How to Ship from China to Amazon FBA: Prep, Labeling, Routes and Costs

To ship from China to Amazon FBA without a rejected shipment, you need three things in order: units prepped and labeled exactly to Amazon's rules, cartons that meet weight and size limits with the right FBA labels, and a forwarder who can deliver to a fulfillment center with a booked appointment. Miss one and your inventory sits in a problem queue, gets charged unplanned prep fees or is returned at your cost.

Amazon packaging and prep requirements

Amazon's prep rules exist so a warehouse associate can scan, store and pick your item without opening or repairing it. The core requirements have been stable for years, but check Seller Central before each new product.

Unit-level labeling and packaging

• FNSKU label on every sellable unit. Print from Seller Central on matte, non-reflective stock. It must cover every other barcode (UPC, EAN, factory codes) so only one code scans.
• Poly bags with an opening of 5 inches or more need a suffocation warning printed or stickered on the bag, in text size that matches the bag size. Bags should be at least 1.5 mil thick and sealed.
• Fragile items (glass, ceramics, anything that fails a 3 ft drop test) need bubble wrap or a sturdy box.
• Sets and bundles need a "Sold as set, do not separate" label and one FNSKU for the whole set.
• Expiration dates on consumables and topicals must be printed in MM-DD-YYYY or MM-YYYY format on the unit and the carton, at 36 point or larger.
• Liquids, powders and sharp items need sealed inner packaging, double bagging or protective covers.

Carton limits

Standard-size cartons must not exceed 22.5 kg (50 lb) or 63.5 cm (25 inches) on any side. Cartons between 15 and 22.5 kg need a "Team Lift" label. Amazon also guides sellers to keep cartons under 150 units each and to avoid cartons that mix SKUs unless every unit is labeled. Each carton gets an FBA shipment ID label (the box label from your shipping plan) on a flat side, not across a seam, with any factory barcodes covered.

Chinese factories default to 25 to 30 kg export cartons to save on freight. Put the FBA carton limits in writing before production, not after the goods are packed.

Three ways to ship from China to Amazon FBA

The right route depends on how much you trust the factory, your order size and how fast you need stock live.

Route 1: direct from the factory

Cheapest on paper. The factory applies your FNSKU and carton labels, and your forwarder books delivery to the fulfillment center. The problem is that nobody sees the goods between the production line and Amazon's dock. A label on the wrong variant or a 5 percent defect rate only shows up as a problem shipment or a wave of negative reviews. If you use this route, pay for a pre-shipment inspection that includes a label check.

Route 2: via a China prep warehouse

This is the route we recommend for most sellers. The factory ships unlabeled goods to a prep warehouse, where the team counts, inspects a sample against your spec, applies FNSKU labels, bags or wraps units, repacks into compliant cartons and prints the FBA box labels. Multiple suppliers can be consolidated into one FBA shipment. The cargo then moves DDP, with duties prepaid, straight to the fulfillment center. Our warehousing and FBA prep service runs this process for clients in the US, UK, EU and Australia.

Route 3: via a domestic 3PL

Larger sellers ship full containers to a US or EU 3PL and feed FBA in batches. This keeps you under inventory limits, serves Shopify or wholesale orders from the same stock and cuts long-term storage fees. US prep labor runs three to five times the China rate, so do unit-level prep in China and let the 3PL handle only carton forwarding.

Amazon Partnered Carrier vs your own forwarder

Amazon Partnered Carrier offers discounted UPS small parcel and LTL rates, but only for the domestic leg. It will not collect from a factory in Dongguan. To ship from China to Amazon FBA you need a freight forwarder who handles export, ocean or air freight, customs clearance and the delivery appointment. Many forwarders can deliver to a US warehouse so you use Partnered Carrier for the last leg, which is sometimes cheaper for small parcel quantities going to several fulfillment centers.

When you create a shipping plan, Amazon may split inventory across several fulfillment centers. You can send everything to one location for a per-unit placement fee or split it yourself to avoid the fee. The schedule changes regularly, so compare the placement fee against the extra freight cost of multiple deliveries each time.

Step by step: from purchase order to check-in

1. Create the listing and generate FNSKUs before production starts, so labels and packaging artwork are finalized together.
2. Send prep specs to the factory: carton dimensions and weight limit, units per carton, inner packaging, whether the factory or the prep center labels.
3. Book a pre-shipment inspection at 80 to 100 percent completion. Include a labeling and packaging check in the scope.
4. Move goods to the prep warehouse (Route 2). Receiving, inspection and labeling take 2 to 5 working days for 1,000 to 5,000 units.
5. Create the shipping plan in Seller Central with final carton counts, dimensions and weights. Download and send the FBA box labels to the warehouse.
6. Ship by express, air or sea. For the trade-offs between modes see our guide to sea freight vs air freight from China.
7. Customs clearance and delivery appointment. Your forwarder clears the goods and books a dock slot at the fulfillment center. Appointments take 2 to 7 days.
8. Amazon check-in. Receiving takes 2 to 10 days after delivery. Reconcile units received against units shipped and open a case for any discrepancy.

From production finish, allow 10 to 15 days by express or air, 35 to 50 days by sea to the US West Coast, and 45 to 60 days to the US East Coast or Europe. Q4 adds a week at every stage. If you want a single team to handle inspection, prep and FBA shipping from China under one invoice, tell us about your product on WhatsApp.

Common reasons FBA shipments get rejected or flagged

These cause most of the problem shipments we are asked to fix:

• FNSKU label does not cover the UPC, so two barcodes scan and units are logged as the wrong product.
• Labels applied to the wrong variant (size or color), which Amazon only discovers through customer returns.
• Poly bags without a suffocation warning, or warning text too small for the bag size.
• Cartons over 22.5 kg, over 63.5 cm, or wrapped in strapping or stretch film that stops the carton label scanning.
• Carton label printed from the wrong shipment plan after a late carton count change.
• Mixed-SKU cartons declared as single-SKU in the shipping plan.
• Delivery arriving without an appointment or outside the booked window, so it is refused at the dock.
• Hazmat classification missing for products with batteries, aerosols or certain liquids, which blocks receiving entirely.

What Amazon FBA prep in China costs per unit

Typical 2026 ranges at Shenzhen and Yiwu prep warehouses for orders of 500 to 5,000 units:

A product that needs a label and a poly bag typically costs USD 0.30 to 0.50 per unit all in. The same prep at a US center is often USD 1.00 to 2.00. On a 3,000 unit order that difference pays for the inspection several times over, which is why Amazon FBA prep in China has become the default for sellers who care about account health.

Frequently asked questions