Amazon FBA prep requirements come in two layers, and most rejected shipments fail because the seller only read one of them. Layer one is general packaging — every unit must arrive in a single sealed package, with a scannable barcode and no old barcodes visible. Layer two is product-specific prep — bagging, bubble wrapping, opaque bagging, or set labeling, triggered by what the product actually is. This guide lays both out by product type, with the numbers that matter: 1.5 mil minimum poly bag thickness, a 5-inch bag opening as the suffocation warning threshold, and warning text sized by the total length plus width of the bag.
Every requirement below is attributed to the Amazon page it came from and dated. Where Amazon’s own pages disagree with each other, that is said out loud rather than smoothed over.
The Two Layers, and Why Sellers Miss One
Amazon splits its inbound rules into requirements that apply to all units and requirements that attach to a product category or physical characteristic. A cotton t-shirt has to satisfy both: the general rule that it arrives as one sealed unit with a readable barcode, and the apparel rule that it is bagged so dust and humidity cannot reach it.
Two more distinctions are worth holding onto, because prep-service blogs routinely collapse them:
- FBA prep is not carrier packaging. Poly bags, bubble wrap and warning labels are about how the unit survives inside Amazon’s building and the customer’s delivery. Box weight limits, pallet specs and delivery windows are the carrier and box layer — see Amazon Carrier Central for the appointment side of that.
- Prep is not labeling. Barcodes decide whether Amazon can identify your unit; prep decides whether it survives. Barcode selection — manufacturer barcode, Amazon barcode, Transparency — is its own subject, and we cover it in Amazon barcode requirements.
General Packaging Requirements for Every Unit
These apply regardless of category. All quotations in this section are verbatim from Amazon’s FBA prep, packaging, and labeling: A beginners guide on sell.amazon.com, published 2026-07-07 and retrieved 2026-08-19.
| Requirement | Amazon’s wording | What trips sellers up |
|---|---|---|
| One secure package per unit | “Every unit, including multi-volume book sets, must be contained within a single, secure package.” | Two-piece products shipped loose in one box count as unprepped |
| No assembly required | “Amazon does not accept units requiring multi-piece assembly (e.g., a wheelbarrow with disconnected handles).” | Furniture and tools with detached parts |
| Loose items secured | Units “not in secure packaging (like loose sleeves or pouches) must be bagged or secured with a non-adhesive band or removable tape.” | Adhesive tape directly on the product |
| Old barcodes covered | “Remove, cover, or render any existing barcodes on the outside of your shipping boxes.” Cover with opaque tape or make unscannable with a black felt-tip marker. | Reused supplier cartons with live UPC or carrier labels |
| Sets marked as sets | Package together and mark the outside “Sold as set,” “Ready to ship,” or “This is a set—do not separate.” | Bundles that get split and sold as singles at receiving |
| Footwear fully enclosed | “All footwear must be packaged with no material exposed either in shoe boxes or poly bags with a suffocation warning.” | Sandals shipped in an open display box |
On the FNSKU label itself, Amazon specifies 1 to 2 inches tall by 2 to 3 inches wide, black ink on non-reflective adhesive paper, and a laser printer at 300 DPI; the label carries the barcode, FNSKU, product title and condition. Photocopied or damaged labels are not accepted, and where a unit gets extra packaging such as bubble wrap, the label goes on the outside of it.
Poly Bag Requirements
Poly bagging is the single most searched piece of FBA prep, and it is where the numbers get contradictory across sources. Here is what each Amazon page says.
Thickness. The Bagging requirements help page (G201685210) specifies a minimum of 1.5 mil — one and a half thousandths of an inch. Amazon’s own beginner blog, in the same paragraph as the other bag rules, instead says to “use transparent bags that are 1mm thick and completely sealed.” One millimetre is roughly 39 mil, which is heavy sheeting, not a poly bag; treat the blog line as a slip and buy to the 1.5 mil spec.
Transparency. Bags must be transparent so the unit and its barcode are visible, “unless the product is an adult product or specified for opaque bagging.”
Sealing. The bag must be completely sealed. A fold-over or a loose zip top does not count.
