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Meeting Amazon’s Liquid Bagging Product Packaging Requirements

Companies that sell products through Amazon’s fulfillment services must meet packaging requirements for liquid products of any type, including creams, gels, and pastes. The packaging method must be certified by an independent lab to meet the Amazon specifications. MSL COPACK + ECOMM is a certified, Amazon-compliant liquid bagging contract packaging and eCommerce logistics services provider. Call us at (888) 675-4639 to learn more about our services and get a quote.

Who is Affected by Liquid Bagging Requirements?

Any product manufacturers or eCommerce retailers who ship their products to Amazon fulfillment centers to participate in the Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) service must meet the liquid packaging requirements. Smaller Amazon retailers who fulfill their own product shipping needs are currently unaffected by these requirements, but this is only true for now. Major shipping companies such as UPS and FedEx will likely also adopt similar liquid product packaging requirements. All product manufacturers and eCommerce retailers may eventually need to meet these requirements.

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What About Companies that Can’t Find an Approved Packaging Partner?

When product manufacturers and eCommerce retailers cannot find an Amazon-compliant contract packaging partner with certified liquid bagging capabilities, Amazon itself can do the bagging of the products. It should come as no surprise that when Amazon does the additional packaging, it comes at a high cost. At MSL COPACK + ECOMM, our high-speed Amazon-compliant liquid bagging services represent a competitive advantage for eCommerce retailers in cost compared to other options.

How Does the Liquid Bagging Process Work?

The idea behind the bagging requirements for liquid products is to provide an additional layer of protection from the rigors of the fulfillment process and ensure better product conditions to the end consumer. Whether it’s a bottle of shampoo, household cleaning products, or any other product in the form of a liquid, cream, paste, or gel, it must be encapsulated in a relatively form-fitting poly bag created from a heavy-gauge plastic film heat-sealed on the sides and top to form a “bag.” Should the bottle or container with the liquid product inside be jostled open or broken, the liquid product will still be contained within the bag. Amazon’s specifications for the polybag itself include the following five critical features:

Thickness:

The film of the bag must be at least 1.5 mil (a thousandth of an inch) thick.

Transparency:

The polybag must be transparent (unless it’s for an adult product).

Barcoding:

The product must have a barcode (UPC, EAN, etc.) or X00-label that is scannable through the bag or have an X00- or ASIN-label on the outside of the bag.

Sealing:

Polybags must be completely sealed.

Protrusion:

The polybag must not protrude more than three (3) inches past the dimensions of the product.

Because these are not traditional bags, many poly-bagged products are not required to carry a suffocation warning label except under certain conditions related to product size (if the bag is more than five inches wide).

Amazon Compliant Liquid Bagging Capabilities at MSL COPACK + ECOMM

The challenges of automating this type of product bagging are well beyond the capacity of many product manufacturers and even many contract packaging providers, which is why many are bagging by hand with costly manual labor. Most of the liquid products are in a cylinder-shaped container. The cylinder must be moved through a tunnel where it will be encapsulated in a thicker-than normal plastic film. That extra-thick film must then be cut and trimmed to the right form-fitting size with more robust cutting tools than would be needed with thinner films. Then the film-wrapped product must be heat-sealed into a fully formed “bag.” All the while, the cylinder product wants to roll around as conveyor belts move it through these bagging stages.

Without the advanced, precision equipment needed to do this type of bagging, the results can be disastrous. If a cylinder containing an aerosol gets stuck in the heat tunnel and explodes, the resulting fireball could hurt both people and the equipment. This is why a surprising number of manufacturers are doing the required bagging by hand or are paying the high cost of having Amazon do the bagging.

The equipment we use for this type of packaging comes from a world-class provider. A few key modifications to this equipment has allowed us to meet the stringent Amazon requirements for liquid product packaging as confirmed through independent laboratory testing, including a variety of drop tests and shake tests. These tests must be performed for each unique product container from a client after it has been poly-bagged, and the client then sends the lab results to Amazon for approval.

Type of Service:

High-speed, semi-automated Amazon compliant liquid product containment system.

Product Types:

Our bagging lines are flexible and can be configured to handle single units, duo units (such as a set containing a bottle of shampoo and a bottle of conditioner), multi-packs, and small pucks up to a gallon size.

Post-Bagging Dimensions:

A big advantage of our precision process is that because the poly bag is form-fitting from the heat tunnel, the poly-bagged items will still fit back into the original shippers from the manufacturer. If they didn’t, as may be the case with some packaging providers, there would be substantial delays and costs involved in new shippers.

Barcoding:

Our transparent film allows for the product’s original barcoding to be scannable through the film of the poly-bagged unit.

Current Production Capacity:

We have three lines that are collectively capable of bagging an average of 30,000 units per shift. These lines are being modified to allow for print registered film when needed.

Future Production Capacity:

To meet rising demand from eCommerce retailers, MSL will have an additional production line that specializes in Amazon-compliant cylinder liquid product bagging. This upgraded line will feature greater multi-pack capacity as well as print registered film capabilities.

Certification:

We partner with an independent laboratory to run the required tests for each unique poly-bagged product. The client then submits those results to Amazon for approval. So far, we have sought and obtained certification and approval for 40+ unique SKUs.

Cost-Effectiveness:

The cost of manual labor for bagging large volumes of products by manufacturers is prohibitively expensive. Amazon’s pricing for its bagging service runs as high .80 cents/unit. Thanks to our advanced expertise and equipment, we’re cutting those costs in half for our clients.

MSL COPACK + ECOMM is one of the few contract packaging providers that can meet Amazon’s liquid product bagging requirements with a high-speed, high-volume throughput for high-quality results. Call us at (888) 675-4639 to discuss your needs for Amazon-compliant liquid product packaging.

For more information on the MSL Difference, Please contact MSL today to start the conversation by calling (888) 675-4639.