A prep service is a third-party company that receives products from suppliers, inspects them, applies FNSKU labels, polybags, bubble wrap, or other packaging as required by Amazon's FBA prep guidelines, and ships them to Amazon's fulfillment centers.
Prep services save time, reduce errors in FBA preparation, and enable sellers to manage inventory without physical access to products — essential for remote sellers, international sourcing, and scaling operations beyond home-based prep.
RIDGE supply chain analysis includes prep and logistics cost modeling as part of the landed cost calculation, ensuring unit economics account for all costs from manufacturer to Amazon warehouse.
A prep service charges $1.20/unit for receiving, inspection, FNSKU labeling, polybag, and forwarding to FBA. For a product with $8 COGS, this adds 15% to the total cost but eliminates 4+ hours of weekly manual labor.