Walmart announced this week that it is upgrading its vendor compliance processes in China, following a report by state-owned China Central Television, criticizing the retail giant for circumventing quality-control processes.

In a statement, Walmart said it “has been increasing its vendor compliance procedures over the last two years and will now add further steps to ensure the correct documents and other required items are in place before the products are sold in our stores.”

Walmart's documentation process includes the verification of:

The availability of a product label that accurately reflects the product ingredients;

Government test reports;

China Compulsory Certification received for relevant products;

Sample product or pictures received from the manufacturer;

Permits received from the manufacturer—such as a business license, tax certificate, production certificate, or certification of organization code;

Substantiated product claims for authenticity (“organic,” “world-famous,” and health benefits);

Official bar codes applied for by the manufacturer and issued by the government; and

Intellectual property documents received from the vendor.

“This process requires the collection, organization, filing and retention of well over one million documents annually,” the company stated.

To effectively achieve that documentation, Walmart China said it has invested in a “computer-based system enabling vendors to upload all required legal documents.” This system, which was piloted in September 2013, is “now ready for broad-based application across the supply chain,” Walmart stated.

Walmart cited the process used for moon cakes as an example: “Planning our mooncake assortment occurs months before the Mid-Autumn Festival; when we place orders with suppliers, they have not yet manufactured any product. As a result, we do not yet possess some documents needed to eventually place the mooncakes for sale. The improved system will provide reminders to attain samples, testing reports and all other documents prior to selling the items.”

Walmart stated that the new verification process strengthens the company's compliance processes by “accelerating the vendor utilization of its online system to upload documents and reiterate government requirements to vendors at our February vendor conference.” It also establishes “more stringent management controls, metrics and executive oversight to emphasize products not be sold without all required document.”

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