Fit. “Bags should fit the product—don’t extend more than 3 inches beyond the product’s dimensions, and don’t force products into bags that are too small.” Both directions of that rule are enforced; an oversized bag on a small unit is as much a fail as a split seam.
Barcode visibility. “Ensure barcode labels are readable on the outside of all bags.” The label goes on the bag, not inside it.
Suffocation Warning Labels: Threshold, Wording and Font Size
Threshold. Amazon’s Bagging requirements page states that bags with a 5-inch opening or larger, measured when flat, need a suffocation warning — printed on the bag or applied as a label. The beginner blog phrases the same rule as any bag “with an opening larger than 5 inches.” The two readings differ on a bag whose opening is exactly 5 inches. The safe reading is the help page’s: at 5 inches, label it.
Wording. The warning text quoted from Amazon’s requirement reads:
WARNING: To avoid danger of suffocation, keep this plastic bag away from babies and children. Do not use this bag in cribs, beds, carriages or play pens. This bag is not a toy.
Font size. The warning must be legible for the size of the bag, sized off the total of the bag’s length plus its width:
| Bag length + width | Minimum print size |
|---|---|
| 60 inches or more | 24 point |
| 40 to 59 inches | 18 point |
| 30 to 39 inches | 14 point |
| Less than 29 inches | 10 point |
Note the gap: Amazon’s table jumps from “less than 29” to “30 to 39” and says nothing about a bag measuring exactly 29-point-something inches. Bags land in that gap often enough that it is worth knowing — sizing up to 14 point costs nothing and removes the ambiguity.
Language. For the US store, English alone satisfies the requirement. Selling into Canada requires the warning in both English and French.
Pre-printed suffocation-warning bags are usually cheaper than blank bags plus a roll of warning labels — but check the printed font size against the table above rather than assuming the vendor sized it for your bag.
FBA Prep Requirements by Product Type
Amazon organises product-specific prep by the physical hazard the item creates, not by browse node. This table maps the categories Amazon names to the prep action it requires.
| Product type | Required prep | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Apparel, fabric, textiles | Sealed poly bag, shrink wrap, or box | Protects against dust and humidity; suffocation warning applies at the 5-inch threshold |
| Plush products, baby products | Poly bag | Baby and consumable items are also on Amazon’s list of products that need an Amazon barcode rather than a manufacturer barcode |
| Jewelry and small products | Poly bag | Small units get lost or misidentified without an enclosing bag |
| Powders, pellets, granular items | Poly bag | Same rule covers anything in perforated packaging |
| Liquids | Poly bag | Bag contains a leak so one unit does not take out a shelf |
| Perforated packaging | Poly bag | The perforation itself is the trigger, whatever is inside |
| Sharp items | Fully bubble wrapped, not bagged | Amazon will not prep sharp items — they must arrive fully packaged |
| Fragile items, ceramics, glass | Fully bubble wrapped, not bagged | Bubble wrap must be secured well enough to survive handling; some units need over-boxing |
| Footwear | Shoe box, or poly bag with suffocation warning | No material may be exposed |
| Adult products | Opaque bagging | The one documented exception to the transparent-bag rule |
| Sets and bundles | Packaged together and marked “Sold as set” | Unmarked bundles get separated at receiving |
| Expiration-dated products | Date printed on the outer box in 36-point or larger font, and on each unit | Where prep such as bagging or bubble wrap is added, the date label goes on the outside of that prep |
Two category-level notes that do not fit a table row:
Expiration-dated inventory has a shelf-life floor as well as a labeling rule. Units must arrive with enough remaining shelf life for the product to be consumed plus an additional 90 days. Sourcing close-dated stock is therefore a receiving risk, not just a sell-through risk.
Dangerous goods sit outside this framework entirely. Aerosols, lithium batteries, flammables and similar items go through a separate dangerous-goods review with its own documentation before any prep question is relevant — see Amazon hazmat and dangerous goods review.
What Happens When Units Arrive Unprepped
Amazon’s stated remedy is broad: it “may refuse, return, or repackage any product delivered to a fulfillment center with inadequate or non-compliant packaging at your expense.” It may also attach extra prep requirements to a product based on damage-related returns — so one bad batch can permanently change what that ASIN costs to send in. Two changes made this more expensive than it used to be:
- Amazon stopped offering prep and item labeling for US FBA shipments on 2026-01-01. Units that arrive needing prep can no longer be routed into a paid Amazon prep service as a matter of course; they get handled as unplanned services, with per-unit charges and delayed receiving.
