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OUR GOAL
To provide an A-to-Z e-commerce logistics solution that would complete Amazon fulfillment network in the European Union.
You’re getting ready to send your first products to Amazon FBA. Everything is lined up — supplier, inventory, listings. Now you’re looking at the prep requirements and thinking: okay, I can handle this. You'll probably only have a few boxes to prepare each month at the start, so even with the long list of FBA guidelines and requirements, you should have enough time to go through each product, apply labels yourself, pack everything carefully, and feel confident that what you’re sending is exactly what Amazon expects.
But at the same time, there’s a question in the back of your mind. Is this something you should keep doing as you grow? Or just a temporary setup before things get more complex?
Especially if you’re entering the European market, where requirements are stricter and less forgiving, the decision you make early on can have a bigger impact than it seems. So in this article, we’ll take a closer look at what it really means to handle FBA prep yourself, together with the main advantages and drawbacks, so you can decide if it’s the right approach for your stage of business.
What preparing FBA inventory actually involves
Before we compare doing it yourself vs. using a prep center, it’s worth slowing down for a second and looking at what “FBA prep” really means in practice, because this is where a lot of underestimation happens. From the outside, it can look simple: pack products, send them to Amazon, done. But in reality, every shipment has to match Amazon’s exact requirements — from how each unit is labeled, to how cartons are packed, to how the shipment is declared in Seller Central.
Here’s what that typically includes:
Product inspection
Checking if items are in good condition, properly finished, and ready to be sold. Any defects caught too late can turn into returns or negative reviews.Labeling (FNSKU and carton labels)
Every unit needs the correct FNSKU label, placed exactly where Amazon expects it. On top of that, each carton needs its own labels generated in Seller Central.Packaging and prep requirements
Some products need polybags, suffocation warnings, bubble wrap, or additional protection. Others require bundling or specific packaging formats.Carton preparation
Boxes need to meet Amazon’s rules — weight limits, dimensions, and how products are packed inside all matter.Shipment creation in Amazon Seller Central
Splitting inventory into shipments, assigning fulfillment centers, generating labels, and making sure everything matches what you’re physically sending.Final dispatch to Amazon
Booking transport, preparing pallets if needed, and making sure the shipment arrives exactly as declared.
What makes this even more challenging is that FBA requirements in Europe tend to be stricter than what many sellers are used to in the US. That’s because Amazon’s internal rules are closely tied to broader EU regulations , especially when it comes to product safety, labeling, and packaging, which means you have less flexibility and a smaller margin for error. Something that might pass without issues in the US can easily get flagged in the EU - so FBA sellers in EU must be doubly watchful of any errors when it comes to prep.
Preparing FBA inventory yourself (DIY approach)
At the beginning, most sellers choose to handle FBA prep themselves because it’s the simplest way to move forward. You already have the inventory in front of you, you can start preparing shipments right away, and and handling prep yourself means you don’t have to involve another partner or set up additional processes right away. Plus, it also feels safer as you can see every unit, every label, every box that goes out — which makes it easier to understand how FBA works in practice, especially when you’re just entering a new market like Europe.
That said, many sellers often underestimate how much work goes into preparing shipments for Amazon. So how doing the prep work typically looks like?
What it actually looks like day to day
First, once the products arrive from the manufacturer, you open boxes, check quantities, make sure SKUs match, and quickly scan for anything that looks off. If something’s wrong (missing units, wrong variants, damaged products), this is your chance to catch it since if you miss it, you usually find out later when Amazon says your numbers don’t match, part of the shipment gets stuck, or the wrong products are already on their way in. At small volumes, inspection is pretty quick though — you can go through each unit carefully and make sure everything is as it should.
