Amazon's new rules on October 1! Fines for non-compliance? !

There are so many things that will affect us Amazon sellers in October, including Trump's tariff increase and Britain's forced Brexit. Each of these is a major event with far-reaching impact. Now another seller has exposed a new Amazon policy in our group.

Many sellers are confused about this. What exactly is the FFP standard? Does it have any impact on ordinary sellers like us? I will explain it to you in detail below.

What is the FFP standard?

Many sellers know that Amazon allows customers to choose between standard packaging and gift packaging when purchasing products, but few sellers know that there is also the option of Frustration Free Packaging (FFP).

The FFP program is a lightweight and simplified packaging standard that Amazon launched a few years ago in collaboration with major suppliers in order to reduce product packaging and transportation costs.

Lighter and simpler packaging can not only save transportation and storage costs, but also reduce the amount of packaging waste, which puts less pressure on the environment. After all, Amazon has always been famous for "big boxes for small things", and the amount of packaging materials wasted is really not a small number. Take a look at the picture to feel it.

▲Amazon's cartons seem to be filled with endless wrapping paper

▲The actual product sent was very small

Therefore, it is reasonable for Amazon to launch the FFP plan to significantly reduce packaging volume and filling costs. According to the FFP standard, the components of simple packaging will be reduced by more than 70% compared to standard packaging, and most of them are made of recycled materials, which is also easier for customers to disassemble.

The comparison in the above picture also shows that simple packaging saves a lot of unnecessary printing and packaging space. In fact, the FFP program is also very successful. In 2017 alone, it saved Amazon 16% of packaging waste and reduced more than 300 million packaging cartons.

Although the policy is a good one, if it involves fines for non-compliance, we have to consider the impact on us Amazon sellers.

Impact on our Amazon sellers

When the FFP program was first launched, it was just a packaging standard for Amazon suppliers. Later, the program was also open to individual invited third-party sellers for a period of time (now it does not accept sellers to register on their own).

However, Amazon has not forced suppliers to participate in the FFP program. After all, changing packaging still takes time and costs a lot. This emergency request to the European site is also rare. It is very likely that they were forced to make such a decision under the pressure of Europe's developed environmental protection public opinion.

After checking online, I found that in July this year, an environmental organization in France protested in front of the local Amazon company, targeting the large amount of packaging waste generated by Amazon.

▲The news mentioned our protagonist today, the FFP plan

Although this enforcement will not affect most of our third-party sellers, after requiring all suppliers to comply with the FFP program, Amazon may open up the FFP program to third-party sellers in the near future.

Because the packaging is redesigned after joining the FFP program, some smart sellers used it to prevent their products from being copied during the period of opening. For a product participating in the FFP program, Amazon will prevent other sellers who are not in the program from copying this product.

Therefore, it is not a bad thing for us that the FFP plan was taken out by Amazon. I have collected the participation criteria that were released when the FFP plan was open for registration. You can refer to them to decide whether to participate if the registration is open again.

If you are suffering from the harassment of follow-selling recently, you may also consider the transparent plan that is specifically designed to treat follow-selling dogs. It was also opened to sites such as Europe and Japan a few months ago. It can prevent products from being followed by sales through exclusive codes. I have prepared the official transparent plan registration channel and content details for everyone. Scan the QR code below to find me to receive it~

PS. If you want to join the seller discussion group, you can also private message me to let me add you to the group