Amazon FBA Prep Services
Amazon will only accept inventory that arrives exactly the way its fulfilment centres expect it.
Get a label wrong, use the wrong bag, or over-pack a carton and the shipment is delayed, re-worked at your cost, or turned away altogether. Orchard Distribution takes that job off your desk. Send your stock to our warehouse in Newry and we prepare it to Amazon’s current requirements before it goes anywhere near a fulfilment centre.
What Amazon actually asks of you
Sellers who are new to FBA are often surprised by how much preparation sits between ‘stock has arrived from the supplier’ and ‘stock is live in Amazon’s warehouse’. The main requirements are:
- Unit labelling. Every sellable unit needs a scannable FNSKU (or an approved manufacturer barcode) that is not obscured by packaging.
- Protective packaging. Liquids, powders, fragile items, sets and anything with a sharp edge or loose part all have their own bagging, boxing and suffocation-warning rules.
- Expiry and batch handling. Consumables, cosmetics and supplements must show an expiry date in the format Amazon accepts, with enough shelf life remaining on arrival.
- Carton rules. Shipping cartons have weight and dimension limits, must carry the right FBA box label, and must not mix units from different shipments.
- Shipment plans. Amazon decides which fulfilment centre each carton goes to, and the paperwork has to match what physically arrives.
None of this is difficult in isolation. Doing it correctly for hundreds or thousands of units, every time, while also running your marketing and product range, is where it becomes a drain.
Why sellers hand FBA prep to a third party
Most of the brands we speak to have tried prepping in-house first. It works at low volumes and then quietly stops working: a spare room fills with cartons, a launch is pushed back because labels have not arrived, and one non-compliant shipment costs more in Amazon rework fees than a month of outsourced prep would have.
Working with a prep partner means stock can come straight from your manufacturer or freight forwarder to us. We check it, prepare it, book it in against your shipment plan and send it on. You never handle the boxes, and Amazon receives inventory that scans and checks in without queries.
Our FBA prep services
- Goods-in inspection. We count and check each delivery against your purchase order and report shortfalls or damage before anything is prepped.
- FNSKU and product labelling. Printed and applied to Amazon's specification, covering any existing barcodes where required.
- Polybagging and bubble wrapping. Correct bag thickness, suffocation warnings and sealing for the product type.
- Bundling and multipacks. Individual items combined into sets, labelled as one sellable unit and marked 'sold as set'.
- Expiry date labelling. Applied in Amazon's required format for consumable and cosmetic lines.
- Carton packing and FBA box labels. Cartons built within weight limits, sealed, labelled and matched to your shipment plan.
- Pallet building and dispatch. Palletised, wrapped and collected by your carrier or booked through Amazon's partnered carrier programme.
- Overflow storage. Keep reserve stock with us in Newry and release it to Amazon in smaller batches to manage storage limits and fees.
How the process works
Tell us what is coming
Share your ASIN list, unit counts and the prep requirements shown in Seller Central. We confirm the work involved and give you a price per unit.
Ship stock to Newry
Your supplier or forwarder delivers to our warehouse. We book it in, inspect it and raise any issues with you the same day.
We prep and pack
Labelling, bagging, bundling and cartonisation are completed to your shipment plan. Photos are available on request for your records.
Dispatch to Amazon
Cartons or pallets leave for the fulfilment centre Amazon has allocated, in the UK or the EU, with tracking and carton contents shared with you.
One warehouse for Amazon UK and Amazon EU
Because we are based in Northern Ireland, we can send prepared inventory to Amazon’s UK fulfilment centres and to its EU network from the same building. For a seller who lists on both amazon.co.uk and the European marketplaces, that removes the need to run two separate prep operations or to route EU-bound stock through a customs border first.
Should everything go through FBA?
Not always. For heavy, bulky, slow-moving or highly seasonal lines, Amazon’s storage and fulfilment fees can outweigh the Prime badge. Many of our clients run a mix: FBA for their fast movers, and Fulfilled by Merchant through Orchard Distribution for everything else. With FBM we pick, pack and ship your Amazon orders directly from Newry, which gives you:
- No FBA prep requirements to meet at all.
- Storage that is not capped by your Inventory Performance Index.
- Branded packaging, inserts and kitting that FBA does not allow.
- One inventory pool serving Amazon, your own website and any other channel. If you are unsure which model suits a particular product, we will look at the numbers with you before you commit.
Frequently asked questions
Can you receive stock directly from my overseas supplier?
Yes. Give your supplier or freight forwarder our Newry address and we will handle the goods-in check.
Do you prep for Amazon EU marketplaces as well as the UK?
Yes. We prepare and dispatch to Amazon fulfilment centres in both the UK and the EU.
What is the minimum quantity?
There is no fixed minimum. Pricing is per unit, and we will tell you up front if a very small batch is not cost-effective for you.
Can you hold stock and send it to Amazon in stages?
Yes. Many sellers keep their bulk stock with us and release it to Amazon as capacity limits and sales allow.
Ready to get started?
Ready to stop wrestling with FBA requirements? Send us your ASIN list and expected volumes and we will come back with a clear per-unit price for prep from Newry.