Next comes labeling. You print a stack of FNSKU labels, place the products in front of you, and go unit by unit — pick up a product, check the SKU, stick the label, move to the next one. Amazon's label requirements are pretty strict but with only a few boxes to label, you can keep track of everything without much problems. Then you move on to packaging. Some products are simple to pack, others need extra prep — polybags, sealing, bundling, protective materials. And this is where things start getting tricky, as Amazon has very precise instructions on how exactly you package the products, down to the size of a polybags. If the polybag is too loose, the suffocation warning is missing or too small, or the packaging doesn’t fully match what Amazon expects in the EU, the shipment might be flagged as non-compliant and rejected from the FBA process. Same thing with cartons - you need to think about weight limits, how products are grouped, are the separate items in the boxes in the correct order and whether everything inside matches Amazon’s expectations.
At the same time, you’re in Seller Central, building the shipment. You enter quantities, assign products to different fulfillment centers, generate labels — and keep looking back at the boxes you’re packing to make sure everything still lines up.
Once everything is ready and triple-checked, finally, you ship everything out. You’ve done the work — and now you wait to see if everything gets accepted without issues.
Doing the prep a few times a month isn't much of a problem, especially if you prepared a solid process on how to handle the FBA prep according to FBA requirements. The problems might start when the number of orders start to grow - and so does your FBA workload.
Advantages of running FBA prep in-house
First, let's look at the situations where handling FBA prep yourself actually works well, for example, when you are just starting out with Amazon FBA program. At that point, your shipment volumes are probably still low and manageable, so you don't have to rush through hundreds of units, and your warehouse team has enough time to go through each product, apply labels carefully, and prepare shipments step by step. Then, instead of going immediately into outsourcing FBA prep, you could start with DYI FBA prep, as doing FBA prep in-house has a few clear advantages at this point.
You can start immediately without adding another layer of coordination
At the beginning, everything is already new — Amazon, requirements, shipments, systems. Adding a prep center on top of that means you’d have to:
- explain your products and packaging requirements
- align on processes
- coordinate shipments between your supplier and a third party
When you do it yourself, you skip all of that. Your products arrive, you open the cartons, start preparing units, create the shipment in Seller Central, and move forward right away. That makes a big difference when you’re trying to get your first shipments out and just want things moving.
You see exactly what you’re sending to Amazon
When you handle prep in-house, you’re physically going through your inventory, opening boxes, picking up products one by one, applying labels, and packing cartons yourself. That means you see things you wouldn’t notice otherwise, such as:
For example:
- a batch where packaging is slightly damaged
- products that don’t match the variant you expected
- inconsistencies between units that should be identical
These are the kinds of issues that are easy to miss if inventory goes straight from a supplier to Amazon or through a third party. For example, you open a carton and notice that some units have slightly crushed packaging, or that one variant looks different from the rest. It’s not something you’d catch from an invoice or packing list — only when you physically go through the products. At this stage, especially when you’re working with a new supplier or launching a product for the first time, that kind of visibility helps you catch problems before they turn into returns or customer complaints.
You learn how FBA actually works
When you read Amazon’s guidelines, everything looks clear. But it only really clicks when you’re in the middle of doing it. For example, you’re labeling products and suddenly realize two SKUs look almost identical — same packaging, same size — and you have to stop and double-check which label goes where before you mix them up. Or you’re packing boxes and notice that one carton is slightly heavier than expected or grouped differently than the others — and you start wondering if Amazon will accept it the way it is.
With this insight, you can adjust the FBA prep guidelines to highlight where mistakes happen, which steps require the most attention and what Amazon actually checks when receiving shipments, so your team has fewer problems following the FBA prep process later. And even if you outsource later, this knowledge will help you monitor how the FBA prep partner is doing.
You can adjust things on the spot without slowing everything down
At low volumes, your setup is still flexible — mostly because everything is happening right in front of you. You’re in the middle of labeling a small batch and notice that one product has a slightly different barcode underneath. You pause, grab the rest of the units from that carton, and double-check them before moving on — no need to stop the whole process or explain the issue to anyone else. You’re packing a box and realize the products don’t sit well the way you planned — so you take them out, add protection, and repack it differently. It takes a few extra minutes, but you fix it immediately and move on. Or you’re creating a shipment and decide to split products differently between cartons than you originally planned. Since everything is still open and in front of you, you adjust both the packing and the shipment in Seller Central on the spot, without having to redo the entire process.
