Amazon stopped doing FBA prep. Here's what sellers do now

For years, Amazon sellers had a fallback. If a shipment arrived without FNSKU labels, or a product needed a poly bag, Amazon would do the work at the fulfillment center and charge a per-unit fee. That fallback is gone.

Amazon announced in July 2025 that it would stop offering prep and item labeling for FBA shipments in the US store, starting January 1, 2026. The change covers inventory you send straight to FBA and inventory that moves through Amazon's own programs such as Amazon Warehousing and Distribution (AWD).

What Amazon used to do, and what it charged

Amazon's prep service handled four main tasks, each billed per standard-size unit:

Amazon's former US fee table for standard-size units, as reported by Fulfill.com.

Shipments created before January 1, 2026 could still use the service. Anything created after that date has to arrive ready to sell.

What you're now responsible for

The prep itself didn't go away. Only who does it changed. Before your inventory reaches Amazon, someone now has to:

• Label every unit with a scannable FNSKU barcode, covering any other barcode on the item when Amazon requires it.
• Bag items that need it, such as apparel, soft goods and loose parts. Bags with an opening of 5 inches or more need a suffocation warning.
• Protect fragile items with bubble wrap or a box so they survive Amazon's network.
• Bundle sets correctly so multi-packs are sealed together and marked as sold as a set.
• Pack and label cartons to match your shipment plan in Seller Central.

Amazon also changed its barcode rules for resellers. As Amazon ended commingling in March 2026, sellers who used to rely on manufacturer barcodes have to label with Amazon barcodes so customers receive units from their own inventory. In practice, more units now need an FNSKU label than before.

Your three options

1. Do it yourself

This works when you ship a few hundred units a month from your garage or office. It stops working when restocks get bigger, when you're traveling, or when one labeling mistake gets a shipment held at the fulfillment center.

2. Have your factory do it

Factory prep is cheap per unit, but you're trusting a supplier overseas to print, place and check every label correctly. When something is wrong, you usually find out after the container lands.

3. Use a prep center

A prep center receives your inventory, checks it, labels and bags it, and ships it to Amazon on your shipment plan. You also get a place to hold backup stock, so you can send Amazon smaller batches more often and keep selling through FBM if FBA runs low.

What a prep center costs

Here's what prep costs at our Lorton, Virginia warehouse:

On a restock of 1,000 units that only need labeling, that's $350 at our rate, compared with $550 under Amazon's old labeling fee. The bigger saving is usually in avoided problems: units are counted and checked before they leave, so labeling errors are caught here instead of at the fulfillment center.

Getting set up

Getting started takes four steps:

1. Send us your SKU list and which items need bagging, bundling or protection.
2. Ship your supplier's next delivery to our Lorton address.
3. We count and inspect it and send you a receiving report.
4. You create the shipment plan in Seller Central. We prep, pack and send it.

You can also have us fulfill Merchant Fulfilled (FBM) orders from the same inventory. FBM orders that come in by 1 PM Eastern ship the same day.

Sources: Amazon Selling Partner API changelog, "US FBA prep and labeling services to end January 1, 2026"; Fulfill.com, "Amazon Ended FBA Prep and Labeling Services".

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