Selling Cosmetics on Amazon: What You Need to Know
Wondering how to get started selling cosmetics on Amazon?
As an Amazon seller, you’ll be well-positioned to reap the rewards of Amazon’s success! Hundreds of millions of people use Amazon to purchase just about anything you can think of: clothing, beauty and personal care items, toys, gadgets, furniture, groceries, and everything in between. Search Amazon for “cosmetics” and you’ll get over 90,000 search results. Needless to say, selling cosmetics on Amazon is a big business! However, being an Amazon seller takes some work—especially if you are selling makeup, skincare, body care or haircare products.
Why Does Amazon Have So Many Requirements for Cosmetics?
Cosmetics come into direct contact with skin. If these products aren’t well-formulated and well-regulated, they can cause problems and discomfort for those who use them. To maintain its reputation and to ensure the safety of its customers, Amazon needs to ensure that the health and beauty products on Amazon.com adhere to a safe standard.
How Does Amazon Regulate Cosmetics?
One way Amazon regulates cosmetics is by having restricted, or gated, subcategories. The Beauty and Personal Care category is now ungated, but it still has subcategories that are gated. Namely, if your cosmetic product is topical (like lotion or makeup) then you will probably run into restrictions. If you want to sell products in these subcategories, you need to go through several verification steps. These verification steps might mean:
• Providing proof of a valid FDA registration
• Supplying a manufacturer invoice from the last 180 days
• Providing your GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) certificate
• Testing your product for safety and providing a COA (Certificate of Analysis)
Do You Have to Register Cosmetics with the FDA?
Cosmetics manufacturers aren’t strictly required to register with the FDA—but if you want to sell on Amazon instead of simply selling in your own shop, then registration is required. Again, Amazon wants to keep its customers safe! Register through the Cosmetic Direct Portal, if you want to get ungated in any of the cosmetics subcategories.
If you are a distributor, you’ll have to ask your manufacturer to provide this FDA registration or FEI number. If the cosmetic manufacturing/packing facility is outside of the US, it can register after its products are exported for sale in the US. If the manufacturing or packing facility is in the US, it can register either before or after it is entered into commercial distribution.
The Steps to Getting Verified/Ungated in Cosmetics
Got your FDA registration in place? Great! Now here are the next steps:
• Go to your Seller Central account and click “Add a Product.”
• Search for the item you’re selling.
• If the item is restricted, click on “Listing Limitations Apply.”
• Continue on to “Request Approval” and submit the FDA registration document or any other documents it asks for.
While the exact approval process might be different depending on the product you want to sell, the end result should be the same: If you answer all the questions and provide the materials that Amazon asks for, you should get approved to sell cosmetics on Amazon! If not, you can try again later, perhaps with additional documents (like those listed earlier in the article) to back up your argument. Amazon Seller Central is quite responsive in most cases, and you should be able to get approved as long as you have proof that your product is safe.
This may leave you wondering about the state of cosmetics regulations in the US: Are they here to stay, or will they be changing any time soon? Unfortunately, there have been many recent problems with unsafe or inconsistent-quality products flooding online marketplaces. As a result, the FDA updated requirements for cosmetics, introducing the new MoCRA regulations, which replaced the former VCRP portal. So, stay informed as you sell cosmetics on Amazon!
For more information about new FDA MoCRA regulations, FDA registration, cosmetic labeling & Ingredient Review, Please contact our FDA regulatory consultant or call us +1 727 3509380 for the U.S..
