Grocery & Gourmet Foods
Amazon limits the addition of new sellers in the Grocery & Gourmet Food category to ensure that customers are able to buy with confidence from all sellers on Amazon. The requirements for selling in the Grocery & Gourmet Food category reflect customer concerns about product quality, product branding, and food safety.
Sellers must meet the requirements listed below to sell products in the Grocery & Gourmet Food category. Please take the time to read this list of requirements and consult our Help pages if you have questions about specific policies. Once you have reviewed the category requirements, you can apply for approval by clicking the Request Approval button at the bottom of the page. Amazon reserves the right to review the quality of each seller's products and listings, including by checking whether products and listing data meet the requirements below. Please note that meeting the requirement stated in this policy does not guarantee that Amazon will approve your ability to sell in this category or your full proposed selection. Amazon may remove your selling privileges for failure to meet these requirements.
Seller Requirements
You must be registered as a seller on the Professional Selling plan.
You must meet the following seller performance targets:
Order defect rate: < 1%
Pre-fulfillment cancel rate: < 2.5%
Late shipment rate: < 4%
You must provide us with acceptable documentation (e.g. product invoices) and other information we request about the products you intend to sell. After you request approval to sell in the Grocery & Gourmet Food category, we will contact you with additional information.
You are not required to have your own company website, but if you have one it will be helpful to us to review it during the application process.
Product Requirements
All foods and beverages must be properly prepared, sealed, packaged, and labeled. Products need to be shipped appropriately to protect the quality and safety of goods, to avoid spoilage, melting, damage, etc.
All frozen items must be shipped in dry ice and enclosed in appropriate packaging designed to preserve safe product temperature through end delivery to the customer. Frozen items may only be shipped Monday through Wednesday and must ship via an appropriate expedited shipping method.
Sellers must also understand they are responsible for ensuring their products and business operations comply with all applicable federal and state laws, even if not specifically described in our policies.
Lot-controlled products must have a shelf-life of greater than 90 days.
Perishable products must be removed from inventory 50 days prior to the expiration date and may not be sold or shipped thereafter.
For Amazon-fulfilled orders (FBA), units within 50 days of expiration will be removed for disposal and will not be available for return. For additional details, please see the FBA Date- and Temperature-Sensitive Products policy.
All Grocery & Gourmet Food products must be listed using the manufacturer's UPC code. For more information on UPC requirements, see Product UPCs and GTINs. If you do not have UPCs, review Amazon Brand Registry information for how to list products without UPCs.
All Grocery & Gourmet Food products must be sold in New condition. Used listings are not permitted. For more information, see the Condition Guidelines.
All Grocery products must include product labeling in English that complies with applicable federal, state and local laws. Additional information on the FDA’s labeling requirements for food products is available here: Food: Labeling and Nutrition.
Product Listing Requirements
All Commodity and Bulk food products must be listed on separate seller-created detail pages. These listings may not have multiple offers on the same detail page. For more details, see our “Bulk and Commodity Food Listing Policies”.
Sellers must follow Amazon listing standards for any product sold on Amazon.com as well as comply with the standards specific to the Grocery category. See the Grocery Style Guide for more guidance: Grocery Style Guide.
Any dietary or allergen-free claims (such as Organic, Kosher, Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free) must also be present on the product packaging, and any special claims must have received appropriate regulatory approvals.
Accurate Price Per Unit (PPU) data must be provided for all new product listings. For more information, see How to determine Price Per Unit
For Grocery items, sellers are required to upload secondary images of product nutrition facts and ingredient lists that appear on the product for sale. These images must also be clearly legible.
The following product types have additional Grocery-specific product listing data standards:
Bulk and Commodity Food Listing Policies
For seller-created multipacks of a single item, sellers must follow the Grocery guidelines for UPCs and Item Package Quantity for Multi-packs
Custom Variety Packs of Single-Serve Hot Beverage Products policy
For all seller-created variety packs (i.e., not manufacturer-created) that do not fall under the Custom Variety Packs of Single-Serve Hot Beverage Products policy,
If the variety pack contains products from more than one brand, sellers must use the approved brand name “Custom Variety Pack” instead of the brand name on any of the individual units or any other custom brand name.
Sellers must fully specify the contents of the variety pack on the product listing page without any variability in the variety pack’s contents.
Sellers must state in the product bullets that the item is not a manufacturer-created variety pack and will not be sent in the original manufacturer’s packaging.
All other seller-created bundles must comply with the general Product Bundling Policy.
Next Step
If you are able to meet all of the requirements listed above, please click the Request Approval button below. By clicking the button you are confirming that you have reviewed the requirements above and that you want to apply to sell in the Grocery & Gourmet Food category. We will contact you to request additional required information, after you submit your request to sell.