by Bill Jacoby | Apr 22, 2023 | Insights
Be Trade Show Sales Ready
Whether you are a manufacturer or Amazon Seller, product safety compliance is essential for any business selling products in today’s competitive markets. A comprehensive product safety compliance program can help protect brands, reduce liabilities, and expand sales channels. Companies must understand their product safety obligations and have the right program to ensure compliance with regulations and retailer requirements.
If you are an Amazon Seller, you may think that by using the manage your compliance dashboard, you would have everything you need to follow Amazon’s policies to manage compliance. Amazon states that you must still follow the laws, regulations, and standards. While their tool will guide you through submitting the necessary proof of compliance for your product category, do you have a program in-house to document these same policies and requirements for other retailers? More importantly, do you have all the other items that constitute a compliance program? Anyone wanting to enter new markets or sell with a major retailer is soon asked to provide proof of compliance with specific policies and evidence of training to ensure you consistently make and deliver safe products. You will find this out quickly if you want to sell at Target or Walmart. This is why it I important for you to build a robust compliance program, no matter how small your company, so that it can scale with you when you grow.
The CPSC not only expects companies to have effective compliance programs in place but to be able to document these processes properly. To build a compliance program that scales with your growth, you should, at a minimum, have the following:
Commitment to Compliance
Recognize that your compliance program is dynamic, involving not only multiple policies, procedures, and manufacturing activities but also the commitment of senior management and the support of all employees, contractors, vendors, and agents to make the program effective.
Assignment of a Compliance Manager or Officer
Appoint someone to handle all compliance-related activities; design an escalation policy to show everyone where to go with issues, concerns, or how to report undue influence by publishing contact details and instructions on how to report.
Written Policies
A policy is essential to any compliance program as it establishes the company’s commitment to providing safe products. It outlines the procedures for ensuring all employees follow established testing, labeling, packaging, and distribution protocols. SOPs are detailed instructions on performing various tasks correctly; they help ensure consistency in product development and provide clear guidance for employees. If you sell children’s Products, you will need a material change and undue influence policy with training. Everyone should have an Incident reporting and escalation policy and a recall plan.
Effective Lines of Communication
Establish a dialogue between management and employees so that when seeking answers to questions or reporting potential violations of law or policies, employees or contractors know whom to turn to for a meaningful response and do so without fear of retribution.
Education and Training
Training is crucial in promoting compliance as it ensures employees understand the importance of adhering to safety standards. It should be mandatory for all staff involved in product design, testing, production, marketing, or distribution.
Auditing and Monitoring
Audit your program at least once a year to evaluate the effectiveness of your program and consider pending changes to regulatory or retailer requirements. Doing so lets you determine if gaps in your current system need addressing.
Documentation and Record-keeping
Documentation should begin during the product design phase and include all third-party certification testing, testing of representative samples, material changes, corrective actions, training materials, and training records. Document the work you have done toward complying with the CPSC’s requirements and adhering to the regulations for your products. In the event of a product recall, this documentation will enable you to show the CPSC in helping understand what may have gone wrong to ensure future product safety and compliance. Retention policies should be set to maintain records for each market where you sell. In the U.S., the manufacturer must keep these records for five years, either in hard copy or electronically, such as a website or Framework like Comply PRO+.
A robust compliance program will protect consumers and businesses by reducing their liability when implemented correctly. Additionally, companies should leverage technology to automate processes and ensure all stakeholders are on the same page. The days of having policies in binders where no one can access them are over, and in the post-Covid world of remote work, they need to be accessible to everyone in your organization.
Comply PRO+ was built for Compliance Managers, Executives, and Business Owners. Schedule a Demo today to see how you can quickly build, manage and audit your compliance program to reduce risk and enter new sales channels and markets.
by Bill Jacoby | Mar 10, 2023 | Insights
Monitor and Respond to Reports
SaferProducts.gov is where the public can file and read complaints about thousands of consumer products. The CPSC collects reports of harm or potential harm about dangerous or potentially unsafe consumer products. Each report is reviewed by the CPSC staff of investigators and consumer product safety experts to determine what actions should be taken to protect the American public. A report can provide information that may contribute to CPSC’s decision to seek a product recall, seek penalties against any person or firm, or create new safety regulations or take other action authorized by law. Companies should be prepared to respond to reports of harm posted on saferproducts.gov. A best practice is to appoint a leader or the compliance manager to develop internal escalation procedures to gather customer incidents through company customer service representatives so that management can respond to all incident reports and escalate such incidents to determine whether a § 15(b) report is necessary.