At this stage, the key advantage is that nothing is “locked in” yet. You see a problem, you fix it right away, and the process keeps moving. That kind of flexibility is easy to maintain when you’re handling smaller volumes yourself — and much harder once shipments get larger or involve additional steps and people.
It can be more cost-effective while volumes are still manageable
At smaller scale, the cost side looks very different — because you’re not comparing numbers in a spreadsheet, you’re looking at what’s actually in front of you. You have a few cartons to prepare, maybe one or two shipments this week. You print the labels, spend a couple of hours going through the units, pack everything, and it’s done. It doesn’t take over your day, and you don’t need extra space or additional people to handle it. At that point, paying a prep center per unit or per service can feel hard to justify. You’re looking at a small batch of products thinking — I can do this myself in an afternoon; why would I pay someone else to do it?
Especially if you’re just entering the EU market, testing demand, or not yet sure how quickly your sales will grow, keeping prep in-house feels like the safer financial choice. You’re not locking yourself into additional costs while you’re still figuring things out.
Where things usually start to break
If there are so many benefits of running FBA prep at home, then why do sellers eventually move away from this model? That's because all of these advantages depend on one thing: scale staying manageable. As soon as volume increases (more SKUs, more shipments, more units) the same setup starts behaving differently. Tasks take longer, mistakes become harder to avoid, and the process that once felt simple starts requiring much more structure. And that’s exactly where the downsides of DIY FBA prep begin to show up.
Once you’re dealing with hundreds or thousands of items, the pace changes. You’re going through products one after another, trying to keep up, and instead of checking each unit carefully, you start moving faster just to get through the batch. You pick up a product, glance at it instead of really checking it, move to the next one — and it’s easy to miss that one unit has slightly damaged packaging or that part of the batch looks different from the rest.
Then volume increases even more and you have multiple shipments to prepare, different SKUs on the table, labels printed in batches, cartons half-packed… and you’re switching between tasks just to keep things moving. You might be in the middle of labeling one product, then jump to packing another shipment, then back to Seller Central because it flagged an issue, and then back to labeling because there are simply not enough hands on board to take your time with prep.
That’s when small mistakes might start creeping in. For example, you finish labeling a batch and realize you’re not 100% sure if all units got the right labels. Or you pack a carton and later hesitate — was it 40 units or 42? Or you wonder if you actually used the correct size polybags for protecting the products inside the box - but you don’t have time to reopen and check.
For a regular warehouse, that would be a minor issue that either goes unnoticed or is fixed in a matter of minutes. But Amazon doesn’t have time or place for fixing those minor issues - it sees a shipment where something doesn’t match, and that’s when the entire shipment gets flagged, delayed, or questioned. You either fit the Amazon's requirements 100% perfectly, or you won't get into the warehouse at all.
The hidden cost of staying in control
When the volume of orders to prep grows, so do the costs of doing everything at home - and the costs grow in places you might not expect. For example, at the moment you slow down during labeling because you’re no longer fully sure if everything still matches. You stop, go back, double-check a batch, and suddenly a task that should take an hour takes two or more. The same happens when packing cartons — you hesitate, reopen boxes “just to be sure,” and spend extra time verifying quantities because you know how easy it is for something to go wrong and don't want the shipment to get rejected or delayed.
Those extra checks feel small, but they add up quickly, and what used to be a straightforward workflow turns into a stop-and-check cycle that eats up hours across every shipment.
Then there’s rework, which is where the cost becomes even more visible.
For example, let's say you finish labeling several packages, but notice a mismatch and have to relabel part of the batch. You’ve already packed cartons, but something doesn’t align with what you entered in Seller Central, so you reopen boxes, adjust quantities, and print new labels. Each correction means doing the same work twice — using more materials, more time, and slowing down everything else in the process.
