Amazon’s prep requirements are unforgiving — a missing label or the wrong poly-bag can get an entire shipment refused or surcharged. Most of it is avoidable with a checklist and a prep team that does this every day.
Before anything ships
- FNSKU labels on every unit, scannable, covering the original barcode.
- Poly-bagging with the required suffocation warning on bags 5” or larger.
- Sets and bundles marked “sold as set” so they aren’t split.
- Expiration dates printed legibly for any consumable.
Case-pack and box rules
Amazon caps box weight and flags oversized cartons. Mixed-SKU boxes need accurate box content information, and master cases must match the quantities you declared. Get the counts wrong and you’ll spend weeks on a reconciliation case.
Most FBA rejections aren’t product problems — they’re labeling and packaging problems caught too late.
Why prep belongs where your inventory is
When prep happens in the same building that stores your stock, there’s no extra freight leg and no second handling fee. Inventory arrives from the port, gets prepped to spec, and ships to the fulfillment center — or to your own DTC customers — from one place.
The checklist, distilled
Label every unit, bag what needs bagging, mark your sets, respect the weight caps, and declare accurate counts. Do those five things and the vast majority of FBA headaches disappear.
