Amazon FBA Support
Prepped to Amazon's standard, before it ever reaches Amazon.
Amazon handed prep work back to sellers, and the consequences of getting it wrong land on you rather than on them. A carton that arrives wrong gets refused, refused stock sits somewhere earning nothing, and a launch date moves. We do the prep inside our warehouse as part of goods-in, so your inbound is accepted and your listings go live on the day you planned.
In short
Expandly provides Amazon FBA prep from warehouses in the UK and the Netherlands. The work Amazon requires sellers to complete before stock reaches a fulfilment centre, including FNSKU labelling, polybagging, bundling, fragile protection, palletised inbound and Transparency codes, is carried out during goods-in rather than as a separate job. Because Expandly also handles VAT registration, brands enrolling in Pan-European FBA are covered for the tax obligations created when Amazon moves their stock into a new country.
- FNSKU labelling applied unit by unit
- Polybagging, bundling and fragile protection
- Palletised inbound built to Amazon's spec
- Transparency codes for Brand Registry sellers
The requirements
What Amazon asks for, and what we do about it
None of this is difficult. It is just long, and every item on it is a reason for a fulfilment centre to reject a shipment. Here is the list, and where each one sits with us.
Requirement
How it is handled
Status
Unit-level barcodes
Met
Polybagging and protection
Bagging, bundling, fragile protection and multipack presentation, done as part of the prep workflow rather than as an afterthought.
Met
Palletised inbound
Larger FBA shipments are built onto pallets to the required specification and labelled for the receiving site.
Met
Batch and expiry controlled goods
Batch codes and best-before dates are tracked at location level, so rotation is managed and short-dated stock is caught before it ships.
Met
Amazon Transparency
The unique 26-character serialised code is applied to every individual unit, not to each SKU, for brands enrolled through Brand Registry.
Met
Valid GTINs
Barcodes checked against format on upload, so an invalid or non-GS1 code is caught before it becomes a listing problem.
Met
Removal orders
Stock coming back from Amazon arrives mixed and unlabelled. Each box is opened and checked item by item, then sorted back into sellable inventory.
Met
Where your categories carry requirements beyond this list, they get picked up during onboarding and written into your working instructions before the first shipment moves. Ask us about anything specific to what you sell.
Pan-EU
One inventory pool, and the tax that travels with it
Pan-European FBA is the reason a lot of brands look at Europe in the first place. Amazon distributes your stock across fulfilment centres in several countries, customers get local delivery speeds, and you pay local fulfilment fees rather than cross-border ones. Amazon handles the redistribution once you are enrolled.
There is a condition attached that is easy to miss. The moment Amazon moves your stock into a country, you are storing goods there, and storing goods there creates a VAT obligation in that country. It starts when the stock lands, not when you make a sale, and Amazon can move it without checking with you first.
That is exactly the join where a warehouse and a tax adviser normally hand the problem back and forth. We register the VAT and hold the stock, so enrolling in Pan-EU is a commercial decision rather than a compliance risk.
Staying live
Protecting the account, not just the shipment
Stock that is where the system says it is
Inventory syncs back to every channel as orders move, so your FBA and FBM positions stay separate and correct. Overselling is the fastest route to a cancellation rate problem, and it is almost always a data problem rather than a warehouse one.
You get told before you run out
Low stock thresholds are set per product and alert you when a line needs replenishing, with enough notice to get a shipment built and booked in. Running dry on a ranked ASIN costs more than the stock did.
Prep flagged early costs less
Where a rework is known before a shipment arrives, it is done at inbound rather than after put-away, which is faster and materially cheaper. Tell us at onboarding and it is built into the standing instruction.
One team for the whole route
Your compliance, your stock and your Amazon prep sit with the same company, so nothing waits on a handover between two suppliers who have never spoken.
Questions
Common questions on FBA prep
What FBA prep work do you handle?
The work Amazon expects sellers to complete before stock arrives at a fulfilment centre. FNSKU labelling applied unit by unit, polybagging, bundling and multipack presentation, fragile protection, and palletised inbound built to specification for larger shipments. It happens as part of goods-in, so your stock arrives at Amazon ready to be received rather than going through a second handling stage.
Can you apply Amazon Transparency labels?
Yes. Transparency is Amazon’s product serialisation programme, and the label carries a unique 26-character alphanumeric code with a 2D barcode. The code is unique to each individual unit rather than to each SKU, so the labels are applied one at a time. Your brand needs to be enrolled through Amazon Brand Registry first, and we need clear working instructions so the labelling matches what you expect.
Does Pan-European FBA create a VAT obligation?
Yes, and it is the part most easily missed. Pan-EU works by letting Amazon distribute your stock to fulfilment centres across several countries, and storing goods in a country creates a VAT registration obligation there. It starts when the stock arrives rather than when you make a sale, and Amazon can move inventory without checking with you first. We handle the registrations alongside the warehousing, so enrolling becomes a commercial decision rather than a compliance exposure.
What happens to Amazon removal orders?
Removals rarely arrive in a state where they can be resold immediately. They come back on mixed, unlabelled pallets or boxes, often from several Amazon warehouses at once and in varying condition. Every box is opened and checked item by item, then sorted, so what goes back into your sellable inventory is genuinely sellable.
Do you handle batch codes and expiry dates on FBA stock?
Yes. Batch codes and best-before dates are tracked at location level, so stock rotation is managed for you and short-dated units are caught before they are shipped into an Amazon fulfilment centre rather than after.
Elsewhere in this section
The rest of the picture
Parent page
The case for holding stock in Europe, the warehouse network, and how the whole service fits together.
Fulfilment model
Merchant-fulfilled orders shipped inside the window your metrics are measured against.
Fulfilment model
Your own store, delivered locally, from stock that feeds every other channel.
After the sale
Value recovered from returns, and what cannot be recovered handled responsibly.
Most brands we work with are moving stock from the US into the UK and EU, so those two buildings do the heavy lifting here. Expansion runs the other way as well. If you are a UK or European brand looking at America, our US warehouse does the same job in reverse.
Get your Amazon prep off your plate
Thirty minutes to look at your categories, your volumes and what Amazon is asking of you, and to tell you what moving prep into Europe would change.