FBA Prep & Labelling Spec Generator

How to use this checker

What changed for FBA prep in 2026

Three dated changes decide how you prep this year. On 1 January 2026 Amazon stopped offering prep and item labelling for US FBA shipments — including inventory sent through AWD, Amazon Global Logistics, Amazon SEND and the Supply Chain Portal. Until the end of 2025 you could let Amazon bag, bubble-wrap or label units for a per-unit fee; that option is gone, and the FBA Prep Service page says so plainly: "When this change takes effect on January 1, all products must be prepped and labeled before sending them to our facilities."

The same date removed the safety net. Shipments created after 1 January 2026 that arrive without proper prep and item labelling are not eligible for reimbursement if damaged or untraceable — an unprepped unit that goes missing or breaks is your loss, not Amazon's. And on 15 January 2026 inbound defect fees became a single per-unit fee, from $0.32 (small standard-size, 16 oz or less) to $5.72 (large bulky, 42 to 50 lb), charged on misrouted, deleted or abandoned units — a separate cost from prep, and a reason to follow the shipping plan you approved.

On 31 March 2026 the barcode rule split by who you are. Brand owners registered in Amazon Brand Registry may keep using the manufacturer barcode without stickers; resellers must use an Amazon barcode (FNSKU) on every unit, even if the product already has a manufacturer barcode. That change ended commingling for resellers: a reseller who shipped stickerless now needs an FNSKU label on every unit. The 31 March 2026 reseller rule is reported by trade guides citing Amazon's barcode help pages; Amazon's help pages need sign-in to read directly.

Amazon also offers a third way to skip most prep: Ships in Product Packaging (SIPP). If the retail packaging is SIPP-certified, the product ships in its own box and most prep does not apply — confirm the certification in Seller Central first, because an uncertified box that fails in transit is treated like any other unprepped shipment.

The prep rules this tool uses

The rules below are the 2026 US schedule, verified 12 November 2026 against Amazon's published help pages and the trade guides that cite them. Amazon revises them in its help updates, and your Seller Central account shows the rules that actually apply to your SKU. Check them against Seller Central's Prepare your products for FBA shipping page; where a rule here and your account disagree, your account is right.

Fragile items need at least two layers of bubble wrap with nothing exposed, and must pass Amazon's 3-foot drop test — five drops onto concrete (top, bottom, largest side, bottom corner, longest bottom edge). Allowed cushioning is bubble wrap, foam, air pillows and full sheets of paper; never use packing peanuts (including biodegradable), Styrofoam, crinkle wrap, shredded paper or foam strips. If a fragile unit fails the drop test after bubble wrap, box it in a six-sided box — over 10 lb needs double-wall corrugated.

Expiry-dated products print the date as MM-DD-YYYY or MM-YYYY on every unit and on the master carton, at 36pt or larger on the outer box, and must have at least 90 days of shelf life left when they reach the fulfillment center (some categories need more — check the expiration-dated products page). Liquids, pastes, gels and creams of 4.2 oz (125 mL) or more with a twist, clip-on, flip-top or pump lid and no secondary seal need tape on or around the cap; hazmat liquids need bagging instead. Sets carry a "Sold as Set, Do Not Separate" label on the outer packaging, with no inner barcode visible or scannable, and each item inside still needs the prep for its own category.

Worked example — the checker's default numbers, so you can reproduce every figure: a reseller sending 200 units of a cotton T-shirt (apparel) to a US fulfillment center, large standard-size (≤ 3 lb), 20 units per case, direct to FBA. The prep list has 6 steps: an FNSKU label on every unit (reseller rule since 31 March 2026), a polybag at least 1.5 mil (0.038 mm) thick, a suffocation warning on the bag — a 6 × 8 inch bag has a 6-inch opening, above the 5-inch threshold, and with length plus width of 14 inches the minimum print size is 10 point — then the carton, case-pack and pallet rules. Defect-fee exposure: $64.00 – $348.00 (200 units × $0.32–$1.74). 3PL prep if outsourced: $100.00 – $400.00 (200 units × $0.50–$2.00, the reported 3PL range). Before 1 January 2026 Amazon would have charged $250.00 for this exact prep (bagging $0.70 + labelling $0.55 a unit) — that service no longer exists in the US store.

How to cut the risk

Prep at the factory, not at the 3PL. The factory already has the product in hand; a 3PL charges $0.50–$2.00 a unit to do the same work later, and every handover is another chance for a swapped label. Send the supplier sheet with the purchase order, not after the goods are made. One barcode per unit, and only one. The most expensive labelling mistake is not a missing label but a swapped one — near-identical X00 FNSKU codes across colour variants. Check the first packed unit against Seller Central before the run continues. Photograph the first packed carton. Bag, warning, label placement, carton markings — one photo set per SKU is the cheapest insurance against a refused shipment. Check Send to Amazon Step 1. In Send to Amazon, edit Packing details and click the product's prep category to open the Prepare your FBA items window — it shows whether the product has specific prep requirements and lets you start an investigation if you think a listed requirement is wrong. Use SIPP where it fits. If the retail packaging can be certified, it removes most prep entirely. Check AWD eligibility at the ASIN level before booking an AWD shipment — oversized ASINs are blocked at shipment creation from 31 July 2026, with no manual appeal.

FBA Prep Checker: what this tool models

This FBA prep checker builds one SKU's prep spec from ten questions — seller type, product category, destination and shipment size — using the 2026 US prep and labelling rules. It outputs the per-SKU prep list, a plain-English supplier instruction sheet for a China factory, and the cost of getting it wrong: the inbound defect-fee exposure for the shipment, the reported 3PL prep range, and the loss of reimbursement cover on unprepped units. It is the handover document a sourcing team would use — the same spec ZAXIUS's own China sourcing team works from.

What it deliberately does not model: category-specific prep beyond the questions above, dangerous-goods classification for an exact battery or chemical, and the ASIN-level AWD eligibility check that Seller Central runs at shipment creation. Run the checker before you place the factory order, before you approve a packing sample, and every time Amazon updates its prep guidance — because a rule that changed in January is already a refused shipment by March. Our FBA inventory placement optimizer answers the next question: where each unit should live once it is prepped.