Amazon FBA (Fulfilment by Amazon) is a service where Amazon stores your products in their fulfilment centres and handles picking, packing, shipping, and customer service for your Amazon orders. For millions of third-party sellers globally, FBA is a core part of their Amazon strategy. Here's how it actually works.
You send your inventory to an Amazon fulfilment centre (or multiple centres, as Amazon may direct). Amazon stores your stock and, when a customer places an order for your product, Amazon picks it from the shelf, packs it in an Amazon-branded box, and dispatches it using Amazon's own carrier network. The customer sees "Fulfilled by Amazon" on the listing and receives all the benefits of Amazon Prime if they're a Prime member.
FBA listings are automatically eligible for Amazon Prime, which gives them a conversion advantage over non-Prime listings. Prime members can filter search results to show only Prime-eligible items — which means non-Prime listings, including FBM listings without SFP status, are invisible to a large proportion of Amazon's highest-spending customers.
FBA charges include: a referral fee (% of sale price, varies by category), a per-unit fulfilment fee (based on item size and weight), a monthly storage fee (per cubic foot), and potentially long-term storage fees for units held over 365 days. The combined effect of these fees typically represents 25–45% of the selling price for most product categories — higher for lower-priced items.
Sending stock to FBA requires creating an inbound shipment plan in Seller Central, printing FNSKU labels to apply to your products, and shipping to Amazon's designated fulfilment centre(s). Amazon's inventory placement service can direct stock to multiple centres, though this can complicate inbound logistics for sellers sending directly from their own premises.
FBA is optimal when Amazon is your primary or only channel and your product economics support the FBA fee structure. A UK 3PL is more cost-effective for multi-channel selling, heavy or bulky items, slow-moving SKUs, or when packaging control is important. Many successful sellers use both in a hybrid model. Learn about Amazon fulfilment options with PackPro.