How to Sell Supplements on Amazon in 2025: Complete Expert Guide

Amazon leads the vitamin, mineral, and supplement market, with sales reaching $12.6 billion in the year ending August 2024.

After a brief cool-down post-COVID, the market came roaring back with a 14.6% year-over-year jump in sales, which translates to over 472 million units sold.

Unlike a lot of other product categories, supplements are often a repeat purchase. You can tap into Amazon’s Subscribe & Save program to build a predictable, recurring revenue stream.

But your profitability hinges entirely on your approach. The sellers who are crushing it are the ones who treat this like a real business from day one. That means investing heavily in a few key areas:

• Premium Product Quality: Sourcing from GMP-certified manufacturers isn’t just a good idea; it’s non-negotiable.
• Airtight Compliance: You have to follow Amazon’s rules to the letter. No shortcuts. One mistake can get you suspended.
• Smart Marketing: Getting noticed requires a sharp Amazon PPC strategy and a real effort to build your brand, not just sell a product.

The Challenges You Can’t Ignore

Amazon’s rules for supplements are some of the most stringent on the entire platform. Getting something wrong, like a claim on your listing or a missing document, can get your product shut down in a heartbeat.

The costs can also be a real hurdle. You also need to budget for third-party lab testing, professional product photography, and a dozen other operational costs that can sneak up on you. To get a handle on the numbers, our guide on the costs of selling on Amazon is a good place to start building your budget.

The bottom line is this: the profit potential is enormous, but it’s reserved for sellers who are prepared to tackle the challenges head-on. If you’re ready to build a legitimate brand your reward is direct access to the biggest health and wellness marketplace on the planet.

Amazon’s Supplement Compliance Rules

Amazon’s number one job is to protect its customers, especially in a sensitive category like dietary supplements. Your job is to prove beyond a doubt that your product is safe, labeled correctly, and marketed responsibly. Getting this right from day one saves you from headaches like stranded inventory, delisted products, or worse, a full account suspension. If you want a peek into how serious that can get, you can learn more about what leads to an Amazon account getting suspended.

The Three Pillars of Supplement Compliance

Amazon’s dietary supplement policy boils down to three core areas. Get these right, and you’re building a brand on solid ground.

• Labeling and Packaging: Your product label isn’t for show; it’s a legal document. It must be 100% compliant with FDA regulations. No exceptions.
• Ingredients and Formulation: What’s in the bottle has to be safe, legal, and an exact match for what’s on the label.
• Marketing Claims: What you say about your product on your Amazon listing is just as important as what’s printed on the bottle itself.

Let’s dig into exactly what you need to do for each of these to keep Amazon happy.

Product Labeling

Your supplement’s label is the first thing both shoppers and Amazon’s compliance team will look at. It needs to be perfect.

The most critical piece is the Supplement Facts panel. It has to follow very specific FDA formatting rules. That means listing all dietary ingredients, serving sizes, and amounts per serving. You also have to include a complete list of “other ingredients” like binders, fillers, or capsules.

Another non-negotiable is the Net Quantity of Contents statement. This tells the customer exactly how much product is in the container, like “90 Capsules” or “8 oz (227g)“. Make sure this is clearly placed on the front panel of your label.

Finally, your label has to show the name and address of the manufacturer, packer, or distributor. And don’t forget the mandatory FDA disclaimer for any structure/function claims: “These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.”

Ingredient Safety and Prohibited Substances

Amazon keeps a very strict list of ingredients it doesn’t allow on the platform. It’s on you to make sure your formula is clean. We’re talking about substances like DMAA, Ephedra, or certain stimulants. Pleading ignorance won’t work here; selling a product with a banned ingredient is a one-way ticket to getting delisted.

Cross-reference your entire formula with Amazon’s list of prohibited products and ingredients. And this isn’t a one-and-done task. These lists get updated, so you need to stay on top of any changes.

I can’t stress this enough: work only with US-based, GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) certified manufacturers. They’re held to much higher standards and are far less likely to have issues with cross-contamination or unlisted ingredients. Always ask for their GMP certificate and actually verify it.

The New Era of Third-Party Testing

As of April 2, 2024, Amazon tightened the screws even further. Now, they require mandatory third-party testing for all dietary supplements from an ISO/IEC 17025 accredited lab. This is no longer optional; it’s a gatekeeper requirement to sell supplements on Amazon.

