FBA prep centers: what they do, what they cost, and how to choose one

If you buy wholesale and sell through Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), your supplier's cartons have to become labeled, Amazon-ready units before they reach an Amazon warehouse. Somebody has to do that work. This guide helps you decide whether that somebody should be you or a prep center, what a prep center will charge, and how to pick one you won't regret.

Where our Amazon details come from. Amazon keeps its detailed prep pages inside Seller Central, behind a sign-in, so we couldn't check their current wording for this guide. What we say about Amazon's rules comes from pages you can open yourself: Amazon's prep and labeling guide on sell.amazon.com, its Selling Partner API notice, and its announcement on the US Seller Forums. Figures from other companies are labeled as reported.

What a prep center does

A prep center (you'll also see prep service provider, or FBA prep warehouse) is the stop between your supplier and Amazon. Your distributor ships the order there instead of to your home. The prep center gets it ready the way Amazon requires and sends it on to the Amazon warehouses your shipment names.

Here's what happens to one case of product on the way through, and where things tend to go wrong:

Many prep centers do more than that. Common extras are storage between shipments, building bundles and multipacks, handling returns, receiving removal orders from Amazon, and shipping orders you fulfill yourself. If you remove slow stock from Amazon, our storage fees guide explains when that makes sense.

Prep center or 3PL? A 3PL (third-party logistics company) is any company that stores and ships goods for other businesses. A prep center is a 3PL that specializes in getting inventory ready for FBA. Plenty of companies do both, so ask what each one actually does in-house.

Stef describes the whole chain at the start of his restocking lesson. The prep center is one of three clocks that decide when your stock is sellable:

"This includes the lead time from our suppliers from the moment that we place the PO until the inventory arrives at our warehouse or prep center. The days of prepping time that it takes for these facilities to label everything and prepare them to be shipped out to FBA, and of course, the time that it takes for the inventory to arrive and be sellable within our Amazon account."

From Stef's lesson (Restocking, at 0:34)

From the prep center to Amazon: Send to Amazon

You tell Amazon a shipment is coming in Seller Central's Send to Amazon workflow, whoever does the packing. In short, you choose the products and how they're packed, choose how the shipment travels (small parcel boxes or pallets), pick a placement option, and print the box labels. Amazon's beginner's guide says to have your ship-from address, product measurements, boxes, poly bags, a scale and a printer ready before you start.

When you use a prep center, its warehouse is your ship-from address. Two things are worth settling before the first shipment:

• Who builds it. Some prep centers build shipments for you, others want you to build them and send over the box labels. Agree which, and who answers for a mistake.
• The placement option. Send to Amazon asks how to split the shipment, and that choice decides whether you pay the inbound placement fee. More destinations can also mean more work at the prep center, so ask how it charges for split shipments.

For products you reorder, Amazon's Send to Amazon guide describes case pack templates, which save the box contents, weight, dimensions, and prep and labeling details so you don't type them for every shipment.

What changed: Amazon stopped prepping and labeling US FBA inventory

For years you could pay Amazon to bag or label some products when they arrived. In 2026 that option ended in the US, and a second change made labeling every unit the reseller's job.

Amazon also has an FBA Prep Service help page in Seller Central. It needs a sign-in, so we couldn't check what it says now. Read it in your own account if you want Amazon's full wording.

The second change took effect three months later. Amazon announced on its US Seller Forums that commingling would end for inventory shipped on or after March 31, 2026. Commingling was Amazon filling your order with an identical unit from another seller's stock. Ending it changed who must label.

Put the two together and here is what it means for you:

• As a reseller, every unit you send to FBA needs an Amazon barcode that someone outside Amazon applied. That's you, your prep center or your supplier. Our FNSKU labels guide covers what the label is and where it goes.
• Prep mistakes are yours to pay for. Amazon's prep and labeling guide says it may refuse, return or repackage inventory that arrives with inadequate packaging, at the seller's expense.
• Prep is now a cost and a delay on every reorder. Count it in the numbers before you buy, which the cost section below shows how to do.

Our log of Amazon rule changes keeps every change that affects resellers in one table, with dates and Amazon's pages.