After Registering, most businesses can receive notification of reports of harm on saferproducts.gov within the ten business days allotted by the CPSC, either on the website or offline with the CPSC. By acknowledging a report of harm and stating that an investigation is underway, companies can preclude CPSC from taking action until the relevant facts have been thoroughly investigated. As the investigation proceeds and more information becomes available, companies also can supplement their responses. Some of the most effective actions in response to reports of harm posted on saferproducts.gov have included:
· Responding within ten business days, regardless of whether the report has been investigated fully
· Noting an investigation has just begun and will be supplemented promptly as additional information becomes available
· Supplementing responses promptly and regularly as more information becomes known
· Advising consumers to contact customer service and/or provide the company with the product for inspection of the reported harm
· Communicating directly with the CPSC separately and offline instead of on the public website
· Posting nothing online if the consumer has already contacted the company about the incident but advising the CPSC of this fact offline and promptly
· Stressing that all complaints are taken seriously and that the company seeks to investigate them to the fullest extent possible
· Where applicable, stating that the consumer failed to provide contact information or the product for inspection, which prevents the company from responding completely
· Confirming that the product recently was subjected to rigorous third-party, expert, or other testing and analysis and that no problems were found
· Explaining that the product is safe when used correctly (e.g., according to instructions and warnings)
NOTE: Take time to craft any responses on the safer products site and do not be condescending, infer that the consumer is wrong, etc., as consumers look to see how your company responds to safety or quality issues. Best to have the response reviewed internally before posting.
If you still need to do so, please search for your company products on safer products.gov and regularly monitor the site so you can promptly respond to any reports. Search for unsafe products.
Comply PRO+ encourages company registration, and you can sign up right from the SaferProducts.gov section in settings.
by Bill Jacoby | Mar 1, 2023 | Insights
Comply PRO+ is a robust consumer product safety compliance management suite built with compliance managers, sellers, and business owners in mind. It is designed to help businesses stay on top of compliance-related activities and create repeatable processes to manage and protect their brands. With its user-friendly interface and advanced features, Comply PRO+ makes it easy for businesses and sellers to manage their compliance activities and for executives and owners to sleep better knowing they can see everything on the PRO Dash dashboard.
Comply PRO+ is the evolution of CPSIA Ready, launched in 2013 and designed to help manufacturers and sellers comply with the implementation of CPSIA but was built primarily for children’s product manufacturers. Leveraging feedback from ten years of user feedback and working with diverse clients selling globally, we made Comply PRO+ to handle the ever-changing global compliance documentation requirements needed to support selling in those markets. With Covid-19 affecting businesses worldwide forever, it became imperative to incorporate all the tools to allow manufacturers and suppliers to manage product development, testing, supplier audits, inspections, and management and storage of certificates into an easy-to-access application.
The interface is user-friendly and intuitive, allowing users to upload essential documents effortlessly and associate one document with many if needed. Furthermore, Comply PRO+ helps businesses identify improvement areas by providing data-driven insights into their operations. If there are empty folders, users can identify risks to eliminate omissions. This feature ensures that companies can maintain their competitive edge while adhering to the requirements necessary for global trade.
One of the key benefits of using COMPLY PRO Plus is its ability to manage suppliers and global retail sales channels. If your business operates in multiple countries, you know how challenging it can be to stay compliant with each country’s different regulations regarding showing proof of compliance. Each major retailer has their specific requirements and protocols to follow. With COMPLY PRO Plus, you can easily manage all compliance-related activities worldwide. This means you can focus on growing your business rather than creating the correct technical file format.
Another benefit of using COMPLY PRO Plus is its ability to streamline your business process to track and document everything from the product development stage to delivery. To comply with the duty to report requirements of the CPSC, you can also record all product safety-related incidents on the product level by recording them in the system.
Comply PRO is a revolutionary software that helps sustainability and regulatory professionals easily manage compliance-related activities specific to certain geographical markets. One of the most significant features of this software is its customizable fields and folders, which allow users to tailor their data according to the unique requirements of the products they sell, and the markets where they sell them.
Comply PRO’s customizable folders enable users to follow the technical file format or add new folders to categorize compliance-related documents and information according to specific criteria. This feature helps track the new sustainability, environmental, social, and governance metrics many retailers are starting to require.
The platform is designed to be user-friendly and intuitive, making it easy for even the most technologically challenged individuals to use. If you still need help, there is a robust support center with detailed instructions on using each system feature. If you still need help, we are a chat message or email away to ensure you get the help you need.
As an Amazon seller, manufacturer, or distributor, you know that managing your business can be a daunting and overwhelming task. If you have been a long-time Amazon seller, you have seen that the days of needing only a test report and a certificate for compliance approval are over. The great news is that Comply PRO+ was also designed with you in mind so you can manage any future requirements.
Comply PRO+ won’t tell you what regulations you need for your products as it is your responsibility to know that or to use an accredited third-party lab to tell you. Failure to comply with product safety regulations can result in hefty fines, lawsuits, recalls, and damage to brand reputation—all things no business wants to deal with.
Comply PRO+ is not only easy to use but also cost-effective. With this platform, you no longer worry about spending a fortune on complex software solutions or developing one in-house. Instead, Comply PRO offers affordable pricing plans without compromising the quality of service provided. Additionally, with its new modules and features in the pipeline, Comply PRO stays ahead of the curve in offering value to its users.
Sign up for Comply PRO+ today or book a demo for us to show you how to streamline your operations, minimize risk, and protect your brand. With Comply PRO+, you can expect exceptional support and experience peace of mind so that you can focus on what matters most – growing your business.
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