This testing is designed to verify two key things:

1. Identity: The ingredients on your label are actually in the product at the stated potency.
2. Purity: Your product is free from nasty contaminants like heavy metals, pesticides, and microbes.

The lab has to send the Certificate of Analysis (COA) directly to Amazon. You can’t just forward an email from your supplier. It has to come straight from the accredited lab.

Strategy to Minimize High Testing Fees

Sellers often get sticker shock when they see the lab fees, which can easily run around $3,000 per product. If you’re launching a brand with multiple SKUs, that cost adds up fast.

So, how do you handle this without breaking the bank? The secret is to bundle your tests.

Instead of sending one product at a time, talk to the lab about testing multiple products (or ASINs) in a single batch. Most labs will give you a volume discount. If you’re launching a line of five different supplements, get a quote to test all five at once. This can often slash the per-unit testing cost by 20-30%. Start planning your launches in batches to take advantage of this from day one.

Writing Compliant Marketing Claims

This is where so many well-intentioned sellers trip up. You want to sell your product, of course, but making illegal disease claims will land you in hot water with both Amazon and the FDA.

You cannot claim your product can treat, cure, mitigate, or prevent any disease. Period.

• Illegal Claim: “Lowers high blood pressure.”
• Compliant Claim: “Helps support healthy blood pressure levels already within a normal range.”

See the difference? You need to focus on “structure/function” claims, which describe how a nutrient affects the normal structure or function of the body. Every claim you make must be truthful, not misleading, and backed by science. And always, always include that FDA disclaimer on your label and in your A+ Content.

To give you a head start, here’s a quick-reference table to keep these requirements top of mind.

Your Amazon Supplement Compliance Checklist

This table breaks down the essential documents and checks you’ll need to get approved and stay compliant on Amazon. Think of it as your cheat sheet.

By tackling these three pillars (labeling, ingredients, and claims) from the very beginning, you’re building a trustworthy brand that customers can depend on, and that’s a foundation you can scale on for years to come.

How to Get Approved to Sell Supplements on Amazon

Amazon is incredibly strict about approval because a single bad product can shatter customer trust across the entire category. Think of this as your first big hurdle as a serious brand owner.

Gathering Your Essential Documents

Before you think about starting the application, get your paperwork in perfect order.

Here’s the exact list of what you need to have ready:

• Certificate of Analysis (COA): This is absolutely non-negotiable. Your COA must come from an ISO/IEC 17025 accredited laboratory and verify the ingredients and purity of your supplement. Critically, the lab has to send this directly to Amazon. You can’t be the middleman.
• Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) Certificate: This document proves your product was manufactured in a facility that meets the FDA’s high standards for quality and safety. Make sure the certificate is current and clearly lists the manufacturer’s name and address.
• Real-World Product Photos: Amazon needs to see clear, unedited photos of your actual product packaging. This means images showing all six sides of the box or bottle. Every single word on the label must be crystal clear and legible. Don’t even think about using digital mockups or 3D renders.

Check that the manufacturer’s name and address on your GMP certificate exactly match the details printed on your product label. Even a tiny discrepancy, like “St.” instead of “Street,” can get your application flagged and rejected by Amazon’s automated review systems.

Submitting Your Application in Seller Central

With your documents prepped and double-checked, it’s time to apply. You’ll usually be prompted to do this when you attempt to create your very first supplement listing. Amazon will see what you’re trying to do and automatically redirect you to the application portal for the Dietary Supplements category.

The process is straightforward: upload each required document into the correct fields. Before you hit that final “submit” button, check everything one last time. A common slip-up is uploading a GMP certificate that’s just expired or a COA that doesn’t meet the specific ISO accreditation standard.

Once submitted, the waiting game begins. Amazon’s review team will comb through your documents, which can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, depending on their workload. You can keep an eye on your application’s status right from your Seller Central dashboard.

Common Rejection Reasons and How to Avoid Them

Plenty of sellers get rejected on their first try. It’s frustrating, but it’s almost always due to a simple, preventable mistake.

