Selling food and grocery items is a distinct procedure from other categories. It’s selling food products, and therefore they’re subject to specific grocery Amazon specifications.
Seller requirements:
To sell your groceries on Amazon you must be able to meet the following performance goals:
- Order defect rate: < 1%
- Pre-fulfillment cancel rate: < 2.5%
- Late delivery rate: 4 %
In essence, your product must be in good condition You should be able to complete at minimum 98 percent of your orders and the shipments must arrive punctually each time.
Amazon grocery stores are required to meet the following conditions for their products:
- Food should be prepared correctly and packaged, sealed, and identified.
- You must have a license, or the approval of the appropriate government agency to sell the items you plan to offer.
- It is your responsibility to ensure that your business operations and products comply with state and federal laws. This includes laws that aren’t described within Amazon policies.
- Sell all Grocery and Gourmet Food items as brand new. You are not able to list products that have been used. Refer to the condition guidelines.
- Foods are regarded as being sensitive to date. It has to be marked with an expiration date that is permanently engraved on each unit except for those products that are exempt. This applies to every unit that is delivered and every item that is sold.
- Maintain all Fulfilment Center (FC) shelf information current for groceries. In the inventory file template, set the value of the is_expiration_dated_product field to “true”. The FC shelf life is the amount of time that a product is solvable or safe to eat.
- Label in English every product that is covered by federal, state as well as local law. For federal labeling, guidelines check out the FDA Food Labeling and Nutrition, FDA Pet Food, and USDA Label Approval websites.
- Seal and wrap food items in packaging suitable for transportation. It should protect food from spoiling, contamination melting, or causing damage.
- It is essential to ship food that has sufficient shelf life remaining. It is not allowed to change or remove the expiration date.
- If you are selling products in multi-packs the expiration date on the multi-pack packaging has to be the same as the first expiration date of the product inside.
- It is mandatory to list Grocery & Gourmet Food products with the Amazon UPC of the manufacturer.
Food items purchased on Amazon are classified as sensitive to date. This means that every product has been marked with an expiration date that is permanently marked on every item unless the item is excluded.
In addition, you have to ship the items by Amazon’s expiration date policy and shelf-life guidelines before you can list them for sale.
Shelf-life requirements for products that have expired:
When your items are deposited into one of the Amazon fulfillment facilities, every unit has to have a shelf life that gives enough period to allow the item to be consumed completely within another 90 days.
For instance, an example, a bottle of supplement that contains 60 daily servings should able to last a shelf life of 60 days. It can also be extended by an additional 90 days or 150 days in total.
Here are some more examples of shelf-life offered by Amazon:
- Snacks, chips, and snacks 90 to 180 days
- Dry fruit: 180-270 days
- Granola and cereal bars 180 – 365 days
- Candy: for 540 days
- If your product is not being sold by the end of its shelf-life, Amazon will take them off your inventory and declare them “unsellable.”
- Always go through entire Amazon’s specifications and terms.
Meltable FBA inventory
You can also sell “meltable” items such as chocolate on Amazon however, you have ensured that your inventory is in good condition to be fulfilled.
Below are the meltable inventory guidelines “FBA will accept meltable products from October 16 through April 14 exclusively.
Meltable inventory held or arriving from our fulfillment centers from April 15 until October 15 is marked as non-fulfillable and is disposed of at an amount.”
Products from Meltable include chocolates, Gummy candy, and a few waxes and jelly-based products.
According to Amazon, “Products requiring refrigeration or air conditioning freezing are banned all year long. Perishable goods, such as but not only fruit, fresh-cut meats or even vegetables, are prohibited all entire year.”
Amazon offers a list of meltable ASINs via the Meltable FBA inventory requirements page that is linked above.
Foods that can be frozen or chilled
Amazon permits the sale of frozen and chilled food items, but they have to be handled with the help of the Merchant (FBM) and satisfy certain other conditions.
Amazon was once able to permit third-party sellers to market on Amazon Fresh the grocery delivery service. But this is now not allowed after Amazon purchased Whole Foods.
Take note of Amazon’s rules before selling any frozen food product.
You have to provide Amazon with a Food Permit from the FDA and other documentation for compliance.
Recommended Guide: How to Increase Amazon Sales and Reduce ACoS.
