Amazon Clothing & Textiles Requirements For Sellers: An Overview

If you sell clothing and textiles on Amazon, you must ensure that your products comply with various rules, regulations, and standards. In this guide, we explain some of these requirements, including requirements for children’s clothing, dangerous goods, and packaging.

Also, we only considered requirements that pertain to selling clothing and textiles in the United States, and we refer to US regulations, such as 16 CFR Part 1615 – Standard for the Flammability of Children’s Sleepwear: Sizes 0 Through 6X (FF 3-71). Note that requirements in other markets, such as the EU, the UK or Australia, are different.

Methodology: We used information that we found on Amazon Seller Central Guidance pages hosted on Amazon.com (US version). We linked to some of these documents in the sections below.

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Children’s clothing

This section covers children’s apparel in general. We also provide more detailed explanations for products for which we have found a specific Amazon guidance page.

Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA)

Amazon lists CPSIA requirements regarding children’s apparel. According to the CPSIA, such products must comply with the following requirements:

• Children’s Product Certificate (CPC) for children’s apparel
• Tracking label
• Original test reports or certificates issued by CPSC-accepted labs
• Substance restrictions on lead, phthalates, and more
• Flammability testing
• Small parts testing
• Warning label and cautionary statements, if any

Amazon also requires additional information to assess product compliance:

• Your company name and seller ID
• Contact information (email address and phone number)
• List of all your children’s apparel products
• Product packaging and label images for all your children’s apparel products
• Product instructions and manuals
• Product images or test reports proving compliance with mandatory tracking label requirements

Learn more: Link

Drawstrings

Amazon’s policies, in line with US rules, require that children’s clothing with drawstrings sold through its platform meet specified regulations and standards, for drawstrings in children’s apparel could pose a threat to children when twisted together with other objects.

If you are planning to sell children’s hoodies and outerwear (for sizes 2T to 12) or children’s clothing containing drawstrings (for sizes 2T to 16), then your products should adhere to the following rules:

a. Drawstrings on the lower body should not be longer than 3 inches when the garment is expanded

b. Toggles, knots, or other attachments are not allowed at the ends of the drawstring, for lower body clothing

c. The product shall comply with ASTM F1816: Standard Safety Specification for Drawstrings on Children’s Upper Outerwear

Note that ASTM F1816 is incorporated by reference under 16 CFR Part 1120 – Substantial Product Hazard List.

Learn more: Link

Sleepwear

Amazon’s policy, in line with US rules, for listing sleepwear covers children’s sleepwear from size 0 months up to size 14. Examples of covered children’s sleepwear, that are meant to be worn by children ages 12 or below for sleeping or sleep-related activities, include:

• Nightgown
• Pajama
• Robe
• Loungewear

The platform’s policy requires compliance with multiple US regulations and standards. Here are two examples of regulations or standards you must comply with when listing children’s sleepwear on Amazon:

a. 16 CFR Part 1615 – Standard for the Flammability of Children’s Sleepwear Sizes 0 through 6X (FF 3-71)

b. 16 CFR Part 1616 – Standard for the Flammability of Children’s Sleepwear Sizes 7 through 14 (FF 5-74)

In addition to complying with CPSIA requirements by submitting relevant items, you must also submit images that contain the following information:

• Item, model, or part number
• The importe or manufacturer name and address
• Relevant labels and warnings
• Registration card
• Compliance markings
• Instructions

Learn more: Link

General Certificate of Conformity

Importers or domestic manufacturers of clothing and textile products who list them on Amazon must comply with applicable CPSC’s requirements. For example, they must provide a General Certificate of Conformity (GCC) for non-children’s products for which one or more rules that require a GCC apply.

An example of such a rule is 16 CFR Part 1610 – Standard for the Flammability of Clothing Textiles.

A GCC is a self-issued document that affirms that the importer’s or manufacturer’s product complies with relevant CPSC requirements, such as lab testing.

Test report

If you sell non-children’s products on Amazon for which testing is required by one or more US rule, the test must be conducted by a lab that is ISO or IEC 17025 accredited.

On the other hand, if you sell children’s products, you must have those products tested by a CPSC-accepted lab.

Regardless, Amazon does not always detail what you must have your product tested for, but it does provide a link to the guidance page “Rules Requiring a General Certificate of Conformity (GCC) – General Use/Non-Children’s Products”.

Here are some examples of standards that are relevant for wearing apparel:

a. 16 CFR Part 1610 – Standard for the Flammability of Clothing Textiles

b. 16 CFR Part 1615 – Standard for the Flammability of Children’s Sleepwear: Sizes 0 through 6X

c. 16 CFR part 1616 – Standard for the Flammability of Children’s Sleepwear: Sizes 7 through 14

Warning labels

We couldn’t find examples of specific warning label texts for apparel on Amazon guidance pages. However, Amazon states that you must provide warning or hazard labels for many consumer products. These warnings often depend on the product they come with.

For instance, the CPSIA requires some products meant for children aged 6 and under to include choking hazard warning statements.

Licensed sports apparel

According to Amazon, if you sell licensed sports apparel, you must provide, when applicable, the following specific pieces of information:

• League name
• Team name
• Player or athlete name

You must also provide general attributes about your licensed sports apparel, such as brand name, department name, and sport type.

Dangerous goods

Amazon has a Dangerous Goods Identification Guide page that specifies requirements you must comply with if you sell or list certain dangerous goods on the platform through the FBA program.

The only apparel-related products we could find on Amazon that the platform considers an example of a possible dangerous good, are hats and vests that include rechargeable batteries.

Restricted products

If you sell clothing and textiles on Amazon, you should ensure that your listings comply with the platform’s page on general listing restrictions.

For instance, Amazon bans children’s upper body clothing (sized 2T to 12) with drawstrings and restricts the drawstrings on children’s lower body clothing to 3 inches.

Additionally, the platform requires you to provide accurate claims for your products. If you make false or misleading claims, Amazon may remove your listing. You must therefore provide proof supporting your claims that your product, for example:

• Is made of a specific material, such as cashmere
• Contains specific filler materials, such as goose down
• Meets a specific purity standard, such as having organic ingredients

Packaging guidelines

Amazon provides specific guidelines and requirements for packaging apparel on its guidance document “​​Packaging apparel, fabric, and textiles”. Here are a few examples of those guidelines:

a. Place individual textile product units in transparent sealed bags and conspicuously mark those bags with a suffocation warning label.

b. Make sure to place materials that are easily damaged by shrink wrap or bags, into boxes.

c. Fold products down to their smallest possible dimensions so they fit into the package.

Image guidelines for apparel

Amazon has specific image guidelines for if you sell clothing on the platform on its document “Image guidelines for clothing”. It has a table of what you can and cannot do regarding the main and alternate images of clothing you upload. We list a few examples of those guidelines below.

You must make sure that images:

a. Feature the entire product without any clipped parts.

b. Have a pure white background.

c. Be professionally high-resolution at 1600 pixels in height or width.

d. Show clothes on a model’s clothed body under the product if said product is transparent.

The images must not:

a. Show brochures, certificates, packaging, or tags.

b. Be shown as “selfies”.

c. Show visible intimate human parts, even if covered by the model’s hands.

d. Feature offensive or controversial content.