As your Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) business expands, you will learn that you must outsource certain aspects of your business to third-party logistics (3PL). By hiring an FBA prep company, you can streamline all the tasks required to sell on Amazon. The company will handle everything on your behalf, such as receiving, inspecting, shipping, and even labeling your products.

You get to offload your work to someone else, so your reputation and your business depend on the prep center you will choose. But how do you select with whom to work? Here are vital considerations when choosing a prep center.

Location

Are they located close to major Amazon fulfilments or wholesalers? The location of your prep center is one of the most critical factors during selection. The farther the inventory has to travel, the pricier the shipping will be. Furthermore, there is an issue with drop-off and inventory replenishment. An intelligent decision is to find an FBA prep center near the headquarters for retailers that source products domestically.

And for those that source from overseas, you must choose FBA prep services near a major port to ensure smooth outbound shipping. The location controls several factors such as how quickly a product can get to the prep center from the supplier, how fast it reaches Amazon from the prep center, the cost of shipping, etc.

Turnaround Time

The turnaround time (how long a prep center takes to process your shipment) for FBA prep varies and can range anywhere from a day to a month. It all depends on the requirements and the specific items ordered. It is crucial to be clear on the turnaround time to ensure no delays and that your transactions with Amazon are not being affected.

The aim should be to get a prep center with a turnaround time of a max of three business days, time can vary with larger orders, but small orders should have a relatively lesser turnaround time.

Communication

Are they consistent in their communication? After looking at the first two considerations, you’ll be able to tell about their communication style. Prompt responses through slack help keep our customers aware of our FBA prep services.

Say, for example, you request some information from your prep center, and they take over a week to get back to you. It is a sign of poor FBA prep service that will not benefit you. There are bound to be some issues when getting the end products delivered to your customers. The last thing you need is an unavailable and unresponsive prep center. It will only aggravate your exciting problem.

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Cost

Are their prices reasonable? Prices are highly variable and have external factors that affect them. The cheapest FBA prep center is not always the best option for your business. Neither is a prep center promising to process a thousand units at a meager price. These are major red flags when looking for the right prep center for your company.

You should assess the e-commerce prep center’s cost considering everything mentioned above. The price should usually be the last thing you should look at. In addition to this, one must also be aware of any monthly service fees that exist. Be very clear about why the monthly payment is being charged.

Selected System

Now that you have a few prep centers in mind, you can assess them as per their workflow. It is crucial to know the complete picture of how they will handle your product. Do they offer top-quality services? Some prep centers have exclusive systems in place that need your input. Some have Supply Chain Connect and email, while some have neither. You must know whether you need to make some changes in your workflow to accommodate theirs.

Every FBA prep service works differently. Some companies ask for more even though packaging, product storage, and shipping are the basic expectation and needs of an FBA prep center. Other prep centers offer 3PL services, detailed shipment data, inventory processing, freight forwarding, import inspection, customs negotiation, etc. Consider the services you need and see if the prep center in mind can provide those.

E-Box fulfillment only takes as many customers as we can handle while offering them the best-personalized services. We never saturate ourselves by taking on more customers as we believe in delivering the utmost quality.

Storage Space

It is cheaper to store your inventory in a prep center than an Amazon fulfillment center most of the time. In this case, the prep center will only send supplies to Amazon when the need arises. If you’re someone who leaves the stock in the midpoint for too long, Amazon’s fulfillment center is not the right choice for you. They tend to penalize businesses that do so, which will have you pay fees for each item you want to be returned and pay again for repackaging.

Thanks to their low costs and convenient storage facility services, 3PL warehouses are excellent for storing your stock. Look for an FBA prep service capable of turning around inventory quickly, providing you insurance against fire and theft, and offering all your business’s services.

E Box Fulfillment offers 3PL storage: it has real-time inventory management, carefree order management, long and short term management, no minimum required, notifications are sent out when products are received or running low, it is available for online viewing anywhere, and at any time of the day, products are scanned and synchronized to your personal dashboard. We also offer palletization services: pallet receiving, stocking, FTL, LTL, and PTL.

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Transparency

Are they clear in what they offer? Are their prices well-defined? Are their processes up to your standards? Do you understand their workflow and how you can work with them? Transparency is key. You must know all your e-commerce prep center does and what they’ll offer your business. The reputation of your FBA prep center will tell you so much about the company’s culture and how they will be when working with you. If the reviews are tremendous and customers claim that it is a trustworthy service, you can assess other things to decide.

It is best to check whether the prep center has some authority licenses, which will help prove that it is on track with all the requirements for shipping.

Wrapping Up

An FBA prep service will handle all importing, labeling, processing, and shipping inventory to Amazon. It will allow you to manage your business better, boost sales on Amazon, and decrease your internal costs and the size of your business. So, find a responsive prep center near your suppliers and free your stress from unnecessary stress.

Need to scale up your e-commerce business? E-box Fulfillment is your one-stop solution. With a 48-hour turnaround, we focus on providing quality services in compliance with Amazon FBA requirements.

Right now E-Box Fulfillment has a promotion on your first order, the first order is free up to 25 units, contact us for more details about the promotion. https://e-boxfulfillment.com/contact/