Amazon's prep rules, in brief

You don't need to memorize Amazon's prep rules if a prep center does the work, but you should know them well enough to check it. Here is what Amazon's prep, packaging and labeling guide on sell.amazon.com asks for:

• Poly bags for perforated packaging, pellets, powders and granular items; plush and baby products; apparel, fabrics and textiles; jewelry and small products; and liquids. Bags must be clear and fully sealed, extend no more than 3 inches past the product, and carry a suffocation warning when the opening is larger than 5 inches.
• Bubble wrap instead of a bag for sharp items, fragile items, ceramics and glass, with the label on the outside of the wrap.
• Sets packaged together, with a label such as "Sold as set" or "Ready to ship" on the outside, when items sold as one unit aren't an official set.
• Loose products in a single secure package. Units in loose sleeves or pouches get bagged or secured with a non-adhesive band or removable tape.
• Labels that scan: on a smooth, flat surface, never damaged or photocopied. The FNSKU labels guide has the size and placement.
• Shipping boxes with any old barcodes removed, covered or crossed out, so the warehouse scans only your box label.

Two product types carry extra rules. Products with an expiration date have their own requirements for how the date is shown and how much shelf life must remain, set out on Amazon's expiration-dated products page. That page needs a sign-in, so read it in your own account before you buy dated products. And hazmat products need their own handling. From Stef's lesson on purchasing:

"If you are already selling hazmat products or you are already in the hazmat program, sending hazmat shipments requires a separate prepping type. Not something I recommend for new beginners."

From Stef's lesson (Purchasing, at 7:11)

Amazon's guide also says it may add prep requirements to a specific product after damage-related returns, so a product that needed nothing last year may need a bag this year.

Do you need a prep center?

Not always. Plenty of sellers prep their first orders on a kitchen table, and some ask the supplier to do it. Here's how the three options compare:

Doing it yourself for your first orders has a real upside: you learn what each product needs, so your instructions to a prep center are better later. Our first wholesale order guide covers how big those first orders should be.

These are the signs that it's time to hand prep off:

• Distributors won't ship to your home. Wholesale orders arrive as cartons and pallets, and many distributors want a commercial receiving address. In his checklist lesson, Stef lists a commercial address, through a warehouse or a prep center, as part of getting wholesale accounts approved. Our guide to opening a wholesale account explains why.
• Prep is eating the hours you need for sourcing. Receiving, counting, labeling and boxing take longer than they look, and the hours grow with every order.
• Your products need special prep. Glass, liquids, dated products and sets are where home prep mistakes happen.
• You can't be there. If a reorder waits for you to get home, you will run out of stock.
• Your volume has grown. One third-party cost comparison, reported in the next section, puts the crossover in the hundreds of units a month once your time is counted.

A middle path works well for many sellers: prep the first test orders yourself, then move each product to a prep center once it proves it sells.

What FBA prep centers charge

There is no standard price list, and prep centers build their quotes differently. Most quotes are made of these parts:

• Receiving: per unit, per box or per pallet, sometimes with a monthly minimum.
• Prep per unit: the label, and often a poly bag. Ask exactly what's included, because some quotes leave the label out.
• Extras: bundles and multipacks, bubble wrap, expiration date labels, and oversize or heavy items.
• Storage: per pallet, per bin or per cubic foot, usually after a period at no charge.
• Shipping to Amazon: their carrier rates, or Amazon's partnered carrier rates through Send to Amazon. Ask whose rates apply and whether they add a handling charge.
• Exceptions: cartons that arrive without notice, missing paperwork, relabeling, returns and disposal.
• Setup fees and monthly minimums, which some prep centers charge and many waive.

Treat those ranges as a sense of scale, not a quote. The publisher doesn't name the prep centers behind them, and your products, your volume and your region will move the price.

A cheap rate is not a cheap invoice

The per-unit rate is the number prep centers lead with, and the one that tells you least. Here is an example with two made-up quotes, both inside the reported ranges above, for the same month: 600 units arriving on two pallets that sit in storage for about three weeks before they ship.

The lower rate costs more. So build the same quote from every prep center you consider, on one month of your real volume, with every line included. Ask for an itemized rate sheet, and be wary of anyone who will only give you a single number.