Here are the top reasons applications get denied:

• Expired or Invalid Documents: The number one issue is an expired GMP certificate. Always, always check the dates before you upload anything.
• Illegible Product Photos: If the text on your labels is blurry or can’t be read in the photos, it’s an instant rejection. Use a decent camera and good lighting; it’s not that hard.
• Mismatched Information: As I mentioned before, any inconsistencies between your COA, GMP, and product label will raise a red flag. All names, addresses, and product details must align perfectly.
• COA Not from an Accredited Lab: Submitting a COA from your manufacturer’s in-house team or a non-accredited third-party lab is an automatic “no.” It must be from an ISO/IEC 17025 lab.

Getting approved to sell supplements on Amazon is a huge milestone. It’s the foundational step to building a legitimate, trustworthy brand on the platform. If you’re still in the early stages and want a broader overview, our guide on how to start an ecommerce business on Amazon is a great place to get your bearings. Take the time to get your documentation right from the start, and you’ll set yourself up for a much smoother launch.

Finding Your Profitable Supplement Niche

The secret to selling supplements on Amazon is all about launching the right product in a niche you can actually own.

Jumping headfirst into a shark tank like “whey protein” or “women’s multivitamins” is a guaranteed way to burn through your ad budget with nothing to show for it.

Your mission is to find a pocket of the market where real people are looking for a solution, but the big brands haven’t completely taken over.

Uncover Opportunities with Keyword Research

Tools like Helium 10 becomes essential when searching for ideas. Its keyword research tool, Magnet, shows you the real search volume behind these ideas, stripping away the guesswork. I always tell my clients to start by looking for keywords with:

• Solid Search Volume: You want to see at least 5,000 monthly searches on main keyword only.
• Winnable Competition: Take a hard look at the first-page results. If it’s a wall of household names with thousands of reviews, that’s a red flag. It’ll be an uphill battle to compete.

For instance, you might discover that “keto electrolytes powder” gets a healthy 5,000 searches a month on main keyword, and the top sellers look beatable. That’s the kind of opportunity you’re looking for. The goal here is to find a product you can realistically get to page one within a few months, not a few years.

Analyze What’s Actually Selling

Keyword data is a great starting point, but you also need to see where the market is heading. What are people actually buying right now? Consumer interests in health and wellness shift constantly.

In 2025, the supplement market on Amazon has absolutely exploded, posting a massive 54% year-over-year increase in sales. This growth is driven by a clear consumer shift towards immune health, convenience, and highly specific formulations.

Right now, the hot sellers are things like sports fish oil mini-softgels, Vitamin D3 + K combos, and, of course, gummy vitamins. If you want to see for yourself, just check out the top-selling vitamins on Amazon.

This tells you that customers are craving specialized formulas (like the D3 + K pairing) and easy-to-take formats (gummies and mini-softgels). Starting with that insight is far more powerful than just picking a generic supplement from a supplier’s catalog.

Find a Manufacturer You Can Trust

Once you’ve landed on a promising product idea, your next move is finding a manufacturer. Let me be clear: this is the single most important decision you’ll make when you sell supplements on Amazon.

Don’t even think about working with a manufacturer that isn’t US-based and GMP-certified. Amazon will ask for proof, and sticking with a reliable domestic supplier is the surest way to nail the quality control and dodge supply chain disasters.

Your Manufacturer Vetting Checklist
Don’t sign a single thing until you have clear, confident answers to these questions:

• Can you provide a current GMP certificate?
• What’s your typical lead time for a production run of my size?
• Do you assist with third-party testing at an ISO/IEC 17025 accredited lab?
• What are your Minimum Order Quantities (MOQs)?
• Can you provide a Certificate of Analysis (COA) for every raw ingredient?

A good manufacturer will have all this ready to go. If you get any hesitation or they can’t produce these documents on the spot, walk away. Fast. Your entire brand reputation rests on the quality of your product, and that quality starts right here.

Supplements Launch Plan on Amazon

You’ve got a high-quality, fully compliant product. Now it’s time to get your supplement in front of shoppers.

A great product can’t sell itself if no one sees it. This is where a smart, modern launch plan separates the brands that stick around from those that fade into obscurity. Your initial push is all about building momentum.

For a deeper nitty-gritty, our complete guide to a successful Amazon product launch is a fantastic resource to have in your back pocket.

