for hygiene and topical products?

At Amazon, they always aim for the best customer experience, which starts with customers being confident that they buy products in pristine condition[1]. Online customers can return products within the free return window if they do not meet their expectations. Such returned products can only be resold as new if Amazon can determine the next customer will perceive them as new and in pristine condition (i.e. neither opened, tried nor used).

For products used in contact with the body or applied on skin, customers are even more sensitised, so we err on the side of caution: all customer returned hygienic/topical products with (1) no seal or (2) a broken seal cannot be sold as new to Amazon customers and are moved to unsellable and processed according to your seller return rights agreements. Many hygiene products currently lack tamper-proof evidence sealing, though they are needed to facilitate the evaluation of customer returns and to avoid unnecessarily moving genuinely new, unopened customer returns items to unsellable due to lack of evidence.

Amazon’s new requirements for sealing and packaging of hygienic/topical items are intended to determine clearly during the customer return process if a hygienic/topical product was never opened and prevent unnecessarily moving to unsellable genuinely new/unopened customer returns.

[1] Unless marked differently on the product’s detail page (e.g. with warehouse deals or refurbished items).

Standards and Eligibility

Going forward sellers are requested to support by: (1) Incorporating a mandatory factory seal based on Amazon’s standards for all hygienic/topical products and (2) ensuring that their hygienic/topical products have only one single ingress point, requiring the factory seal to be broken to access it. Please refer to Appendix 1 for examples of suitable and unsuitable sealing types. All sellers will need to have their packaging and sealing compliant with Amazon’s requirements by March 2021, in order to prevent unnecessary seller returns going forward caused by an increased share of customer returns not sellable as new in the absence of indisputable evidence of their condition.

What are the requirements of a safe factory seal to be used on such products?

They are opaque either with the company logo/any logo that cannot be replicated by the customer.
The seal leaves a sign of tampering on the product when broken.
They should be of a different colour and should not blend in with the surface of the product.
The seal should be sturdy, and the only way to break it is with clear intent (no accidental breaking e.g. during transportation or usual packaging handling). The seal cannot be manipulated or copied.

Please refer to Appendix 2 for the recommended guidelines on the seal’s technical specifications, and examples of products with seals on them.

Compliance with new requirements

What if I do not comply with necessary packaging and sealing requirements for my eligible products?

Starting April 2021, all products identified as hygienic or topical returned by customers will be made unsellable if they do not have an intact factory seal ensuring they are brand new and unopened or used by a prior customer. Absence of a compliant factory seal will increase the amount of unsellable returned products requiring further removal or disposal option by the sellers. However, Amazon will continue to evaluate damage ownership during customer returns and reimburse FBA sellers if the item is returned due to damage caused by Amazon, irrespective of whether the seal is absent or broken from the item.

What are Hygienic and Topical products?

Hygienic products are those that are used on a human body, including sensitive areas (e.g. mouth, eyes, genital area), and could be returned with residual substances on them (e.g. saliva, hair). Examples include shavers, oral care products like toothbrushes, skin & nail care sets, massaging devices and sex toys.
Topical products are those that are applied to the body, e.g. creams, foams, gels, lotions and ointments intended to use on body surfaces such as the skin, scalp or the mouth.

Appendix

Appendix 2: Technical specifications – Recommendation

Technical seal specification: Intersonex ix-PE20

This film is ultra-destructible by delamination. Combined with the high adhesive performance, this fragility will give a rapid ‘tamper evident’ bond on most substrates which creates an ideal security feature. Because these characteristics can limit label relocation, an application pretest is advisable to determine suitability.

Facestock: A matt white, ultra-destructible PEHD film with print-receptive surface. Basis Weight: 60g/m2 (ISO 536)
- Adhesive: S700 is a reinforced permanent acrylic-based adhesive with very good initial tack and adhesion to a wide range of substrates
  - Liner: Basis Weight: 73g/m2 (ISO 536)
    - Performance data:
      - Initial Tack: 20 N/25mm (FTM 9 Glass)
      - Peel Adhesion 90°: 12.5 N/25mm (FTM 2 St.St.)
      - Minimal application temperature: 5°C
      - Service temperature: -40°C to 90°C
    - Shelf life: Two years under storage conditions as defined by FINAT (20-25°C; 40-50% relative humidity)

	Packaging and Sealing – Suitable Full protection of the product.Clearly visible condition of the seal (damaged/undamaged)Single ingress point into the productVisible one coloured sticker that does not blend with the surface of the packaging; ideally different shine and material than the box is.Seal is not easily broken by transport/manipulation.Seal is not misleading.Right placement, good glue.
	Packaging and Sealing – Suitable1. Full protection of the product.2. Clearly visible condition of the seal (damaged/undamaged)3. Seal is not easily broken by transport/manipulation.4. Seal is not misleading; does not appear like any other type of seal.5. It is not a combination of multiple seals.6. Heat-sealed parts are clearly visible.
	Packaging and Sealing – UnsuitableLogo on the seal is not visible enough; blends in with the colour of the box.
	Packaging and Sealing – UnsuitableLogo on the seal is not visible enough; picture is too small.
	Packaging and Sealing – UnsuitableSquare seal appears like a piece of tape and can be misleading.
	Packaging and Sealing – UnsuitableLogo on the seal appears as if it is printed on the box and it is not tacky enough.
	Packaging and Sealing – UnsuitableMultiple seals are unsuitable. Condition of the seal underneath is not clear.