Amazon sellers have a far greater need to reduce product defects and keep them at a very low level, otherwise, Amazon may suspend their account leading to a loss of business. In fact, Amazon expects an order defect rate of <1%, so their tolerance for product defects is very low. With this being said, are AQL inspections suitable for Amazon sellers' products given that receiving 1 to 3% defective products when conducting them is not uncommon? Better options may be: 1. An acceptance on zero plan 2. 100% inspection The three inspection plans will be explained in detail for you in this presentation. ___________________________________________________ Get assistance to assess your products' quality from our experienced Quality Assurance team on the ground in China and SE Asia here with our collection of solutions which are perfect for importers: https://www.sofeast.com/quality-assurance/ Watch the video of this presentation here: https://youtu.be/nFGAE6Ke65M

1. Can I Do AQL Inspections If My Amazon
Customers Want Zero Defects ?

2. How Amazon FBA Sellers have different needs to regular
importers
It’s a general fact that a relatively low proportion of defective pieces
(say, 1 to 3%), is to be expected for on relatively inexpensive consumer
goods made in China. If you get between 1 and 3% of “bad” products on
every one of your shipments, you are in good shape.
However, on Amazon, that can be a disaster. It can result in 20% of “one
star” ratings. And disappointed customers are much more likely to
complain… which might prevent further sales (the limit is 1% before
getting kicked out).

3. How Amazon FBA Sellers have different needs to regular
importers
Here are Amazon’s rules showing their low tolerance for defective goods
in particular:

4. Defects can quickly send an FBA seller out of business
The three most common issues:
The Impact of these issues regularly leads companies out of business. For
example, poor product quality impacts a company in several ways:
 Customer complaints and product replacement costs.
 Bad reviews from customers, leading to lower sales.
 Account gets suspended if average defective rate is over 1%.

5. So, is setting an AQL helpful for FBA sellers?
 Even if there is an acceptance limit for defects, this does NOT mean
that you are authorizing a supplier to produce defective goods by
imposing an AQL limit.
 Here is what the ISO 2859 standard says:
“Although individual lots with quality as bad as the acceptance quality
limit may be accepted with fairly high probability, the designation of an
acceptance quality limit does not suggest that this is a desirable
quality level. Sampling schemes […] are designed to encourage suppliers
to have process averages consistently better than the AQL.”

6. So, is setting an AQL helpful for FBA sellers? (2)
 But, even if suppliers are driven to exceed expectations, using an AQL
limit shows an acceptance that your supplier will not produce 100%
defect-free products.
Given that it’s very risky to sell defective products on Amazon due to
the stakes being so high (losing your business), perhaps the AQL is not
such an effective tool for FBA sellers?

7. Safer Alternatives – Acceptance on zero plan
You could still use AQL inspections, but choose an “acceptance on zero”
plan. As soon as one defect is found, the inspection is failed. This is
usually used in situations where quality requirements are very high (such
as in the auto industry, in aerospace…).
Now, what happens if the inspector does find serious issues? Do you have
time to qualify a new supplier, get production going, and so on?

8. Safer Alternatives – Acceptance on zero plan (2)
If the products fail and you don’t have time to source a new supplier, this
‘damage control’ can take place:
 Ask the supplier to sort and rework
 Ask the inspector to come again
 Decide whether to go into another re-work & re-inspect cycle (will the
supplier actually do it?) or to let the supplier ship.

9. Safer Alternatives – 100% Inspection
A safer inspection type is to inspect 100% of the finished goods before
they are shipped (either to you or your customers if you aren’t handling
fulfilment directly).
You or your quality inspector performs a 100% inspection. Any
unacceptable products are sent back to the supplier for repair or rework,
whereas ‘good’ products are shipped.
This is very labor-intensive if you choose to perform it yourself.

10. It’s about risk
The level of risk of being punished for poor performance by Amazon certainly
varies with the product category and with the positioning (are you selling a
premium product or competing on price?).
 If you sell packs of cheap accessories that end up being given away, a few
defective pieces inside each pack probably won’t result in many complaints.
Therefore a standard random sampling AQL inspection may be acceptable.
 If you sell any sort of expensive item and get a 3% defect rate, you can be
sure Amazon will notice a lot of returns.
In this case, an acceptance on zero plan OR 100% inspection may serve you
better.

11. Can I Do AQL Inspections If My Amazon
Customers Want Zero Defects ?