Amazon FBA Prep & Creating Your First Shipment Plan

Before anything can sell on FBA, it has to be prepped and labelled to Amazon's standards and shipped into a fulfilment centre. "Prep" just means getting each unit ready — labelled, protected, compliant. You can do it yourself or pay a prep centre, but either way, understanding the steps keeps you in control instead of guessing.

The basic prep gear

A simple home or warehouse prep setup is usually just:

• A scale and a tape measure, to log accurate weight and dimensions.
• A label printer with a rolls holder, plus FNSKU labels (commonly 2×1) and 4×6 shipping labels.
• Poly bags in common sizes (6×9 up to 18×12) and a tape dispenser with heavy-duty tape.
• Boxes, bubble wrap, stretch wrap — and for bigger volume, pallets, a service cart, a work bench.
• Special labels where they're required, like hazmat or "sold as a set" labels.

What the FNSKU label is for

The FNSKU is Amazon's barcode that ties a physical unit to your specific inventory. Label every unit with its FNSKU and your stock stays separate from other sellers' — which matters, because it protects your account from problems caused by someone else's defective items getting mixed in.

Making the first shipment plan

In Seller Central you create a shipment plan: pick the products and quantities, confirm prep and labelling, and Amazon assigns the destination warehouse(s). Then you pack to the plan, slap on the shipment labels, and hand the boxes to the carrier. Amazon receives them, scans them, and your units go live for sale.

Using a prep centre from here

Since you can't physically touch US inventory from Bangladesh, most sellers route stock to a prep centre — it receives the supplier shipment, preps and labels everything, then forwards it to Amazon. It adds a per-unit cost, so build prep fees into your profit math from the start. They hit your real ROI directly, and people forget that all the time.