- Unplanned service fees are charged per unit when items arrive without required prep or labels and Amazon routes them down an alternate path. Amazon publishes the current rates in Seller Central’s fee schedule; because AMZBase does not operate a Seller Central account, we do not reproduce a fee number we cannot read at the source.
Prep is therefore a fixed cost in your unit economics now, not an optional service. Our comparison of FBA prep software covers the tools that compress the per-unit labor, and FBA size tiers explains how packaging choices push a unit into a costlier tier.
Pre-Shipment Prep Checklist
Run this per SKU, not per shipment:
- Is each unit a single sealed package needing no assembly?
- Does the product’s category or hazard trigger bagging, bubble wrap, or opaque bagging?
- If bagged: transparent, sealed, at least 1.5 mil, and extending no more than 3 inches past the product?
- If the bag opening is 5 inches or more: is a suffocation warning printed or applied, at the point size the bag’s length-plus-width calls for?
- If sharp, fragile, ceramic or glass: fully bubble wrapped rather than bagged?
- Is the FNSKU label on the outermost layer, flat, unobscured, 1–2 inches by 2–3 inches?
- Are all original UPC, EAN and ISBN barcodes covered on both the unit and the shipping box?
- If it is a set: marked “Sold as set” on the outside?
- If it is expiration-dated: date on each unit and on the outer box at 36 point or larger, with the shelf-life floor met?
Once boxes are sealed and the shipment is created, the remaining failure mode moves from prep to transit — tracked in FBA shipment tracking.
How These Numbers Were Verified
Amazon’s Seller Central help pages render only with JavaScript and return a shell page to crawlers, which is why third-party articles on this topic copy each other rather than the source. Two evidence routes were used here, both on 2026-08-19:
- Fetched and quoted directly: FBA prep, packaging, and labeling: A beginners guide, sell.amazon.com, published 2026-07-07. Every quotation attributed to “the beginner blog” above is verbatim from that page.
- Retrieved through Amazon-domain search snippets: the Bagging requirements help page (G201685210) and the expiration-dates help page (G201003420), whose text is not directly fetchable. The 1.5 mil figure, the flat-measured 5-inch threshold, the point-size table, the warning wording, and the 90-day shelf-life floor come from this route.
Requirements change; re-check those help pages before a large first shipment in a new category.
Frequently Asked Questions
What thickness poly bag does Amazon FBA require?
At least 1.5 mil. Amazon’s Bagging requirements help page sets that minimum, and the bag must also be transparent and completely sealed. The “1mm” figure in Amazon’s own beginner blog is inconsistent with the help page and roughly 26 times thicker than the actual spec.
When is a suffocation warning required on an FBA poly bag?
When the bag’s opening measures 5 inches or more with the bag laid flat. The warning can be printed on the bag or applied as a separate label, and its print size is set by the bag’s length plus width — 10 point under 29 inches, up to 24 point at 60 inches or more.
Do liquids need anything beyond a poly bag?
Liquids are on Amazon’s list of products requiring bagging, and the general packaging rules still apply: sealed unit, readable barcode on the outside of the bag, bag no more than 3 inches larger than the product. Items that qualify as dangerous goods go through the separate hazmat review first.
Can Amazon prep my items for me?
Not in the US store as of 2026-01-01, when Amazon stopped offering prep and item labeling for FBA shipments there. Units arriving unprepped are handled as unplanned services at a per-unit charge, with slower receiving.
Does bubble wrap replace poly bagging?
For sharp, fragile, ceramic and glass items, yes — Amazon specifies full bubble wrapping “instead of bagged.” The FNSKU label then goes on the outside of the bubble wrap so it stays scannable.
Bottom Line
Most FBA prep failures are not exotic: a bag under 1.5 mil, a 6-inch opening without a warning, a supplier carton with a live barcode still on it, a bundle nobody marked as a set. Work the checklist per SKU before the first shipment of any new product type — apparel, liquids and expiration-dated goods each add a rule the previous category did not have.