Defective product hits customer, customer complains, you replace and apologize. Multiply by hundreds and your CSAT tanks. The lever is QC at receiving from supplier, before product enters fulfillment. This SOP defines the inspection protocol.
DTC brands manufacturing or sourcing physical product. Critical for soft launches and new SKUs.
A 2 percent defect rate sounds small. On 10K orders that's 200 angry customers, 200 replacement shipments, 200 chances to lose them. Catching at QC instead of post-ship costs you the inspection time and saves all of that.
Lot of 1000 units, inspect 80. Lot of 10,000 inspect 200. AQL 2.5 standard for general defects.
Functional failure (product doesn't work), safety issue, brand-damaging visible defect. Reject lot if any critical defect found.
Visible cosmetic issues, mislabeling, packaging damage. Reject lot if rate above 4 percent of sample.
Small cosmetic that customer probably won't notice. Acceptable rate up to 10 percent of sample.
Evidence for supplier credit if rejected.
Critical, major, minor. Pattern over time per supplier.
Same defect type 3 months in a row = supplier conversation.
Don't ship rejected product. Separate physical location until disposition (return to supplier, scrap, outlet).
Record your screen while running this procedure. ReccordSOP captures every step with screenshots, then alerts you when the actual process drifts from documentation.
Try ReccordSOP freeCritical: 0 percent. Major: under 2.5 percent. Minor: under 4 percent. Brand-specific based on product type.
Supplier should refund or replace defective lots. Document in contract upfront.
First 3 shipments yes. After that, reduce sample size if quality is consistent. Resume full QC if defects appear.
I built ReccordSOP after watching too many DTC ops teams lose months to undocumented workflows. These SOPs are battle-tested with Shopify operators running $1M to $50M brands.
Last reviewed June 1, 2026