Amazon FBA has its own rulebook: carton weights, labeling, prep standards, appointment windows, and a check-in process that punishes sloppy paperwork more than it punishes slow freight. This page is about the part of sourcing that most agents leave to you to discover, usually after Amazon has charged you for it.
What does FBA-ready sourcing actually include?
An FBA shipment is not finished when production ends. Between the factory line and the Amazon warehouse sit several steps that each have a failure cost:
- FNSKU labeling: every unit labeled with Amazon’s barcode, either by the factory or by a prep center, with placement rules per category.
- Prep requirements: polybagging with suffocation warnings, bubble wrap for fragile goods, boxed sets taped as one SKU.
- Carton specifications: Amazon’s 50-pound carton limit and box-dimension rules decide how goods are packed, which the factory needs to know before packing, not after.
- Box content information: accurate per-carton SKU counts so Amazon’s receiving does not flag your shipment.
We brief the factory on all of this before production starts, verify it at inspection, and hand the forwarder a shipment Amazon will actually receive without a receiving problem.
How does the FBA timeline work?
A typical FBA replenishment runs 35 to 50 days door to door: production 20 to 30 days, inspection a day, labeling and prep 2 to 4 days, then sea freight to your market plus Amazon’s check-in window. Air freight compresses the last leg when a stockout is closer than the sea route allows. The mode-by-mode trade-offs are compared in the shipping guide, and the FBA-specific labeling and prep details are in the FBA shipping guide.
How do you avoid Amazon compliance traps?
Most listing suspensions that start in the supply chain come from missing documents: an invoice that does not satisfy a authenticity complaint, a missing test report for a children’s product, or packaging that violates a category requirement. We handle this the boring way. Factories are audited before first orders, invoices are issued in a form Amazon accepts, and test reports for your category are collected during sampling, not after the suspension email. If your category needs specific certificates, they are on the checklist before the deposit, not after.
What does FBA-ready sourcing cost?
The service runs on the standard commission model, 5 to 8 percent of product value for full-service orders, with inspections at roughly $280 per visit and labeling or prep billed at the factory’s or prep center’s actual cost. Unit economics including FBA fees are walked through in the landed cost guide, because a 3x multiple only survives if the landed cost was honest from the start.
Bring us your listing, your current stock position, and your target date. The quote will name the factories, the prep plan, and the fees, and the first consultation is free.
Amazon sellers: questions we hear
Compliant products, photo-documented inspection and direct-to-FBA shipping with prep. Freight choice is in FBA shipping; quality method in the AQL guide; fees on the commission page.
How do you keep FBA products compliant?
Specs lock materials, certifications and labeling up front — certificates verified with issuing bodies — then first-article and pre-shipment gates enforce them with photo evidence. Reorders are checked against the golden sample, not against memory.
What FBA prep do you handle?
FNSKU labeling, polybagging, suffocation warnings, carton labels and pallet configuration to the current Amazon requirements, verified during the pre-shipment and loading checks so rejected prep never reaches the FC.
How are inspections adapted for FBA?
AQL sampling plus FBA-specific checks: barcode scannability, label placement, carton fill and drop testing, documented in the photo report that gates your balance. A recent 1,200-unit labeling save is in our case studies.
Can you ship direct to FBA warehouses?
Yes. Goods consolidate in Shenzhen, clear export and ship by the mode your launch needs, with appointments and paperwork for direct-to-FBA delivery. Cost and transit logic is in FBA shipping from China.
What does FBA sourcing cost?
The standard 5–8% full-service commission plus per-visit inspections, with prep quoted per unit or carton. Private-label extras — packaging, inserts, photography — are fixed-fee. All bands are on the pricing page.
How do we start an FBA product with you?
Send the product link, target FBA region and launch date via the contact page. You get verified factories with landed-cost math to your FBA warehouse in the first quote — see the landed cost guide for the formula.
How are FBA duties and fees estimated upfront?
By HS classification driving the duty rate plus freight mode and Amazon referral and fulfillment fees for your category — the full arithmetic is in the landed cost guide with a worked example. Misclassified HS codes are a classic margin killer; see the HS codes guide.
What happens if Amazon rejects my shipment?
Rejections almost always trace to prep: unscannable barcodes, missing warnings or carton violations. Because prep is verified during loading checks with photos, failures are caught in Shenzhen — and any that slip through are documented for claims with the forwarder or factory, not absorbed silently.
Can you support variations and bundles?
Yes — multi-SKU sets, color and size variations and bundled kits are sourced per component, checked against the same golden samples and consolidated into one FBA-ready shipment. Variation-level labeling is verified at packing so mixed cartons never reach the fulfillment center.