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What is an FBA prep centre?

A service that receives, labels and forwards your inventory to Amazon.

A prep centre is a third-party warehouse that receives your purchases, inspects them, applies FBA labels and poly bags, and ships them on to Amazon. For online arbitrage it removes the living-room-full-of-boxes stage entirely: retailers ship to the prep centre, the prep centre ships to FBA.

Prep centres charge per unit, so they are a line in your deal math like any fee. They matter most for sellers scaling volume, selling from another country, or in states where sales tax makes direct delivery awkward. Choose one near your main retailers' warehouses and the inbound legs get faster too.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How much do prep centres charge?＋

Typically a per-unit fee that varies with the work - labeling, poly-bagging, bundling - plus storage for stock that waits. It is a line in the deal math: a thin-margin product may not survive prep costs that a fat one shrugs off.

Do I need a prep centre as a beginner?＋

No - most sellers start prepping at home with a printer and poly bags. A prep centre earns its fee when volume outgrows your table, when you sell from another state or country, or when your time is worth more than the per-unit fee.