Amazon FBA prep requirements.
Every rule that determines whether your inventory is received cleanly or rejected at the fulfillment center. Polybag thickness, suffocation warnings, FNSKU placement, bubble-wrap drop tests, hazmat review and SDS, expiration dates, meltable windows, box and pallet limits. Plus the two deadlines that reshaped prep in 2026: January 1, when Amazon ended its in-house prep and labeling service, and March 31, when commingling ended and FNSKU labeling became effectively universal for resellers.
Amazon no longer preps anything.
Before January 1 2026, Amazon would polybag, label, or bubble-wrap incoming non-compliant inventory at the FC for a per-unit fee. As of January 1 2026 that service is gone.
Practically, this means inventory that arrives at the FC non-compliant is now refused, returned at the seller's cost, destroyed, or charged an inbound defect fee depending on the violation type. There is no longer a fallback. Either the unit arrives prep-compliant, or it doesn't get received. Amazon's stated reason, in its own words: sellers' packaging capabilities have improved and the vast majority of sellers now handle their own packaging. One grace note from the rollout: shipments created before January 1, 2026 still received prep even when they arrived after the date; shipments created after lose damage and traceability reimbursement on non-compliant units.
The second deadline landed three months later: commingling ended March 31, 2026, closing the manufacturer-barcode path for resellers and making FNSKU labeling effectively universal (details in the labeling section below). Most sellers responded by either (a) self-prepping more carefully, (b) signing up with a prep center that handles the work outside the FC, or (c) both. Our news page on the shutdown covers the operational implications in depth.
This page is the rulebook a prep center or self-prepping seller must execute against. Every rule below is now load-bearing; none of them have a catch-it-at-receiving fallback anymore.
The 11 categories where prep failure is most common.
Each row is a category where Amazon receiving has named compliance requirements. The "watch out" column flags the specific failure mode that takes a unit from compliant to refused.
| Category | Required prep | Watch out |
|---|---|---|
| Apparel and soft goods | Polybag (1.5 mil min, transparent), suffocation warning if 5-inch+ opening, FNSKU on outer bag | No hangers allowed (mini hangers for baby clothes excepted). Folded with brand label visible. |
| Items with sharp edges | Bubble wrap with full coverage, 2-layer minimum, FNSKU on outer wrap or polybag overlay | Must pass the 3-foot drop test: 5 drops (flat base, top, longest side, shortest side, corner) without exposure. |
| Glass and fragile | Bubble wrap with full coverage, 2-layer minimum, plus inner box or dunnage if multiple pieces | FNSKU on outer wrap. If shipped to FC and arrives broken, the inbound counts as a failure and you get charged for disposal. |
| Liquids | All liquids in polybag or heat-shrink wrap regardless of original packaging. SDS required if classified hazmat. | Pump bottles must have actuator locked or recessed; spray products typically need hazmat review. |
| Hazmat (aerosols, batteries, flammables) | Amazon hazmat review approval, Safety Data Sheet (SDS), UN identification + hazard class markings, bagging or heat-shrink regardless of other packaging | Lithium-ion battery rules are strict. Failed hazmat review removes the product from FBA entirely. |
| Small parts (under 3 inches) | Polybag with FNSKU on outer bag; small-parts warning where applicable per CPSIA | Items like jewelry, screws, small toys. Loose-in-FC items get sucked into the wrong bins. |
| Dust-generating products | Polybag with FNSKU on outer bag | Anything that sheds (chalk, drywall mud, granular pet products). Powders also need bagging even if heavy. |
| Items in sets / bundles | All units of the bundle inside one polybag; 'Sold as set, do not separate' sticker visible; single FNSKU on outer bag | FC receivers WILL separate units that aren't sticker-flagged. Bundle SKUs without the sticker get split apart at receiving. |
| Expiration-dated items | Expiration date in MM-DD-YYYY or MM-YYYY format on BOTH the individual unit and the outer master case; minimum 90 days of shelf life remaining at receipt | Amazon disposes of inventory once it is within roughly 50 days of expiry, before the printed date. No handwritten dates, no lot-code substitutes. |
| Meltables (chocolate, gummies, wax) | Anything that melts at 155F or below is seasonal. For 2026, Amazon FCs refuse listed meltable ASINs from April 20 to September 28 and accept them again from September 28. These dates move year to year; confirm the current window before shipping | Meltable inventory still in FCs after the cutoff is marked unfulfillable and disposed. Plan Q2 sell-through or use FBM/a prep partner with climate storage through the summer. The widely republished April 15 to October 15 window is Amazon's 2022 policy and is wrong for 2026. |
| Adult products | Opaque polybag (transparent NOT allowed for this category), FNSKU on outer bag | Standard 'transparent polybag' rule reverses here. Use black opaque bags. |
The 5 polybag rules that account for most prep failures.
