How to Sell Amazon Hazmat Products: FBA Dangerous Goods Program and Other Shipping Solutions

Amazon has strict policies that make it difficult to sell hazmat products on the platform, requiring special approval, handling, storage, and shipping to ensure customer and employee safety. Amazon hazmat products luckily don’t include anything too dramatic – industrial waste, plutonium, human waste or blood – but instead everyday items that simply can’t be shipped through traditional channels. On Amazon, hazmat products are items containing hazardous materials such as flammable, toxic, or corrosive substances. You can find Amazon’s possible dangerous goods list here.

How to Sell & Ship Amazon Hazardous Materials

Trying to sell Amazon hazmat products comes with more responsibilities and costs since you need to ensure that your products are safe for customers and employees by complying with Amazon’s dangerous goods regulations. Regardless of whether you are creating a new listing or updating an existing one, you’ll need to get approval from Amazon by submitting a safety data sheet (SDS) or exemption sheet. You can apply for the Amazon FBA Dangerous Goods program in your Seller Central account and wait to be approved. If accepted, you’ll be able to continue selling through FBA and retain Prime badges on your hazmat products. Unfortunately, there’s no definite chance you’ll gain access to the FBA Dangerous Goods program, so if you’ve already applied and haven’t heard back yet, it may be time to try an alternative method: using a 3PL warehouse.

Using a 3PL partner (third- party fulfillment) to ship Amazon hazmat products to customers can be a great option for sellers who want to achieve or retain Prime status without a warehouse network in place already. The 3PL partner, in this case, would take care of all of the logistics and guarantee products be shipped out and delivered within 2 days or less. Most 3PL fulfillment centers have worked with Amazon before and already know how to label, package, and ship hazmat products appropriately – avoiding any jeopardy to your Customer Feedback rankings.

If you’re uninterested in working with a third-party logistics warehouse, you can also ship products to customers directly. By using a Merchant Fulfilled method, the responsibility of packing and shipping falls on you, so you will need the infrastructure and logistics in place already (or set them up) in order for this solution to work. Luckily, this method is a sure-fire way to earn a Prime badge, get your products to customers within 2 days, and win the buy box.

Try the methods above and see what’s easiest and most cost-effective for your company, then choose the best method for shipping your Amazon hazmat products. Whether you use a 3PL partner or a Merchant Fulfilled method, each comes with its own advantages and disadvantages, so weigh them carefully and see what works best for you. At the end of the day, you want your product to be readily available for customers to buy and ship immediately, and, if possible, have a Prime badge.