But the worst situation is when you think everything went smoothly and then suddenly Amazon informs you that their warehouse flagged the shipment as non-compliant - there's a typo in the label, the label can't be scanned properly, or the whole carton is slightly over the dimensions Amazon systems can scan. You might expect 500 units to become available, but only 420 get received while the rest are put on hold. Or the entire shipment sits in “receiving” longer than expected because Amazon first expects you to fix the issues, and only then will they receive the shipment. That means your listing shows lower stock than planned, you run out of inventory sooner, or your product goes out of stock completely while part of it is still stuck in the process. And by the time you notice, the issue is already on Amazon’s side — not in your warehouse.
At that point, you’re not just prepping shipments anymore. You’re trying to figure out why part of your stock didn’t get received, refreshing Seller Central to see if anything changed, and going back through your process to guess where things might have gone wrong. And while you’re doing that, the next shipment is already waiting. You still have products to label, boxes to pack, and new shipments to create — but now you’re doing it more cautiously, double-checking things that used to be automatic, just to avoid repeating the same mistake. That’s when it starts to feel heavier. What used to be a straightforward task turns into something you have to think about constantly — keeping track of what was packed, what was sent, what might cause issues this time.
So on paper, you’re still “saving money” by doing it yourself. But in reality, you’re spending more time on prep, rechecking things you’ve already done, and dealing with situations where your inventory isn’t available when you expected it to be. And that’s where the cost actually shows up.
When DIY still makes sense
That said, doing FBA prep yourself can make a lot of sense at the beginning. When you’re working with a limited number of SKUs and smaller shipments, you can label everything yourself, pack cartons without rushing, and still have time to double-check details without slowing down the rest of your business.
So FBA tends to work well when:
- your product range is small and simple
- shipment volumes are still low
- you want full control over every step
- you’re still testing the market or validating demand
The problem starts when that same process no longer fits into your day — when shipments take longer to prepare, more products are waiting, and you’re trying to keep up instead of working at your own pace. Then it might be a good idea to look into outsourcing FBA prep to a reputable 3PL company.
When it might be a time for change?
At some point, though, you start noticing that the same process just doesn’t feel the same anymore.
What used to take a couple of hours now takes most of the day. There are more shipments waiting, more products to go through, and it’s harder to keep everything as controlled as it was before. You’re still doing the same steps — labeling, packing, creating shipments — but it takes more effort to keep everything consistent.
That’s usually the moment when the question changes from “Can I do this myself?” to “Does it still make sense to keep doing it this way?” and you start looking for a different way to handle it. Instead of packing everything yourself, you consider sending inventory somewhere where it can be checked, labeled, and prepared before going to Amazon. But that brings a new set of questions — how does that actually work in practice? What do you need to set up? And what do you gain in return for giving up part of that control?
We'll answer all those questions in our next article, where we’ll break down what working with a prep center or 3PL really looks like in day-to-day operations and what you can gain by switching from DYI to outsourced FBA prep.
Is DIY FBA prep still the right choice as you grow?
Running FBA prep yourself can be a great starting point — especially when your volumes are still manageable and you want full control over every step. At that stage, it’s simple, flexible, and gives you a clear view of what’s actually happening with your products before they reach Amazon. You can catch issues early, adjust things on the spot, and learn how the whole process works in practice. But as your business grows, the same setup starts to feel different. What used to be a straightforward task takes more time, requires more attention, and becomes harder to keep consistent across every shipment. The process itself doesn’t change — but the scale does.
And that’s where the real question comes in: not whether you can keep doing it yourself, but whether it still makes sense to. If you’re starting to reach that point, the next step is to look at what happens when you move FBA prep outside your own operation. In the next article, we’ll break down how working with a prep center or 3PL actually looks in practice — what changes, what gets easier, and what you need to consider before making that move.
