Amazon

Amazon Releases New Changes To Dietary & Supplements Category

By Tinuiti Team

If you started selling products in the Amazon Health and Personal Care category in 2013, you’d barely recognize the process to start selling on there now. Basically, it’s now much harder for sellers to get access. And that’s a good thing.

Amazon makes it difficult to get ungated in this category on purpose. They state the facts explicitly on the Health & Personal Care requirements page. Amazon’s just looking out for their customer experience. And in the Health and Personal Care category, they’re also paying attention to something bigger–customer safety.

Counterfeit products with unauthorized ingredients can pose a serious health risk, and these new requirements will likely deter careless or counterfeit sellers.

Amazon recently released new category changes to the Dietary & Supplements Category. If you are currently selling in this category, here’s everything you need to know.
 

What are the new category changes to Amazon’s Dietary & Supplements Category?

 
Back in early December, Amazon released new category changes to the Dietary & Supplements Category, which required specific documentation for category approval. This category approval suppressed multiple ASINs in a product catalog for various sellers and there’s only two way to get through this delisting.

Either appeal the requirement or to apply for a Dietary & Supplement approval.

For Dietary Supplements, you must submit:
 

1. Certificate of Analysis (COA)

 
Certificate of Analysis (COA) from an ISO/IEC 17025 accredited laboratory for each dietary supplement you are applying to list. A CoA must contain the following information:

Additional CoA requirements:

 

2. Product Images

 
Product Images must meet the following requirements:

 

3. Letter of Guarantee

 
A letter of guarantee from the manufacturer of the product that meets the following requirements:

 

How long does the approval process take?

 
The approval process should take 48 hours (or less) if all the provided information is correct.

Pro-tip: The support members reviewing this take everything very literally, and it should be a 1:1 with everything they listed. If it is not an ISO/IEC 17025 accredited laboratory, then it will not be approved. This change is happening at an ASIN level – so sellers will need to have a certificate for each type of product.

“I would recommend brands have this information organized and ready to upload for their products in this category. It’s not clear if it is a one-time thing, annual or every 6 months. However, we do know that they require the CoA to be no older than 6 months. So it should be something to consider when planning for new product launches and budgeting costs.”

Emily Leung, Marketplace Operations Associate at Tinuiti
 

How do I know if my ASINs need approval?

 
To try and see if the ASINs require approval to sell, you can plug the ASINs in the Add a Product tool to see if an Apply to Sell button pops up. However, there is no other way to get ahead of it, besides being prepared with the proper paperwork. If you don’t have the paperwork, then your listings could be down for a long period of time until you do.

For more information on the Dietary Supplements category (and the appeal process), visit Amazon’s Help page.

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