Overview

Amazon’s Transparency program adds a serial‑number verification step to every Fulfilled‑by‑Amazon (FBA) shipment. When a brand enrolls, each unit receives a unique code that Amazon scans before the item leaves a fulfillment center, giving sellers real‑time proof of authenticity. The feature is crucial for brands fighting counterfeits and for sellers who need to protect their account health.

Key Points

• Transparency enrollment required — Only products that a brand has added to the Transparency program can use serial‑number tracking; sellers cannot enable the feature on a single SKU outside the program.
• Automatic scan at fulfillment — Once enrolled, Amazon staff scan the unique Transparency barcode on every unit during the pick‑and‑pack process, so sellers do not need to trigger the scan for each order.
• Multi‑marketplace coverage — The service is live in the U.S., U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, Canada, India and Australia, allowing brands with global listings to maintain a single anti‑counterfeit workflow.
• Brand‑level onboarding — Enrollment is performed at the brand level in Brand Registry; after the brand is approved, all eligible SKUs under that brand inherit the tracking automatically.
• Counterfeit deterrence — If a code is missing, duplicated, or flagged as invalid, the unit is held back, preventing counterfeit or mis‑labelled items from reaching buyers.

How Serial Number Tracking Works

1. Code generation and application — Amazon creates a unique 2‑D Transparency barcode for each unit; a brand that sells a 500‑unit batch of a scented candle would receive 500 distinct codes, which the manufacturer prints directly onto the product packaging.
2. Inbound receipt at the fulfillment center — When the batch arrives at an Amazon warehouse, staff verify that every case contains items with valid Transparency barcodes; a case missing 3 out of 500 codes is flagged and returned to the seller for correction.
3. Order‑level scan before shipment — For a buyer’s order of the scented candle, a warehouse associate scans the barcode on the selected unit; the system cross‑checks the code against Amazon’s database and confirms it has not been used before.