Put prep into your numbers before you buy

Prep is part of what a unit really costs you, alongside what you paid the supplier and the freight to get it into Amazon. Our landed cost guide adds all of it up per unit. Stef walks through it on an example purchase order in his purchasing lesson. Each line carries a prep type and a prep cost, sixty cents in his example, which go into the landed cost along with the unit cost, the shipping estimate and the placement fee:

"So when you read landed cost, this is the true dollar amount that it will cost you to bring this inventory inside Amazon Fulfillment Centers."

From Stef's lesson (Purchasing, at 4:51)

Try it with your own quote. Put your prep center's all-in cost per unit, plus freight to Amazon, in the "Prep and shipping to Amazon" field below. Then switch to "Most I can pay" and set the return you want. Every dollar you add to prep comes straight off the most you can pay the supplier and still hit that return. For a version you can bookmark, there's the free profit calculator. It counts the FBA fee as part of your cost when it works out return on investment, so its ROI reads a little lower than this one.

Profit and most-you-can-pay calculator

Profit at my costMost I can pay

Selling price

$

Amazon fee categoryAmazon Device AccessoriesAppliances, CompactAppliances, Full-sizeAutomotive and PowersportsBase Equipment Power ToolsBaby ProductsBackpacks, Handbags, and LuggageBeauty, Health, and Personal CareBusiness, Industrial, and Scientific SuppliesClothing and AccessoriesComputersConsumer ElectronicsElectronics AccessoriesEyewearFine ArtFootwearFurnitureGift CardsGrocery and GourmetHome and KitchenJewelryLawn and GardenLawn Mowers and Snow ThrowersMattressesMedia: Books, DVD, Music, Software, VideoMusical Instruments and AV ProductionOffice ProductsPet SuppliesPet Supplies: veterinary dietsSports and OutdoorsTiresTools and Home ImprovementToys and GamesVideo Games and Gaming AccessoriesVideo Game ConsolesWatchesEverything Else

FBA fulfillment fee

$

Per unit, from Amazon's FBA fulfillment fees page or Amazon's Revenue Calculator. Leave it empty if you ship orders yourself.

Prep and shipping to Amazon

$

Per unit.

Other costs

$

Per unit: storage, returns, ads, anything else you count.

What you pay the supplier

$

Per unit.

Referral feeWhat is this fee?$3.75

FBA fulfillment feeWhat is this fee?Not entered

Amazon pays out per unit$21.24

Prep, shipping and other costs$0.50

Type what you pay the supplier.

Runs in your browser from Amazon's published US fee tables. Nothing you type is sent anywhere.

On cheap, fast-moving products, prep can decide whether a deal works at all. Our FBA fees guide covers the fees Amazon takes when the unit sells, and the startup cost guide budgets for prep from your first order.

Prep adds days, not just dollars

A prep center's turnaround is part of your lead time, the gap between paying a supplier and having stock to sell. Stef's restocking lesson puts numbers on it with one example:

"If we include the lead time from our supplier, twelve days, the amount of time that it takes for our facilities to do all the prepping, let's call it three, and the shipping time from our warehouse or prep center to Amazon, we're gonna add that to four, we have a total of nineteen days of lead time."

From Stef's lesson (Restocking, at 1:35)

A prep center that turns orders around in two days in March and seven days in November can empty your shelf at the worst moment of the year. Ask what turnaround looks like in the fourth quarter, not just its best case, and reorder with that number. The full lesson walks through the reorder math.

How to choose a prep center

A prep center is closer to infrastructure than to a vendor you can swap out mid-shipment. A poor choice rarely shows up as one bad invoice. It shows up as stock that arrives late in a busy season, damage nobody reported, or a shipment Amazon turns away. These are the things that separate a good fit from a bad one.

Start with what you sell

Prep is not one service. Case-packed goods from a distributor need different handling from mixed pallets, and anything fragile, meltable, hazmat, oversize or dated narrows the field before price even comes up. Send your product list and ask what they handle in-house, not just what their website lists.

Get turnaround in writing

Ask how long it takes from the moment your cartons arrive to the moment the boxes leave for Amazon, and what happens when they miss it. Get the answer in writing, with the fourth-quarter number beside the normal one.

Test how they communicate

Send a real question before you send any inventory, and see how fast and how clearly they answer. A prep center you can't get a straight answer from while it's trying to win your business will be harder to reach once your stock is on its floor and something has gone wrong. Most prep center problems aren't about price. They're about silence when a count is short.

