FBA prep looks simple until your first shipment gets flagged. A missing barcode, a polybag without a suffocation warning, a set that Amazon counted as loose units, and suddenly you are paying surprise fees or waiting on a shipment stuck in receiving.

Prep is the unglamorous part of selling on Amazon, and it is where a lot of new brands lose money quietly. Here is what FBA prep involves in 2026, what it costs, and how to keep a shipment clean.

What “FBA prep” actually means

Prep is everything between your supplier and Amazon’s shelf: receiving and inspection, FNSKU labeling, polybagging with a suffocation warning where needed, protecting fragile items, bundling and set labeling, expiration and lot labeling for consumables, and carton labels so the inbound checks in cleanly. Skip any of these and Amazon either charges you to fix it or refuses the shipment.

The requirements that trip people up

Most rejected shipments come down to a handful of repeat offenders: the FNSKU is wrong or missing, polybags with a 5-inch opening lack a suffocation warning, multi-packs are not labeled as single units, expiration dates are missing or wrong, or sharp and loose items are not contained. None of this is hard once. It gets hard doing it for a few hundred units, by hand, the week before a restock.

What FBA prep costs

Three options: do it yourself (cheapest on paper, most expensive in time), let Amazon prep it (convenient, but per-unit fees add up and you lose control), or use a prep service. At Shiplakes, FBA prep starts at a $1.00 per unit base, polybagging at $0.20 per bag, a one-time $175 onboarding, and the first 30 days of storage free while you ramp. Under a hundred units a month, doing it yourself is usually fine. Once you restock regularly, the math points to outsourcing.

FBA prep checklist

Before any shipment goes to Amazon, tap to confirm:

• Correct FNSKU on every unit, covering the manufacturer barcode.
• Polybags sealed, with suffocation warnings where required.
• Fragile items protected.
• Sets and bundles labeled as single units.
• Expiration and lot info printed correctly on consumables.
• Box content submitted and carton labels applied.
• Shipment created in Seller Central with the right quantities.

Who we work with

We are a 3PL in Warren, Michigan, and FBA prep is one of the things we do most. We work best with brands shipping 50 to 1,000 orders a month, and we also run pick and pack, returns, and storage, so your DTC and Amazon channels live under one roof. See our published rates.