Inspect the batch before it reaches FBA.

An Amazon product inspection service does one thing a seller in Liverpool, Brooklyn or Islamabad cannot do from a laptop: put someone in the factory to open the cartons before the goods ship. Empowers Zone arranges pre-shipment inspections, during-production checks and factory audits for sellers buying from China and Pakistan, through our inspection partners in China and our own on-the-ground team in Pakistan, as part of Amazon account management or on its own. The report arrives before the balance payment and before the cartons go to the forwarder, the only point at which a problem is still cheap to fix.

Why inspect before an FBA shipment in particular

FBA makes a bad batch more expensive than your own warehouse would. Once units are checked in you cannot open a carton to look; defective stock sells, earns returns and negative reviews, and comes back as a removal order, with fees at each step. Mislabelled or unbagged units are a separate problem: Amazon’s own notice confirmed that US FBA prep and item-labelling services ended on 1 January 2026, so the FNSKU label and any required bagging now have to be right when the goods leave the factory, or the units attract inbound defect fees and delays at receiving. A pre-shipment inspection is the last chance to check quality and compliance while the supplier can still correct them.

Pre-shipment inspection and AQL sampling, explained

A pre-shipment inspection happens when production is complete and the order is packed, or nearly so. Nobody checks every unit of a 2,000-piece order; the inspector draws a random sample across the cartons. Sample size and pass threshold come from an acceptable quality limit, or AQL, approach: before the inspection you agree how many defects of each severity, critical, major and minor, the sample may contain for the batch to pass. Critical defects, such as a safety hazard, usually mean an automatic fail; major defects affect function or saleability; minor defects are cosmetic. The published sampling standards provide the tables that turn order size and inspection level into a sample size and accept or reject numbers. We select the level with you based on the product’s risk and price and write the agreed figures into the checklist, rather than quoting a standard’s numbers here.

The inspector works through the checklist: quantity against the purchase order, workmanship, measurements and weight against the approved sample, function tests, colour and finish, assembly where relevant, and the packaging. Everything is photographed and functional tests are filmed, so the report can be read in ten minutes and acted on the same day.

Packaging and labelling checks for Amazon

The compliance half of the checklist is specific to Amazon, and it is where sellers lose money without a single defective product.

• FNSKU labels: present on every unit, scannable without opening the packaging, covering any other barcode where Amazon requires it, and matching the SKU actually in the box. Since 1 January 2026 this is the seller’s or supplier’s responsibility in the US.
• Poly bags and suffocation warnings: units that Amazon requires to be bagged are bagged, and bags of the relevant size carry a suffocation warning as Amazon specifies. We check the current wording and size rule for your SKU in Seller Central.
• Carton labels and specifications: shipment labels, carton contents, weight and dimension limits and the carton construction agreed in the purchase order, so receiving is not delayed.
• Retail packaging: inserts, manuals, expiry or batch formats where relevant, and the brand marks that Brand Registry relies on.

Where the supplier cannot label to the required standard, the report says so early enough for our FBA prep and shipping team to route the consignment through a prep centre near the destination port.

Factory audits before the first order

A factory audit answers a different question from a pre-shipment inspection: not “is this batch good?” but “can this supplier make it well, repeatedly, and are they who they say they are?”. An auditor visits the premises, confirms the factory makes the product rather than trading it, checks machinery, capacity and quality control, and reviews certificates and export history. We recommend one for any first order; the result feeds the supplier decision made during product sourcing.

China and Pakistan coverage

In Pakistan our own team inspects and visits factories in Sialkot, Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad and the surrounding industrial areas, the home of the sports goods, surgical instruments, leather and textiles Pakistani sellers export. In China we work through established inspection partners, booking and briefing them with your checklist, reviewing their report before it reaches you and following up with the factory for you. In both countries the checklist, report format and decision process are ours, so a report from Guangdong reads the same as one from Sialkot.

What happens when a batch fails

A failed inspection is not the end of the order; it is the moment the purchase agreement earns its keep. The report and photographs go to the supplier and we agree one of three outcomes with you: rework and re-inspection at the supplier’s cost, a sorted shipment of the passing units with a credit for the rest, or a renegotiated price if you choose to accept minor defects. Because our sourcing agreements name who pays for a failed inspection before production starts, this conversation is usually short.

What we need from you

• The purchase order and the approved sample or its photographs and measurements.
• The prep requirements shown for the SKU in Seller Central, or access so we can read them.
• Your supplier’s contact details and the expected production completion date.
• Any product-specific tests, for example load, leak or electrical function.

How pricing works

Inspections are quoted per visit, depending on the location, the order size and the inspection level chosen; factory audits are quoted per audit day. The written plan states scope, AQL level and report turnaround. Begin with a free consultation: contact us with the product and the factory location and we come back with a checklist and a quote.