FBA Prep Service

Learn about the different prep services available for inventory you send to Amazon fulfilment centres and their associated fees.

You can use the FBA Prep Service to have Amazon properly package and prepare your products for fulfilment.

Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) has Packaging and prep requirements for products you ship to and store in Amazon fulfilment centres. Properly packaging and preparing units helps to reduce delays in receiving time, protect your products while in our fulfilment centres and create a better customer experience.

If you use the FBA Prep Service, Amazon will prepare your eligible products for a per-unit fee. After you enable the service, you can choose whether you or Amazon will prep the products that you send to fulfilment centres. When you build your shipping plan, we will provide an estimate of the prep fees based on the expected services for the selected products.

• Condition: Any (new, used, collectible, refurbished)
• Product type: Any (media and non-media)
• ASIN: Each unit must have a scannable barcode (ISBN, UPC, EAN or JAN). The unit’s barcode must not be punched out, marked over, covered or otherwise obstructed.

• For products that Amazon preps, you will be charged the applicable FBA Prep Service fees based on the services provided (see the table below). The prep services that we perform for your products are determined at Amazon’s sole discretion.
• There are separate fees for standard-size and oversize products.
• Your qualifying units may be divided into multiple shipments.
• If Amazon preps your products, the FBA Label Service may be included automatically for select products. You would then be charged the applicable per-item fee.

To enable the FBA Prep Service, follow these steps when creating your shipping plan:

1. Select a product that you want Amazon to prep.
2. On the Prepare products page, select Amazon in the Who preps? field.
3. In the pop-up window “Are you sure you want save settings to your Fulfilment by Amazon Settings?” click Yes.

Once you have enabled the FBA Prep Service, you can choose on the Prepare products page of your shipping plan whether Amazon or you will prep each eligible product by following the steps below.

You can also choose who preps your products by default on your FBA settings page. Changing the default does not affect previously created shipments or any prep preferences you have defined for specific items.

For products with prep guidance

For each eligible product listed on the Prepare products tab of Send/replenish inventory, select one of the following in the Who preps? field:

• Amazon if you want Amazon to prep the product
• Merchant if you want to prep the product yourself

Amazon will be the default selection for products with prep guidance.

For products without prep guidance

Products without prep guidance may still have packaging and prep requirements. For these products, Choose category will appear in the Prep guidance column on the Prepare products tab. If you want Amazon to prep these products, follow these steps:

1. Click Choose category from the Prep guidance column.
2. In the pop-up window, select the category that best fits your product from the Prep category drop-down list. Or select No prep if you believe that no prep is required.¹
3. Select Amazon in the Who preps? column.

If you don’t follow these steps or if you select Seller in the Who preps? column, you will be responsible for preparing these products.

¹ See the Prep matrix for descriptions of prep categories and related prep activities. To learn more, visit Packaging and prep requirements.

After determining who will prep the products, you can choose on the Label product page whether Amazon or you will apply labels to each unit.

You can also choose who labels your products by default in your FBA settings. Changing the default does not affect previously created shipments or any label preferences you have defined for specific items.

For more information, go to FBA Label Service.

*Amazon will eventually charge for these additional prep services: boxing, hanger removal, set creation, suffocation stickering and set stickering.

**The label service is optional. All products must have a scannable label that will be visible after prep is complete.