Safety Incidents on Amazon – proactive methods of root cause analysis E-Commerce ready packaging – how to make sure your product is ready for the bins, conveyor belts, and delivery drivers having a bad day Compliant listings – the do’s and don’ts for compliant listings on Amazon that convert

1. Proactive
Compliance for
the Amazon
Seller
Rachel Greer, Cascadia Seller Solutions
For: Global Sources Summit, October 2016

2. Bio and Qualifications
Rachel Greer is a 7+ year former Amazonian, and former private
brands compliance manager. Specializes in brand content, Seller
Central navigation, product quality complaints, and brand
development.
Rachel holds an MBA from Seattle University in International
Business and an MA in European History from the University of
Oregon. Rachel has traveled extensively in Europe and Asia, visiting
factories throughout SE Asia, India, Europe, the United States, and
China.

3. Cascadia Seller Solutions
Cascadia Seller Solutions is a consulting practice dedicated to helping SMBs
succeed on Amazon. Our consultants are former Amazonians who worked on
Amazon’s highly successful exclusive brands. We put our knowledge and
experience to work for you, so you can achieve big box retailer brand quality and
compliance at an SMB price tag.
Our focus is on building quality and compliant marketing content on Amazon,
managing product compliance proactively through excellent supplier selection and
product testing, and managing customer experience through excellent packaging
and customer service.

4. Agenda
– Safety Incidents on Amazon – proactive methods
of root cause analysis
– E-Commerce ready packaging – how to make
sure your product is ready for the bins, conveyor
belts, and delivery drivers having a bad day
– Compliant listings – the do’s and don’ts for
compliant listings on Amazon that convert

5. What is Product Compliance?

6. What is “risk” in
an import
context?
– The definitive guide (211 pages worth!) to importing into the United
States:
https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Importing%20i
nto%20the%20U.S.pdf
– Port Seizures – inaccurate markings, incomplete filing paperwork,
counterfeit goods (pg 106 starts the specific product requirements)
– Market surveillance – regulatory agencies that do research and
review on products after introduction into the marketplace and
investigate and recall products
– Lawsuits – safety issues can result in civil lawsuits, product liability
insurance protects against this to a great extent
SRQ  Safety, Regulatory, Quality

7. Why Quality Assurance?
– Discoverability and conversion are great, but what happens the first time a real
customer uses the product and they’re disappointed? There’s a three star
experience at best
– Understand your products characteristics and performance, and hold your supplier
accountable for the quality assurance elements of production through consistent,
reliable third party testing
– Examples: Bluetooth range testing, battery life testing, seam strength testing, water
resistance testing, corrosion/rust testing, microbial growth testing, total dynamic
and total static load testing, abrasion resistance, drop testing

8. Why Quality Control?
– Understand how statistical quality control works to make the best use of it
– AQLs are Acceptable Quality Limits, based on the concept that at a certain probability score, a sample
can be seen as representative of the whole
– An AQL is NOT a percentage. An AQL of 2.5 means that the statistical probability of a product having an
issue can be no greater than 2.5 of 100 instances.
Probability: The probability of any outcome is the ratio of the total number of outcomes corresponding to
the event, to the total number of outcomes.
Example: In an inspection, 200 items are inspected at General Level II, AQL of 2.5 and 4.0 for major/minor
issues (zero critical allowed). There are 3 major issues found, and 12 minor issues, and thus the inspection
is passed (10 major, 14 minor permitted).
This result corresponds to an estimated 1.5% major defect rate, and 6% minor defect rate

9. Purpose of Inspections
Inspection Type Quality? Regulatory? Safety? Notes
Raw Materials If you’re having
significant issues with
wiring, might check
gauge width
Problems with lead
in materialsor
phthalates in plastics
Sharp edges,
sharp points,
splinters in wood
Primary purpose is to reduce risk of wasting
entire production run
Dupro If inner pieces are hard
to review in PSI/FRI
Proper labeling Construction
features that
could result in
injury
Primary purpose is to evaluate (especially new
production) before the entire run is complete
PSI/FRI Visual
inspection/customer
level quality
Proper labeling Construction
features that
could result in
injury
Ensure that you don’t take possession of the
goods if you can’t sell them
Loading N/A N/A N/A Purpose is to ensure that the sealed inspection
tape remains sealed
Sample Pickup N/A N/A N/A Purpose is to have reliable third party pick up
the sample rather than allowing the factory to
send a “golden sample”