Ask how you'll see your inventory

Can you see what arrived, what's in storage and what shipped without sending an email? Ask for a sample receiving report, and ask whether they photograph damaged cartons when they arrive. Those photos are what you'll need when you take a shortage back to the supplier.

Think about location

A prep center close to your main suppliers cuts the freight you pay to get stock in. Where it ships to Amazon from matters too. With a minimal split, Amazon picks the inbound location and the placement fee changes by region, as our inbound placement fee guide explains. Location rarely decides on its own, but between two good options it's a fair tiebreaker. The section below covers prep centers in another state.

Read the liability terms before you sign

If units are lost or damaged in the prep center's building, the prep center's agreement decides what happens. Units lost before they reach Amazon are a matter between you and the prep center, so ask:

• What do they owe you for lost or damaged units, and is it capped?
• Do they carry insurance that covers your inventory, or should you insure it yourself?
• How do they count units in and out, and how fast do they report a discrepancy?
• How much notice do you need to give to leave, and how do they release your inventory when you do?

Start with a test shipment

Send a small first order before you route everything through a new prep center, even one a friend recommends. Watch it end to end: the receiving report, the labels, the boxes, the time to Amazon and the invoice. Then ask how they handle a spike. A prep center that does great work for you at low volume and falls behind when your order doubles is a problem you'll only find once you depend on it.

Where to find prep centers to compare

This guide doesn't list or rank prep centers. A few places to start your shortlist:

• Amazon's Service Provider Network. Amazon's directory of outside providers has an FBA preparation category, and you search it in Seller Central under Apps and Services. Amazon's overview of the network says you can filter by location and compare reviews, completed requests and reference prices. Amazon also says it does not endorse any provider, and that you contract with the provider directly.
• Your suppliers. Distributors ship to prep centers every day. Ask which ones receive their orders smoothly.
• Other sellers. Ask people who sell products like yours, and ask what went wrong, not just whether they like their prep center.

Red flags

• A single per-unit number with no itemized rate sheet.
• No written turnaround, or a turnaround that only holds outside the busy season.
• Slow, vague replies before you're even a client.
• No receiving reports, and no photos of damage.
• No clear answer on what they owe you if units are lost or damaged.
• A long contract or a large deposit before any test shipment.
• No process for a shipment Amazon refuses or asks to relabel.
• Unfamiliar with the 2026 changes: Amazon no longer preps or labels, and resellers label every unit.

Questions to ask before you sign

Copy or print this list and send it to every prep center on your shortlist. The answers make quotes comparable.

Questions to ask a prep center before you sign

• Which of my products can you handle in-house: fragile, liquid, dated, oversize, hazmat, sets?
• Do you follow Amazon's current US prep and labeling rules, including an FNSKU label on every unit?
• Will you build my shipments in Send to Amazon, or do I build them and send you the labels?
• What do you do when Amazon refuses a shipment or asks for relabeling?
• Will you send me an itemized rate sheet: receiving, prep, labels, bags, bubble wrap, bundles, storage and outbound shipping?
• Do you charge setup fees or a monthly minimum?
• How long is storage included, and how is it measured after that: per pallet, per bin or per cubic foot?
• Whose carrier rates apply for shipping to Amazon, and do you add a handling charge?
• What do you charge for exceptions: cartons that arrive without notice, missing paperwork, relabeling, returns, disposal?
• What's your turnaround from receiving to shipping, in writing, and what is it in the fourth quarter?
• How do you report shortages, damage and over-deliveries, and how fast?
• Do you photograph damaged cartons and units when they arrive?
• Can I see my inventory, receiving counts and shipments without emailing you?
• What do you owe me if units are lost or damaged in your building, and is it capped?
• Does your insurance cover my inventory, or should I insure it myself?
• How much notice do I give to leave, and how do you release my inventory?
• Can I start with a small test shipment?

Copy the list Print

Before your first shipment arrives, line up the handoff. Most first-shipment problems are paperwork, not skill.

Before your first shipment reaches the prep center

• Send the purchase order ahead, so they can match what arrives against it.
• Agree how case packs, bundles and multipacks are counted.
• Send written instructions for every product: the FNSKU label file, and whether it needs a bag, bubble wrap or a set label.
• Put the prep center's receiving address on the supplier's order, and tell the distributor if it's in another state, because that can change which resale certificate it needs.
• Agree who builds the shipment in Send to Amazon.
• Enter your per-unit prep cost in your own numbers, so profit and the most you can pay a supplier reflect it.
• Plan reorders with the prep center's turnaround added to your supplier's lead time.

