At Amazon, we’re relentlessly focused on customers and work hard every day to earn their trust. We know customers expect AmazonBasics products to be safe and high quality, and our goal is to exceed those expectations. We employ industry best practices and here are just some of the processes we have in place to ensure our products are safe.
Before launching new AmazonBasics products
Proactive safety measures begin before any product is physically produced. When we decide to launch a new product, we first thoroughly research the technical standards, as well as compliance and safety requirements for that item or category, and identify additional voluntary quality or safety standards we want to impose ourselves. We partner only with suppliers who meet our supply chain standards, and those suppliers undergo additional vetting by Amazon through a series of manufacturing and quality audits, including reviewing factory quality management systems and product quality controls. We renew these audits annually to ensure that suppliers have the appropriate sourcing and controls in place to meet or exceed our factory quality, social responsibility, product safety, and compliance requirements, as well as industry best practices for things like pre-production material and final product inspections. Amazon also works with independent, ISO/IEC 17025 accredited third-party labs to develop testing protocols for our products, and keep those protocols up to date.
During the product manufacturing process
Where appropriate, Amazon requires manufacturers to submit quality control documentation around matters such as defect rates and material control, which allows us to ensure products are made up to standards. Once products are manufactured, we work with suppliers and third-party labs to verify that each product meets both mandatory standards set by regulators and voluntary requirements set by voluntary standard organizations, as well as our quality bar, before making them available to customers. This testing includes as many as 180 different safety, regulatory compliance, and quality tests. We also verify up to 250 different requirements, including chemical analysis, physical and mechanical use, flammability, and general labeling, depending on the intended region of distribution. For example, we test paper shredders to a voluntary standard from Underwriters Laboratories (UL 60950-1) designed to ensure the safety of household appliances, conduct endurance tests on computer mouse buttons to drive quality performance, and conduct food contact testing, including component migration testing and temperature and time tests, to verify that relevant products meet the mandatory Food and Drug Administration standards.
After products are made available to customers
Amazon also performs audits of existing AmazonBasics products once they're launched and available to customers, including additional testing with third-party labs, to ensure those products continue to meet our safety, quality, and compliance standards. We also actively monitor customer reviews, as well as customer inquiries for any feedback related to safety and take necessary action, which can include removing the product from our store, adjusting the design of the product, notifying customers to stop using the product, or other appropriate actions. Across the thousands of AmazonBasics items we've launched since the brand was conceived in 2009, we’ve only had to initiate recalls on two products.
We're continuously refining our processes and leveraging new technologies to ensure that AmazonBasics products are safe for their intended use. We want customers to shop our products with confidence, and if there's ever a concern, you can contact our customer service team and we'll promptly investigate.
