FBA Prep Requirements: The Complete Seller Checklist
Prep is the unglamorous work that decides whether a carton sails through FC receiving or gets flagged, reworked and billed. Here is the full requirement set as an executable checklist — written for goods sourced from China, where your supplier will say "no problem" to whatever you forget to specify.
Published 2026-03-12 · Last reviewed: September 2026
The direct answer
Amazon assigns prep requirements by category and product type: polybags with suffocation warnings, boxed products, bubble wrap for fragiles, expiration dating, set labeling, encasement for sharp items, opaque packaging for adult products. You can find your ASIN's exact list in Seller Central — and the China-side question is only ever "who executes it, and who verifies it." A prep step not assigned to a named party is a prep step that will not happen.
Why prep failures are so expensive
A missing FNSKU is found in seconds — receiving scans it. Missing prep is subtler: the polybag without a suffocation warning passes a busy gate one day and is flagged the next, and because the failure is inconsistent, sellers wrongly conclude their cartons are fine. What they are experiencing is variance in enforcement, which is the worst possible teacher: it rewards exactly the shortcuts that eventually cost a full rejected shipment, transfer fees, and in the worst case stranded inventory that cannot be re-injected without a full re-prep.
The economic asymmetry is the whole story. A polybag with the warning label correctly applied costs a few cents at a China prep desk. The same omission discovered at an FC becomes a problem transfer, a handling fee, a re-prep work order, and a second appointment — if the stock is still sellable at all.
The category checklist
Categories generate most China-to-FBA volume. Requirements are defined per product in Seller Central — verify each ASIN there; thresholds and definitions are revised over time.
| Prep Category | Requirement | China-Side Execution Note |
|---|---|---|
| Polybagged items | Bags whose opening exceeds the published threshold need a suffocation warning, printed on the bag or applied as a label. | Cheap 1688 polybags usually arrive unlabeled — count on labeling bags yourself at prep. |
| Boxed products | Units sold in six-sided boxes need secured closures (tape or glue) and must survive modest compression. | Reject factory cartons with loose lids — a box that opens in transit becomes an unidentifiable unit. |
| Fragile items | Bubble wrap or protective encasement so the unit survives handling; glass and ceramics have explicit encasement expectations. | Define wrap layers in the spec, not as "well wrapped" — vagueness is where corners get cut. |
| Expiration-dated goods | Dates must exist on the unit and packaging in the required format, with a defined minimum shelf life remaining at receipt. | Confirm the current minimum shelf-life figure in Seller Central before placing the order. |
| Sets and multipacks | Bundles need a "Sold as set — do not separate" marking, with the set's own barcode scannable on the outside. | Bundle assembly at the China hub costs far less than assembly at destination — and never ships partial sets. |
| Sharp items | Edges and points fully protected or blunted so nothing can penetrate the carton in normal handling. | Test with a shake box: if the carton can be pierced from inside, it is not compliant. |
| Textiles and apparel | Individually bagged or sealed so the item cannot be soiled; size markings per apparel requirements. | Dust from shared cartons is a real complaint driver — sealing each garment is cheap insurance. |
| Adult products | Opaque, non-descriptive packaging that conceals the product and its imagery. | Enforcement here is strict and instant — do not test it. |
| Lithium batteries & hazardous materials | Dangerous-goods classification, packaging and labeling per the current transport and FBA dangerous goods program rules. | Battery-containing goods need DG declarations for freight, not just FBA prep — plan both. |
The verification loop that makes it real
A checklist without a verification loop is a wish. Our China-side prep runs on a four-point loop that you can demand from any prep provider:
- Spec before production. The prep requirements, taken from the ASIN's Seller Central page, are written into the purchase order as itemized work — not "prep per Amazon rules."
- Sample pre-check. One unit is fully prepped and photographed before the batch starts, so you see the interpretation, not just the intention.
- Per-carton scan gate. Every unit's FNSKU is scanned at pack-out; every carton ID is scanned at load-out. Unscannable labels are reprinted, not shrugged at.
- Photo record. Carton marking, wrap state, and pallet build are photographed per shipment — the evidence trail that turns a dispute into a five-minute answer.
Where to read next
One-line summary
Prep requirements live on your ASIN's Seller Central page; execution lives at a named China-side desk with a scan gate and a photo record. Anything else is hoping.
Prep FAQ
Who should do prep — the factory or a dedicated prep warehouse?
Factories will agree to almost any prep instruction and execute it inconsistently. A dedicated China-side prep hub applies the same checklist to every carton, photographs the work, and scans every label. For simple polybagging a competent factory can pass; for anything multi-step — bundles, expiration dating, multi-pack labels — separation of production and prep is cheaper than the failure.
How is prep different from labeling?
Labeling is applying the correct FNSKU and carton ID. Prep is everything that makes the unit safe and compliant before labeling: bagging, wrapping, boxing, tagging, date-marking. They are separate skills and separate checks — a perfectly labeled unit in non-compliant packaging still gets flagged at receiving.
Does prep apply to every category of product?
Amazon's prep requirements are defined per product category and product type in Seller Central — some items need multiple prep steps, some need none. The checklist below covers the categories that generate most FBA volume from China; your listing's own prep requirements page is always the authority.
What happens if prep is missed?
Depending on severity: the unit is flagged at receiving, the carton is rejected at the gate, or the shipment is problem-transferred with handling work billed back to the seller. Every one of those outcomes costs more than the prep step that would have prevented it — usually by an order of magnitude.
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