How to Find an Amazon FBA Prep Center Quickly in 2023 (Fast and Easy!)
They’re out there, and whether you have a prep center can make or break your Amazon business.
Every Amazon seller who does FBA will say the same thing at some point: find an Amazon FBA prep center. As a former FBA seller, I can attest to this. We have good reasons for making this recommendation: prepping cases of products to send to Amazon takes a lot of work, and your time could be better spent growing your business. In this post, we’ll look at your new favorite tool for finding an Amazon FBA prep center near you for your Amazon FBA business, and the best part is that it doesn’t cost a dime.
Why Should I Use a Prep Center?
Amazon FBA prep centers excel at one thing: receiving the product, properly packaging and prepping is based on Amazon’s requirements, and shipping it to Amazon warehouses. Because this is all they do, per-unit rates are generally low: $.20-$1.00 per unit. Prices can vary outside that range depending on the region and requirements for each item.
By offloading the work to a crew that does this for a living, you’re saving time that could be better spent elsewhere and letting professionals do the job. Since this is all they do, they know the ins and outs, the nuances, and the gotchas that come with prepping items according to Amazon’s requirements.
Once you use a prep center, you’ll wish you had started sooner and never return to doing it yourself. The time savings alone will compound so quickly that you’ll wonder how you operated without working with a prep center for Amazon FBA.
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How to Use PrepCenter to Find an Amazon FBA Prep Center Nearby
The newest tool from Vendrive, the folks that make the killer Amazon repricing tool Aura, is called PrepCenter. PrepCenter is a directory of the best prep centers in the United States (and eventually beyond). The companies listed in the PrepCenter directory are community-sourced and are reviewed and rated by other sellers like yourself. As of January 2023, over 130 Amazon FBA prep center listings are on the site.
Prep centers near central Amazon receiving warehouses can help save substantial amounts of money in shipping products to Amazon. Anywhere that can ship from the prep center to Amazon in one business day using regular Ground shipping can be up to 50% less expensive than sending across the country.
Finding a prep center is easy. Click the “Find a prep center” button on the home page, and zoom in on an area of the map of your choice. The list on the right-hand side of the screen will automatically update to show only the centers within the area you’re viewing first. Clicking on a prep center will take you to its listing page.
You can contact the business via email or phone (as applicable) or visit their website. Details like turnaround time and if liftgates are required (common for more giant warehouses and distribution centers) are also on this page.
You can also write a review relaying your experiences with a prep center to share your experiences with other Amazon sellers. Crowdsourced information helps the high-quality services stand out, and the low-quality services fall to the bottom.
Conclusion
An idea like this crossed my mind a few years ago, but I never did anything about it. (Always act on your thoughts, folks!) I’m glad to see Dillon and the Vendrive crew back at it with an excellent new tool that’s entirely free and very useful. I’m going to keep this one bookmarked!
PrepCenter by Vendrive
A 100% free tool for finding the best Amazon FBA prep centers near you.
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