The Core Services
An FBA prep centre receives your sourced products, inspects them, prepares them to Amazon's exact requirements, and ships them to Amazon's fulfilment centres on your behalf. This includes receiving and checking deliveries, applying FNSKU barcode labels, poly bagging or bubble wrapping as required, bundling multipacks, creating FBA shipping plans, boxing and palletising shipments, and booking carrier collections.
Why Sellers Use Prep Centres
The primary reason is time. Prepping products yourself — labelling each unit, bagging items that need it, boxing shipments to Amazon's specifications, and managing carrier bookings — is time you could spend sourcing new products or growing your business. A prep centre handles the operational work so you can focus on the activities that generate revenue.
Space is another factor. As your business grows beyond a handful of products, home prep becomes impractical. You need storage space for incoming deliveries, workspace for prepping, and room for outgoing shipments. A prep centre provides all of this without you needing your own warehouse.
The Prep Process Step by Step
You send or have your supplier ship products to the prep centre. They receive and log the delivery, checking quantities match what was expected. Each item is inspected for condition — damage, missing components, or quality issues are flagged before prepping. Products are then prepped to Amazon's standards: FNSKU labels applied, poly bags added where required, suffocation warnings attached, and any bundling or multipack assembly completed.
Once prepped, the prep centre creates or follows your FBA shipping plan, boxes products according to Amazon's weight and dimension requirements, and arranges carrier collection. Your stock arrives at Amazon ready to sell.
What It Costs
Prep centres typically charge per unit — a base fee for standard prep (labelling) with additional charges for poly bagging, bubble wrap, bundling, and other services. Rates vary but typically range from thirty pence to one pound fifty per unit depending on the complexity of prep required. There may also be storage charges for stock held beyond a certain period and fees for receiving deliveries.
Choosing the Right Prep Centre
Location, pricing, turnaround time, communication quality, and additional services all factor into choosing a prep centre. The cheapest option is not always the best — reliability, accuracy, and responsiveness matter more than saving five pence per unit if errors cost you far more in the long run. At Precision, we pride ourselves on getting it right first time, every time.