Amazon Fulfillment With a 3PL: FBA, FBM, and Everything Between
Prep and forwarding for FBA, direct fulfillment for FBM, or both at once. How a 3PL runs your Amazon channel at any scale.
Amazon is its own world, with its own labeling rules, prep requirements, inbound appointments, and penalties for getting any of it wrong. Brands usually handle it one of two ways: send inventory into Amazon's warehouses and let Amazon fulfill it, or fulfill Amazon orders themselves. A good 3PL supports both, and most growing brands end up needing both.
FBA prep and forwarding
Fulfillment by Amazon starts long before Amazon touches your product. Every unit has to arrive labeled, prepped, and packed to Amazon's specifications, on a shipment Amazon agreed to receive. That is warehouse work: FNSKU labeling, poly-bagging, bundling, carton building, pallet specs, and inbound scheduling. Team 1 handles Amazon integration and prep so inventory leaves our dock ready to check in clean, because a rejected inbound shipment costs you time, fees, and sales rank all at once.
FBM, fulfilled from our floor
Fulfilled by Merchant means Amazon orders ship from our warehouse like any other e-commerce order, with the inventory staying in your control. Orders flow in through the integration, ship the same day when they beat the 10 AM cutoff, and tracking flows back to Amazon automatically. FBM keeps you selling when FBA stock runs dry, carries products that are awkward or expensive to store in Amazon's network, and avoids storage fees on slow movers.
Large scale, small scale, and all of the above
There is no minimum size where Amazon support starts making sense. A brand shipping a few hundred units a month needs the prep done right just as much as a brand shipping containers. The same is true in the other direction: seasonal spikes, product launches, and viral moments need a partner that scales up without drama. Most of our Amazon work is the hybrid: FBA for the fast movers, FBM as the backstop and the overflow, with one pool of inventory feeding both.
Amazon next to everything else
Amazon is rarely the whole business. The same inventory usually feeds a Shopify store, retail replenishment, and wholesale accounts. Running the Amazon channel out of the same building as everything else means one inventory count, one team, and no product stranded in the wrong network when a channel surges.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between FBA and FBM?
With FBA, Fulfillment by Amazon, you send inventory to Amazon's warehouses and Amazon ships orders. With FBM, Fulfilled by Merchant, orders ship from your own warehouse or your 3PL's. FBA trades control and fees for Prime placement, while FBM keeps inventory in your hands.
What does FBA prep involve?
FBA prep means getting units to Amazon's receiving standards: FNSKU labels, poly-bagging or bubble wrap where required, bundling, carton and pallet specs, and a correctly scheduled inbound shipment. Shipments that miss the spec can be rejected or fined.
Can a 3PL run FBA and FBM at the same time?
Yes, and the hybrid is common: FBA covers fast-moving products for Prime, while FBM ships from the 3PL as a backstop when FBA stock runs low and as the home for products that are expensive to store in Amazon's network.
Is a 3PL worth it for a small Amazon seller?
Often yes. Prep mistakes cost small sellers proportionally more, and a 3PL that handles both prep and direct fulfillment lets a small catalog run clean without hiring warehouse staff. The operation then scales with you instead of being rebuilt later.
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