Kicking Things Off with Amazon PPC

Paid advertising is absolutely non-negotiable when you’re selling supplements on Amazon. The marketplace is just too crowded to hope for organic traffic right out of the gate.

Your goal with ads on day one isn’t profitability, it’s data.

• Exact Match Campaigns: Target your top 5-10 converting keywords. These are your heavy hitters, so bid more aggressively on them.
• Broad Match Campaigns: Use another set of relevant keywords here to keep the discovery process going for new search terms.
• Product Targeting (PAT) Campaigns: Go after your direct competitors by targeting their product pages to siphon off some of their traffic.
• Auto PPC Campaigns: These Amazon PPC campaigns help you find more profitable keywords with high conversion rates to use in exact campaigns.

The supplement category is notoriously competitive, and that drives up ad costs. It’s not uncommon to see an average cost-per-click (CPC) between $1.50 and $4.00. For a simple bottle of vitamin D3 drops priced at $9.99, you might see a CPC of $2.63. With conversion rates often landing around one order for every 3-4 clicks, a razor-sharp Amazon PPC strategy is the only way to stay in the green.

Driving External Traffic for Long-Term Growth

Relying 100% on Amazon’s ecosystem is a risky game. To build a brand that lasts, you need to create your own traffic streams. Driving shoppers from outside Amazon to your listing sends a powerful signal to the A9 algorithm that your product is hot, which can give your organic ranking a serious boost over time.

Social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok are perfect for the health and wellness space. Working with micro-influencers can be an incredibly effective way to generate authentic content and drive highly targeted traffic straight to your product page. For building genuine engagement and social proof, a comprehensive guide to User-Generated Content marketing offers some invaluable insights.

Building an email list is another brilliant move. Set up a simple brand website or landing page where you offer a discount code in exchange for an email. You can then direct that warm audience to your Amazon listing. This gives you a direct line of communication with your customers, something Amazon’s platform doesn’t provide. This multi-channel approach is how you build a resilient, scalable supplement business.

Questions & Answers: Selling Supplements on Amazon

Here are some of the most common from new sellers, along with some straight-up answers.

What’s the Real Cost to Get Started?

There’s no magic number, but let’s be realistic: you need to budget for a lot more than just your first batch of inventory. For a private label supplement brand heading into 2025, you should be looking at a starting budget somewhere between $10,000 and $20,000.

Here’s a rough breakdown of where that money goes:

• Initial Inventory: This will be your first big check to your GMP-certified manufacturer.
• Third-Party Lab Testing: This isn’t optional, it’s mandatory. Expect to spend around $3,000 per product just for this.
• Amazon Fees: You’ve got your professional seller account fees, referral fees, and all the other little costs that add up.
• Branding & Photography: Don’t skimp here. Professional design and top-notch images are non-negotiable for building trust.
• PPC Launch Budget: You can’t just list a product and hope for sales. You’ll need at least $2,000 to $5,000 set aside for your initial ad campaigns to get the ball rolling.

Can I Just Ship from My House with FBM?

Technically, you can use Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM). But should you? For supplements, the answer is almost always no.

Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is the way to go. Making your product Prime-eligible is a massive trust signal for customers, especially when they’re buying something they’re going to put in their body. People expect fast, reliable shipping for health products, and FBA is how you deliver that promise.

What Supplements are Actually Selling on Amazon?

Trends come and go, but some categories are consistently strong performers on the platform. The big sellers usually include things like:

• Vitamin D3 and K2 combinations
• Whey and plant-based protein powders
• Collagen peptides for skin and joint health
• Probiotics for gut health
• Ashwagandha for stress support

But here’s the key: don’t just jump in and try to sell a generic “whey protein.” The real opportunity is in finding a niche within these categories. Think “grass-fed keto whey protein” or “collagen with added biotin for hair growth.” That’s how you stand out.

If you’re looking to go even deeper on this topic, this complete guide to selling supplements on Amazon is a fantastic resource that covers more ground.

Launching a supplement brand on Amazon is a serious business. It demands a significant upfront investment and an almost obsessive focus on compliance. Never cut corners on lab testing or your branding. Your long-term success hinges on building a high-quality, trustworthy product right from day one.