Copy the list Print

My prep center is in another state

That's normal. Many wholesale sellers live in one state and send inventory to a prep center in another, near their suppliers or near a part of the country they ship from. Stef's own example from his purchasing lesson:

"I know that our supplier is going to send this inventory to our prep center in Texas. So in inbound regions, make sure that you have the West, Central, East Coast selected accordingly where inventory is gonna be shipped out from."

From Stef's lesson (Purchasing, at 3:19)

He's setting up a purchase order's shipping estimates in that lesson, and the point holds in any spreadsheet too: estimate freight and placement from where the prep center is, not from where you live.

A few things change when the prep center is out of state:

• Freight in. Ask each distributor which of its warehouses will ship your order. A prep center near that warehouse costs less to reach than one across the country.
• Freight out to Amazon. Your shipment leaves from the prep center's address, so that is where your inbound shipping and placement fee estimates start. Our inbound placement fee guide explains how the region changes the fee.
• The resale certificate. When a distributor ships to your prep center, the rules of the state it delivers to can decide which resale certificate the distributor needs, and your home-state certificate may not be enough. Our resale certificate guide walks through what several states say. Tell the distributor the ship-to address on the application, not after the first order.
• You can't drop by. Lean harder on the test shipment, receiving reports and photos.

Choose a prep center for the quality of its work and how well it fits your shipments. Don't choose one for its state's tax rules: a valid resale certificate is what keeps sales tax off inventory you buy to resell.

Working with your prep center in Apex

Apex is software. It doesn't run a prep center or handle your inventory. What it does is keep your prep costs and your prep center's work next to the rest of your numbers.

Prep cost in every purchase order. In Apex Blue, you enter your inbound shipping and prep costs, and each purchase order counts them in its landed cost, projected profit and ROI. That's the same landed cost Stef reads in the lesson quoted above. Restock suggestions can include your supplier's lead time and your prep center's days of prepping, so a reorder accounts for the time prep takes. See how Blue works.

Shipments and prep bills in one place. If your prep center works in Apex, Apex Red keeps your shipments, the inventory held at the prep center, your messages with them and their bills in one place. Red is in beta and opened by invitation. When your prep center is approved on Apex, it is free for you. See how Red works.

If your prep center isn't on Apex yet, send them to Apex for prep centers. It explains what their team does in Apex, from receiving your inbound to billing, and each prep center is set up with us on an onboarding call before its account opens.

Once your stock is labeled and on its way, the next job is selling it on a listing you share with other sellers. Labels are covered in depth in FNSKU labels explained, and every stage of the business is on the Amazon wholesale roadmap.

Questions about FBA prep centers

Does Amazon still prep or label FBA inventory in the US?

No. Amazon's Selling Partner API notice says prep and item labeling services for FBA shipments are no longer available in the US marketplace starting January 1, 2026. That includes inventory routed through Amazon Warehousing and Distribution. You, your prep center or your supplier must prep and label every unit before it ships.

Can my supplier ship straight to Amazon and skip the prep center?

Only if the supplier will prep and label every unit to Amazon's rules, with your FNSKU labels. Some distributors and brands offer this, often for a fee. Check the first carton yourself or have someone check it, because a labeling mistake becomes a problem in your Amazon account, not theirs.

Can I work with two prep centers at once?

Yes. Some sellers use one prep center near their East Coast suppliers and another in the West, or keep a second one as a backup for busy months. It adds coordination: separate rate sheets, separate receiving reports and more places to check stock. Start with one, and add a second when a real need appears.

What happens if a prep center loses or damages my units?

Your agreement with the prep center decides it, which is why liability belongs in writing before you send anything. Ask what they owe you for lost or damaged units, whether it's capped, and whether their insurance covers your inventory. Match their receiving report against your purchase order on every delivery, and raise a shortage right away.

Does Apex run a prep center?

No. Apex is software for sellers and the prep centers they work with. It doesn't receive, store or ship your inventory. If your prep center works in Apex, you can use Apex Red with it for shipments, messages and bills, next to your purchase orders and profit numbers.