Pre-launch compliance guide
Compliance-sensitive fulfillment begins before inventory arrives. The brand or importer should identify the product category, responsible legal entity, registrations or permits, transport classification, storage conditions, lot or serial controls, labeling, restricted destinations, and recall or disposition rules. A warehouse should accept only the activities and locations supported by documented evidence for that exact product and market.
Decision support
Use the same definitions and evidence across every option. A comparison is not reliable when one path uses best-case assumptions and another uses observed operating data.
| Product category | Evidence to verify | Fulfillment questions | Escalate before launch when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Food and dietary supplements | Applicable food-facility registration, product and lot data, storage conditions, labeling ownership | Lot/expiry fields, allergens, temperature, FEFO, recall and disposition | Registration, labeling, temperature, or recall ownership is unclear |
| Cosmetics | Responsible person, facility and product listing applicability, safety/label records, lot controls | Batch traceability, leakage, temperature, damaged seals, complaints and adverse-event routing | A registration or listing is described as FDA approval/certification, or ownership is unclear |
| Alcohol | Federal/state licenses or permits, product and channel scope, destination rules, carrier program | Secure storage, age-restricted delivery, reporting, state exclusions, returns and destruction | The permit, state, channel, carrier, or recipient requirements are not confirmed |
| Medical devices | Establishment registration/listing applicability, device identity, authorization status, UDI/serial fields | Traceability, complaint routing, relabel/repack scope, quarantine and recall support | The requested warehouse activity changes regulated labeling, packaging, or device status |
| Lithium-battery products | Battery type, configuration, size/rating, test and transport documents, carrier acceptance | Packaging, marks/labels, damage screening, mode restrictions and returns | Battery classification, condition, documents, or carrier acceptance is unknown |
Execution
Move to the next step only when the evidence and owner for the current step are clear.
Identify what the product is, who owns regulatory responsibility, what the facility will do, where the product will move, and whether the activity includes packing, relabeling, kitting, import, return, disposal, or transportation.
Request registrations, permits, product lists, transport documents, labels, safety data, storage specifications, lot or serial fields, restricted destinations, and named compliance contacts as applicable.
Confirm that the proposed facility, carrier, state, channel, and activity are covered. A document for one entity, location, product, or activity should not be generalized to another.
Define identifiers, inventory status, expiry or FEFO rules, quarantine triggers, inspection evidence, approval roles, recall retrieval, and records retention before receiving inventory.
Walk through damaged inbound stock, temperature or packaging deviation, expired product, customer return, carrier refusal, complaint, recall, and disposal scenarios.
Require review when the product, label, supplier, responsible entity, market, state, carrier, battery configuration, storage condition, or facility changes.
Boundaries
Primary sources