Polybagging is the most common prep operation and the most common prep failure. The thickness, transparency, sealing, and labeling rules below are non-negotiable.
Minimum thickness 1.5 mil
Standard FBA polybag floor. Thinner bags fail receiving inspection.
Transparent (with the adult-products exception)
Receiver must be able to see contents through the bag for SKU matching. Exception: adult products require opaque bags.
Suffocation warning required for openings of 5 inches or more
Warning text: 'To avoid danger of suffocation, keep this plastic bag away from babies and children. Do not use this bag in cribs, beds, carriages or playpens. This bag is not a toy.' Printed or permanently affixed near the opening; peelable stickers get rejected. Font size scales with bag size (length plus width, measured flat): 24 point at 60 inches and over, 18 point at 40-59, 14 point at 30-39, 10 point under 29.
Polybag fully sealed
Heat-sealed or self-sealing adhesive strip. Open or partially-sealed bags get rejected.
FNSKU label on the bag, not the product inside
When the product itself doesn't have a flat surface, the polybag becomes the labeling surface. Scanner reads the bag.
The 5 labeling rules.
FNSKU placement looks simple and accounts for a surprising share of receiving issues. The 5 rules that prevent most of them.
- Exterior scannable barcode required on every unit. FNSKU or eligible manufacturer barcode. Without a scannable barcode, the unit is not receivable. Since March 31, 2026, the manufacturer-barcode path is effectively closed for resellers (see the commingling note below), so for most sellers this now means FNSKU on every unit, no exceptions.
- Place on flat surface, not corners or curves. Scanners reject curved-surface barcodes. If the product is round or curved, polybag first and label the bag.
- Cover the manufacturer UPC if using FNSKU. Opaque tape or black marker over the UPC. Both barcodes visible confuses the scanner and the unit gets miscredited.
- Sticker stays on the outer-most layer. If you polybag then box, the FNSKU goes on the outer box. If you polybag only, on the polybag.
- No barcode-on-barcode placement. FNSKU sticker over a UPC: cover the UPC fully first. Half-covered UPCs cause scan ambiguity.
The second 2026 deadline: commingling ended March 31.
Amazon ended FBA commingling (stickerless inventory pooled by manufacturer barcode) on March 31, 2026. Resellers now need an FNSKU on every unit; manufacturer-barcode units sent after the deadline are treated as defective at receiving. Brand-registered brand owners may retain manufacturer-barcode eligibility for virtual tracking of their own products. Together with the January 1 prep-service shutdown, this made FNSKU labeling effectively universal for arbitrage and wholesale sellers in 2026. Confirm the current wording on Seller Central's Use Amazon barcodes page; industry coverage: BellaVix, Brandwoven, DigitalApplied (checked 2026-07-22).
5 drops from 3 feet, no product exposure.
Items with sharp edges, glass, or fragile components must survive Amazon's drop test. The standard: 5 consecutive drops from 3 feet onto a hard surface, with no exposed product surface afterward. The five drops:
- Flat on base
- Flat on top
- On the longest side
- On the shortest side
- On a corner
Practical execution: at least 2 layers of bubble wrap with full coverage. No exposed product seams. Tape the wrap closed; do not rely on bubble-wrap static cling. Glass and multi-piece items typically need both bubble wrap and an inner box plus dunnage. The drop test is the standard receivers apply when an inbound looks under-wrapped; failures result in disposal or return at the seller's cost.
The hardest prep category.
Aerosols, flammables, lithium-ion batteries, and certain cosmetics fall under Amazon's hazmat program. Four compliance pieces matter.
- Hazmat review approval. Required before the SKU can ship to FBA at all. Submitted through Seller Central. Without approval, the listing is blocked from FBA entirely.
- Safety Data Sheet (SDS). On file with Amazon. The SDS is what Amazon uses to validate the hazard class and packaging requirements.
- UN identification + hazard class markings. On the outer carton, per UN packaging classification. Generic shipping labels are not sufficient.
- Bagging or heat-shrink wrap regardless of other packaging. Every hazmat unit gets an additional containment layer beyond its original packaging.
Three 2026-specific hazmat notes. Lithium batteries must ship at 30% state of charge or less as of January 1, 2026, and usually need both an SDS and a UN 38.3 test summary. Strongly magnetic products can trigger the hazmat review too, which surprises sellers who think of hazmat as chemicals only. On the improving side: from April 30, 2026, FBA-eligible dangerous goods can ship to FCs via the Amazon Partnered Carrier program, which used to exclude them.
Many prep centers still decline hazmat work entirely or charge a premium that reflects the specialized training and storage segregation involved. If you sell hazmat, ask explicitly during the matching call whether a candidate prep center handles hazmat for your specific hazard class.
Unit prep is half the job. Boxes and pallets have rules too.
