QualityInspection.org

Quality Assurance, Product Development, and Purchasing Strategies in China

  • Home
  • Articles
    • An Importer’s Guide to New Product Manufacturing in China
  • Best Of
  • About Us
  • Contact us
X

Don't miss a post

It's easy to subscribe to our newsletter where you'll receive weekly updates for professional importers and manufacturers on better understanding, controlling, and improving manufacturing & supply chain in China.

You are here: Home / Quality Control Tips / Quality Control of Products Shipped Directly to Amazon

Quality Control of Products Shipped Directly to Amazon

April 4, 2014

Quality Control TipsI get contacted more and more often by Amazon merchants who have to source their products from China. And many of them are still learning the basics of successful procurement in a different country.

Quality control is a huge issue for these merchants for 3 reasons.

1. Shipping directly to Amazon

They often have to ship directly to an Amazon warehouse, which means they can’t see the products for themselves in their country. And Amazon doesn’t control quality (from what I was told). 

If 50% of the products are defective (which sometimes happens in China), there is no mechanism to stop that batch from being shipped to customers.

Which leads to a disaster…

2. Visibility over quality issues

In the short term, customer complaints and returns are costly. But, in the long run, bad rating from dissatisfied users can kill a business in no time.

Here is the type of rating you want your products to have:

Good customer feedback

Here is what you don’t really want to see:

Amazon_bad_reviews

And I suspect there are even lower ratings. The reason they are hard to find, I guess, is that Amazon buries them to the Nth page. Which means flat sales.

3. Relatively small orders, at least at first

Most Amazon merchants are small operations and can’t give a 50,000 USD order to a Chinese manufacturer. Not only do they have cash constraints, but they also need to make small bets and test the market.

Unfortunately, China is not very small-business-friendly. I make a list of advice for small importers in this article.

At the very least, Amazon merchants should book a final inspection (before shipment). That’s the bare minimum if they want to avoid complete disasters.

If you are not familiar with that service, have a look at this infographic.

—

Maybe some readers can think of other advice for Amazon merchants?

 

Extra reading >> If you’d like to learn even more about QC, read our detailed Quality Control basic concepts post here.

Filed Under: Quality Control Tips

Comments

  1. China Checkup says

    April 11, 2014 at 12:43 PM

    Nice to see something specific as this. It does surprise me that Amazon will let poor quality goods be sold and shipped through their platform. You almost wonder if they don’t mind because it increases the perceived quality of the products and service they offer themselves.

    • Renaud Anjoran says

      April 11, 2014 at 2:35 PM

      Yes that’s surprising… But it seems there is no filter!


Weekly updates for professional importers on better understanding, controlling, and improving manufacturing & supply chain in China.

This is the official blog of Sofeast.com.

This blog is written by Renaud Anjoran, an ASQ Certified Quality Engineer who has been involved in chinese manufacturing since 2005.

Hit the button below to get in touch:

Contact Us!

Subscribe to our email newsletter

Connect with us

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
sofeast
sofeast
sofeast

Latest Articles

  • What is the product return rate and how to reduce it? [Podcast]
  • CM + PCBA Factory vs. EMS Supplier in Shenzhen, China
  • Sourcing from Taobao for mass production? Stop it! [Podcast]
  • Mechanical Parts Inspections: Checkpoints & Defects
  • The Shipping & Logistics Situation in the USA (July 2022 and beyond)

Categories

  • Quality Control Tips
  • Sourcing New Suppliers
  • Supplier Management
  • New Product Development
  • Process Improvement
  • Ethical Sourcing

Archives

© 2022 QualityInspection.org