Amazon Seller Underwriting Checklist: What to Gather Before a Quote
A product liability quote is only as good as the file behind it. Use this checklist to gather what underwriters ask Amazon sellers for, before the first application arrives.
Why the file matters
An underwriter pricing an Amazon seller is pricing a catalog. The questions reach well past sales figures: who made each product, who wrote the warnings, what the lab tested and what has gone wrong before. A complete file gets a quote that fits the business. A thin one gets cautious terms, exclusions or another round of questions, and each round costs days while Amazon’s deadline runs.
Accuracy matters as much as speed. Insurers issue policies in reliance on the application, and product liability supplements commonly state that a material misstatement or omission gives the insurer grounds to void or rescind the policy. The same forms ask you to report material changes between the application and the start date. Answer what is asked, label estimates as estimates, and tell your agent when something changes.
The business behind the account
- Legal entity name and address exactly as Seller Central shows them, since the policy and certificate must match.
- Country of incorporation, and whether you sell through a US company.
- How long you have sold, and when the entity was formed.
- Every marketplace and channel: Amazon.com, other Amazon stores, Walmart, TikTok Shop, your own site and wholesale.
- Gross sales for the last 12 months by channel and a forecast for the next 12, taken from Amazon’s Business Reports and your other platforms.
- Who acts as importer of record on each shipment.
- Headcount, and where staff and any warehouse space are based.
The Amazon Insurance Accelerator opens with a similar short set, your location, years in operation and revenue, before it shows quotes. Expect any broker or carrier to begin in the same place and then go deeper.
Your product catalog
- A product list with category, ASIN or SKU, unit price and annual sales for each product or product family.
- Flags on anything eaten, applied to skin, used by children, powered by a lithium battery, used to heat food or sold for a medical purpose.
- The share of revenue that comes from your top products.
- Launches planned for the next 12 months, with expected volume.
- Whether each product sells under your brand, the factory’s brand or a brand you resell.
- Performance, safety or results claims made in your listings, with the evidence behind each one.
Send the product list as a spreadsheet rather than a PDF, one row per product, so the underwriter can sort it by category and by sales. Mark the rows that are new or changed since your last policy, because those are the lines an underwriter reads first.
The safety flags matter twice. From November 2, 2026, Amazon asks sellers in its enhanced safety categories for the $1 million policy whatever their sales, as set out on our Amazon seller insurance requirements page, and underwriters rate those same products more closely.
Factories and the supply chain
- Each country where your products are made or assembled.
- The written contract with each factory, and whether it requires your approval for changes to design, components, component suppliers or the manufacturing process.
- Whether the contract requires the factory to carry product liability insurance that responds to suits brought in the US, with a copy of that policy.
- Indemnity or hold harmless wording in your favor, and any vendors endorsement naming you.
- Who is responsible for warning labels, which languages they use, and whether they meet the US standard for the product.
- Domestic suppliers, co-packers or assemblers, and your agreements with them.
If you cannot answer the factory questions yet, ask your suppliers now. These answers separate an importer an underwriter can read from one it has to guess about, and our guide to private label and importer liability explains why they carry so much weight.
Testing, quality control and recalls
- Current lab reports for each product against the standards that apply, with the lab’s name and the report date.
- Children’s Product Certificates or General Certificates of Conformity where a CPSC rule calls for them.
- Your quality program: design review, factory selection and audits, pre-production material tests, first-run tests, scheduled finished-product tests, random audits and audits of component suppliers.
- Lot or batch codes on packaging, and how you trace a unit back to its production run.
- A written recall plan that names who leads a recall, you or the factory.
Underwriters do not expect a small brand to run a laboratory. They want to see that someone checked the product against its standard, that the check is recent, and that a problem can be traced to one batch instead of the whole catalog.
Claims, complaints and history
- All claims made against the business in the past five years, open or closed, with dates, amounts and how it ended.
- Loss runs from each current and prior insurer.
- Any pending lawsuit, arbitration, or government or regulatory proceeding.
- Incidents you know about that could still become claims, including A-to-z property damage or injury claims and safety complaints in reviews.
- Any policy that was cancelled or not renewed.
- Recalls, Amazon safety removals or listing suspensions, and how each was resolved.
A claim on the list seldom ends the conversation. A short note on what happened and what changed, at the factory or on the label, shows the underwriter the problem was handled. Our guide to Amazon product liability claims covers what to keep when a claim arrives.
Amazon’s terms and the cover you want
- The insurance notice from Seller Central, if Amazon has sent one, and its deadline.
- The limits you need: Amazon’s $1 million per occurrence and in the aggregate, plus anything higher a retailer or wholesale buyer asks for.
- Every party that needs additional insured status, starting with Amazon.com Services LLC and its affiliates and assignees.
- The deductible you can carry, checked against Amazon’s current rule in Seller Central.
- Your current policy, declarations page, endorsements and expiration date.
- Other cover to price at the same time: inventory at Amazon and elsewhere, cargo, cyber and intellectual property.
Put everything in one shared folder with a simple index, and send it in one go. We work with hundreds of Amazon sellers, and a complete folder is the shortest route from a first conversation to a certificate you can upload. The Amazon seller insurance hub has background on every item above.
A few useful answers
Common questions
How far back do underwriters look at an Amazon seller's claims?
Product liability supplements commonly ask about the past five years of claims, lawsuits and regulatory proceedings, and loss runs from prior insurers cover the same stretch.
Do I need lab reports for every product before a quote?
Underwriters want reports for each product a safety rule or standard reaches, and they look hardest at children’s products, ingestibles, cosmetics and battery-powered goods. If a product has no report, say so and explain your plan to test it.
What if my factory has no US product liability insurance?
Say so on the application. Your own policy is what answers US claims; the factory’s cover only adds a second source of money, and underwriters ask about it rather than assume it exists.
Should I list products I have not launched yet?
Yes, with expected volume and launch dates. A policy rated on today’s catalog can leave a new category unrated, and telling the insurer early avoids a gap when the product goes live.
Can I get a quote before I pass Amazon's sales threshold?
Yes. Many sellers buy before Amazon asks, so the certificate is ready when the notice arrives, and from November 2, 2026 sellers in enhanced safety categories need the policy whatever their sales.