10. Customer
Complaints

11. Protein
Powders

12. Problems
always have
root causes

13. Process Not People
– Nikki is found to have entered the wrong information multiple times into a spreadsheet.
– Nikki apologizes and says, “I’m so sorry I was careless! I’ll do better next time.”
– Usually this is where the story ends – but you haven’t addressed the root cause. Perhaps:
– The spreadsheet fields had two similar columns close together, making it easy to copy and paste in the
wrong spot
– The spreadsheet is in Excel, and has no validation fields built in to track errors
– There is no double check or rotation of work to prevent individuals from impacting process

14. Amazon Lean Principles
– Interview with Marc Onetto:
http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/operations/our-insights/when-toyota-met-e-commerce-lean-at-amazon
We had to reinvent automation, following the lean principle of “autonomation”: keep the humans for high-
value, complex work and use machines to support those tasks.
Humans are extremely creative and flexible. The challenge of course is that sometimes they are tired or
angry, and they make mistakes.
From a Six Sigma perspective, all humans are considered to be at about a Three Sigma level, meaning that
they perform a task with about 93 percent accuracy and 7 percent defects.
Autonomation helps human beings perform tasks in a defect-free and safe way by only automating the basic,
repetitive, low-value steps in a process. The result is the best of both worlds: a very flexible human being
assisted by a machine that brings the process up from Three Sigma to Six Sigma.

15. Andon Cord Methodology
The process begins when a service agent
gets a phone call from a customer
explaining that there is a problem with
the product he or she has just received
from us. If it’s a repetitive defect, we
empower the customer-service agent to
“stop the line,” which means taking the
product off the website until we fix the
defect.
The objective is to start the line again
with the defect resolved. We created an
entire background process to identify,
track, and resolve these defects.

16. Worst Case Scenario - Reporting
– All manufacturers and importers are obligated to report
safety issues to the appropriate regulatory body
– For most products, that will be CPSC (Consumer Product
Safety Commission) and the Section 15b reporting obligation
– Get a lawyer!! Top payouts in litigation occur in product
liability lawsuits

17. AmazonBasics
Style
Packaging
- Plain corrugate
- Fully recyclable
- ISTA 3A
compliant

18. Corrugate
Types
“Double wall
corrugate”?
“Paperboard”?

19. Packaging Don’ts

20. ISTA 3A
– Standard test method for shipping parcel packages.
Appropriate for:
– Standard packages
– Small packages
– Flat packages
– Elongated packages
Test methods include drop testing and vibration platform
testing

21. Amazon ISTA Standard
Project 6.Amazon.com-b
– Test is for items weighing more than 70 lbs (32kg), shipped by via
ecommerce parcel delivery systems.
– Developed by Amazon in cooperation with ISTA to reflect Amazon’s
unique fulfillment center environment
– Example: Wicker Loveseat

22. Listing Compliance
– Follow the category guidelines – are models allowed explicitly? If
something is not explicitly allowed, assume that it’s prohibited
– Use of unauthorized keywords or claims
– Amazon’s preferred listing method

23. Category Guidelines
– General Style Guide
https://images-na.ssl-images-
amazon.com/images/G/01/Lite_Inventory_Templates/Selling_on_Am
azon_Quick_Start_Style_Guide.pdf
– Category Style Guides
https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/201576440?ref=ag_20157
6440_shel_xx

24. Image Requirements
The best product images will:
– Have a pure white backgrounds
– Have at least 1,000 dpi, so that it won’t turn fuzzy when customers
zoom in on your image
– Show the entire product, and have the product occupy at least 80
percent of the image area
– Include only what the customer will receive

25. Delisting and
Suspensions
If you image includes any of the following elements,
you may receive a quality alert on your listing:
– Borders, watermarks, text, or other decorations
– Colored backgrounds or lifestyle pictures
– Drawings or sketches of the product
– Accessories or additional products not included in the offer
– Image placeholders, such as “no image available” text.
Amazon will provide a placeholder if you do not have an
image for your product.
– Promotional text, such as “SALE” or “free shipping”
– Multiple colors of the same product

26. A+ Enhanced
Marketing
Content
Only available through
Vendor Express or Amazon
Exclusives for Sellers
Better version of this content
is available to Amazon
Vendors

27. Unauthorized
Claims
– Medical Devices
– Best ever!!! Most amazing!!!!
– Disease claims
– Not as Advertised/Not as Described claims

28. Questions?
#thinkcascadia / @thinkcascadia
www.thinkcascadia.com