A shipment of perfectly prepped units still gets refused if the boxes or pallets are out of spec. The load-bearing limits, as of our 2026-07-22 check (verify current numbers on Seller Central before a large shipment; Amazon revises these):
- Boxes:50 lb maximum per box and 25 inches maximum on any side, unless a single oversize unit itself exceeds the limit. Boxes over the weight threshold need a heavy-lift warning label; Amazon's exact label bands have shifted, so check the current Seller Central wording rather than trusting a third-party table.
- Pallets: 40x48 inch 4-way pallets (GMA Grade B or better), 1,500 lb maximum, 72 inches maximum total height including the pallet, clear stretch-wrap, and the shipment ID label top-center on all four sides.
- Small parcel vs freight: SPD shipments need a box-level label on every carton; LTL and FTL shipments need palletization, pallet labels, a BOL, and a receiving appointment. Weekend receiving slots exist at some FCs but vary; plan on weekday appointments. Appointment lead time is what turns a comfortable Q4 schedule into a missed one, so book against the published Q4 2026 FBA arrival deadlines.
- Inbound placement fees: since 2024, Amazon charges a per-unit inbound placement service fee that varies by size tier and by how many FCs you split to (roughly $0.21 to $0.36 per small or large standard unit at 2026 rates, more for oversize), waived with Amazon-optimized multi-FC splits. The schedule updates about twice a year; treat any printed number as a snapshot.
What compliance costs, honestly.
Before January 1, 2026 you could pay Amazon to fix prep at the FC: FNSKU labeling ran $0.55 per item, polybagging $0.70, bubble wrap $0.80 to $1.50. Those prices no longer exist at any price; they are useful only as the baseline third-party prep replaced.
Getting it wrong now costs more than getting it done ever did. Published figures for Amazon's inbound defect fees conflict (sources range from about $0.32 to $5.72 per unit depending on defect and size tier, higher for oversize), so we print the range rather than a fake-precise number; check Seller Central for your category. What is not in dispute: the defect fees are an order of magnitude above the old convenience prices.
Third-party prep, by contrast, is a functioning market with published rates. Labeling alone runs roughly $0.15 to $0.40 per unit; full-service per-unit prep in our 2026 Pricing Index has a median US entry price of $1.30 per unit across the published rate cards we hand-verified, falling well under $1.00 at volume. Our prep-fee guide and rate comparator breaks down what is usually included.
Self-prep or prep center?
The right answer depends on four variables. Run through them honestly before deciding.
- Volume. Under 50 units/week of simple SKUs: self-prep is usually fine. Over 200 units/week or growing fast: a prep center pays back through faster turn and lower error rates.
- SKU complexity. Single-SKU retail arbitrage: low complexity, self-prep works. Hazmat, bundles, kits, FDA-regulated categories, or multi-channel inventory (FBA + WFS + DTC): operational expertise meaningfully reduces error.
- Origin geography. Domestic supplier or your own garage: self-prep is geographically feasible. Importing from China or Vietnam: a prep center at a US port-of-entry (Los Angeles, Long Beach, Savannah, New York/New Jersey) handles consolidation, FNSKU labeling, and inbound splitting before the inventory ever sees an FC.
- Tax-state economics. Inventory held in a sales-tax-paying state can create a taxable nexus for some sellers. Tax-free state prep centers (NH, OR, DE, MT, AK) let you stage inventory outside the nexus question. Tax-free state pillar explains the full mechanic.
For the full self-vs-prep-center decision framework with 5 evaluation questions, see our buyer's guide. When you're ready to evaluate prep partners, start with our verified-prep-center list.
Common FBA prep questions.
What is FBA prep?
Does Amazon prep products for you?
What changed about FBA prep on January 1, 2026?
What are the main FBA polybag requirements?
What is the 3-foot drop test for FBA bubble-wrapped items?
What FBA hazmat prep requirements apply?
Where do you put the FNSKU label?
Do I need to remove hangers from apparel?
What expiration-date rules apply to FBA inventory?
Do I need an FNSKU label on every unit?
How strict is Amazon about FBA prep?
Should I prep FBA inventory myself or use a prep center?
Related references.
Amazon ended FBA prep (Jan 1 2026)
The news cycle and operational implications of the in-house-prep shutdown.
Read the news brief →
How to choose an FBA prep center
The 5-question evaluation checklist plus the things you do not need to ask.
Open the buyer's guide →
Verified FBA prep centers
100+ published prep centers that each cleared our 4-point operator standard.
Browse verified centers →
What is FBA prep?
The primer behind these rules, for sellers who have never outsourced prep.
Read the primer →
Amazon FBA Q4 2026 arrival deadlines
A requirement missed in October costs a whole quarter, not a re-label.
Check the deadlines →
FBA prep services explained
Which rate-card line item covers each requirement on this page.
Read the services guide →
FBA prep supplies checklist
The full self-prep kit that executes these rules: printers, bags, sealers, labels, with per-unit cost math.
Open the checklist →