Since Amazon ended its own prep and labelling services for the Canada store, every unit you send to an amazon.ca fulfillment centre has to arrive correctly prepared — which means prep is now a line item in every seller's budget. So what should it actually cost? Here is how FBA prep pricing works in Canada and how to read a quote like a buyer, not a beginner.
What "prep" usually covers
A standard prep job starts the moment your inventory arrives at the prep centre: receiving and counting cartons, inspecting for damage, applying FNSKU labels, and getting the units ready to forward to Amazon. Many sellers stop there, but most shipments need at least one extra step — poly bagging for soft goods, bubble wrap for fragile items, or bundling multi-packs into sets. Each step is priced separately by most prep centres, so the headline per-unit rate is only the beginning of the quote.
Typical cost components
To give you a working picture, here is how a prep bill is usually built up. Treat these as illustrative ranges for planning, not as a quote — every product and every prep centre prices differently.
- Base prep fee per unit. This covers receiving, inspection and a standard FNSKU label. For straightforward products this is the smallest line on the invoice; our own published rate starts at $0.35 per unit for standard prep.
- Poly bagging. Required for apparel, plush, and anything Amazon flags as needing bag protection. Usually a modest per-unit add-on that includes the bag and a suffocation warning where required.
- Bubble wrap and fragile handling. Glass, ceramics and electronics need individual wrapping. Expect this to cost more than bagging because it is slower, hands-on work.
- Set and bundle assembly. Building multi-packs or kitting components together is priced per added unit or per finished set.
- Receiving fees. Many centres charge per carton or per pallet received, especially for large inbound shipments. Ask whether receiving is included in the per-unit rate or billed separately.
- Storage. If inventory sits before it ships to Amazon, you will pay per pallet per month. Our published storage rate is $45 per pallet per month.
- Forwarding to Amazon. The freight or courier cost of moving prepared cartons to the fulfillment centre, usually passed through at cost plus a small handling fee.
What moves the price up or down
Four things matter most. Product complexity: a single hard good with one label is the cheapest job in the building; a five-piece bundle with expiry dates is not. Volume: steady monthly volume earns better per-unit rates than one-off shipments. Turnaround: standard 24–48 hour turnaround is the norm; same-day rush work costs more. Shipment size: full pallets are cheaper to receive per unit than dozens of loose courier cartons.
How to compare quotes
Get every quote in writing and make sure it answers the same five questions: what exactly is included in the per-unit rate, what the receiving fee is, how storage is billed, what the turnaround commitment is, and whether you get photo proof of the finished work. A quote that only shows a per-unit number is not a quote — it is a starting bid. Watch for vague "handling" or "processing" fees that appear after the fact, and be wary of pricing tied to a percentage of anything; prep is physical work and should be priced per unit or per job, in writing, before you ship.
Putting it together: an illustrative example
Numbers make this concrete, so here is a clearly illustrative example — not a quote. Imagine 500 units of a small home product arriving in 10 cartons. Standard prep at $0.35 per unit comes to $175. Say half the units need poly bagging as an add-on, receiving is billed per carton, and forwarding the finished cartons to the fulfillment centre is passed through at freight cost. Your all-in prep cost for the shipment might land in the low hundreds of dollars — a fraction of the inventory value it protects. Change the product to a fragile five-piece bundle and the labour multiplies, which is exactly why per-unit quotes must be tied to your specific SKUs.
When prep pays for itself
The cheapest prep quote is rarely the cheapest outcome. A shipment that arrives with unscannable labels or missing poly bags can sit in receiving limbo, generate unfulfillable units, or come back to you for rework — and every day of delay is a day without the Buy Box. Paying a fair per-unit rate for careful work, with photo proof before anything ships, is insurance against the most expensive kind of problem: the one you discover after your inventory is already in transit.
SellerOrbit publishes its FBA prep pricing openly — standard prep from $0.35 per unit, 24–48 hour turnaround, photo proof on every job, and no minimums. Chat with us for a written quote on your SKUs.
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