Amazon ended FBA prep. Here is what to do next.

What changed in January 2026

Amazon discontinued the prep services it used to offer at inbound fulfillment centers. Previously you could ship loose or partially prepped inventory and pay Amazon to label, polybag or bubble-wrap it. That option is gone.

Now, inventory that arrives at FBA not fully prepped to spec is refused, returned, or hit with unplanned-prep and non-compliance fees. The prep step is entirely your responsibility before inventory reaches Amazon.

Your three options

There are three realistic ways to handle prep now:

• Self-prep: label and pack everything yourself. Cheapest per unit but does not scale and ties up your time.
• A dedicated FBA prep center (3PL): ship inventory to a prep partner who labels, packs and forwards to FBA. Predictable per-unit cost, scales cleanly.
• Hybrid: prep in-house for small runs, use a prep center for volume and overflow.

What to look for in a prep center

If you go the prep-center route, the things that actually matter are:

• Per-unit pricing with no minimums, so low and seasonal volume is not penalized
• A committed turnaround SLA so inventory does not sit and go stranded
• An owned facility, not a broker, so one team is accountable
• Returns handling, so unsellable-to-Amazon returns get inspected and resold
• Insurance on stored inventory

How Think14 handles it

Think14 is an owned US prep center in Texas. Ship us your inventory and we label, prep, store and forward to FBA at $0.75 per unit, on a 48-hour SLA, with no minimums. We also inspect and resell 60-70% of your returns.

That means the prep step Amazon dropped is fully covered, with one accountable team and predictable pricing.