Amazon FBA beginner’s guide 2026

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Here’s the transcript from the video:

Mickey: “Quick shipping can make or break a sale. Luckily, there’s Fulfillment by Amazon, or FBA, which lets sellers offer customers free two-day shipping through Amazon Prime.

“Even better, shipping costs with FBA are 70% less than comparable premium options offered by other major US carriers. When you start selling with FBA, you can also enjoy discounts for FBA, shipping credits, free storage, and a lot more.

“I’m Mickey Toogood, I’m a senior manager here at Amazon. And by the end of this video, you’ll learn the ins and outs of FBA, why it’s so great, how much it costs, and how to get started. If you enjoy this video, don’t forget to like and subscribe for more!

“Let’s get started by level setting and asking ourselves, “What exactly is Amazon FBA?”

“FBA in a nutshell, is a program that lets you outsource order fulfillment to Amazon.

“If you don’t know what order fulfillment is, it’s basically picking an item out of your inventory, packing it and shipping it, and sending it off to a customer.

“The great thing about FBA is we do this from hundreds of fulfillment centers around the world. So you’re not just shipping from one location. Your items are being shipped from many locations, getting them closer to customers. Basically, you send your stuff to us, when a customer places an order, we pick, pack, ship and send it to them. We also handle customer service and returns, so you don’t have to deal with that part of the process either.

“Even better, you can use FBA in conjunction with a bunch of other supply chain programs.

"[The] first two programs are for international cross-border logistics: Amazon Global Logistics and Seller Export & Delivery. These allow you to ship products from one country into our fulfillment network in another country.

“There’s a program called the Partner Carrier program, or PCP. This program allows you to do the same thing domestically. You get your stuff from your warehouse, for example, to an Amazon fulfillment center.

“We also offer a program called Amazon Warehousing and Distribution, or AWD. AWD is basically a bulk storage program. It allows you to store your items for less and then have them automatically replenished into our fulfillment network.

“Last but not least, there is Multichannel Fulfillment and Buy with Prime. Together with FBA, you can use these two programs so that when a customer places an order not with Amazon—on your own website, for example—we still do the fulfillment. It’s like FBA but for other sites.

“So that is FBA in a nutshell. It’s pretty simple. You ship it to us, we handle the rest. But why should you choose FBA?

“There are lots and lots of reasons to use FBA, so I’m just going to name a few.

“The biggest one is one I’ve already mentioned, which is Amazon Prime. If you use FBA, Amazon Prime customers enjoy free two-day shipping, which is pretty great. They love the speed. They love the reliability.

“There are also other FBA related programs that have real benefits. One of them is Subscribe & Save. It’s exactly what it sounds like. A customer can subscribe essentially to your product and receive it repeatedly on a regular cycle. On average, products that have a 10%-15% discount with Subscribe & Save drive up to a 1.8x increase in conversion. That’s almost twice as many sales. Who doesn’t want that?

“But I really think the reason that FBA is so great, the reason you should consider it, is that it’s fast and reliable. You want speed and reliability. Your customers want speed and reliability. It’s really sometimes just that simple.

“And you can also outsource all the messy stuff to Amazon. That means you can focus more on your business, you can grow your business, you can invent that new product. Who doesn’t want to do that?

“So at this point, you’re probably thinking, “Yeah, yeah, Mickey, that all sounds really great, but how much does FBA cost?”

“There are two basic costs for FBA—storage costs and fulfillment costs.

“Storage costs are incurred before someone makes a purchase. That’s how much it costs to store your item in a fulfillment center.

“Fulfillment costs are related to how much it costs to fulfill an item. So fulfillment costs are charged per unit. That’s based on the size, weight, and dimensions of what’s been sold. Which makes sense, right? If you’re selling a refrigerator, it’s very different than selling a cup. There are going to be different charges for that.

“Storage on a monthly basis is calculated using the average volume you are taking up in our fulfillment centers.

“There are other costs associated with FBA. One of them is an aged inventory charge. That’s applied to items that are in our fulfillment centers for over 181 days. If you reach that point, you can think about options like liquidation.

“Another cost that you might run into is a processing cost for returns. If someone returns an item to our fulfillment centers, there’s a cost associated with processing that item.

“Last but not least, there’s the FBA inbound placement service. We have hundreds of fulfillment centers around the world. When we optimize placement for you, there’s a charge associated with that so that we can get your items closer to more customers and fulfill them faster.

“So far, I’ve given you a description of what FBA is. I’ve described some of its benefits, and I’ve offered a breakdown of the costs.

“To give you an even better look at FBA, and to actually give you a chance to estimate your costs, to understand the benefits for you, compare your fulfillment method with FBA, I’ve got a free tool for you. It’s called the FBA Revenue Calculator. It’s in the description below.

“And because I want you to know what’s best for your business before you watch two more minutes of this video, pause the video. Stop. Go use the Revenue Calculator. I mean it. And if you like what you see, come back, watch the rest of this video. I’ll tell you how we’re going to get started with FBA.

“All right, you’re back. That means you do want to hear more about FBA. So let’s jump in. Let’s figure out how to get started with FBA.

“First step for using Amazon FBA is to register. It’s to sign up. If you don’t have a selling account yet, you’re going to need to start there. To sign up for a selling account, you can go to sell.amazon.com and click Sign up wherever you see it.

“I generally recommend people sign up for a Professional selling account. It gives you access not only to FBA, but to a bunch of other programs that can help you grow your business.

“Once you have your selling account, go into Seller Central. Look for the gear icon in the upper right-hand corner. Click the gear icon. Click Account Info. Click Manage. Then click Register for FBA. You’re all set.

“Second step for FBA is to list your products and to assign them to a program. Before you start that process, make sure you understand product restrictions. There are laws, there are product restrictions in general for Amazon, and then there are restrictions specific to FBA. So make sure you review all of those.

“Then you’re going to choose, from your eligible products, which of them to enroll in FBA. When you’re listing the product, just look for Amazon will ship and provide customer service. Choose that option. You’ve just enrolled your product in FBA.

“So you’ve registered for the program. You’ve enrolled your products. Now you need to prep, label, and pack your products so you can get them into our fulfillment network.

“Make sure you check out FBA packaging prep and labeling guidelines. There’s a link below in the description. You’ll also need to bring a ship from address so that we know where you’re shipping your products from. Make sure you bring your product measurements. Have boxes, have poly bags, have a scale if you don’t know the weight of your items, and have a printer so you’re ready to print your shipping labels.

“When you’re ready to send your packages into the Amazon fulfillment network, you’re going to tell us that they’re coming by using the Send to Amazon workflow. So you’re going to create a shipment.

“Start by going into Seller Central. Look in the main menu for the Inventory selection. Click Inventory. Underneath the FBA selection within that submenu, look for Shipments. Click on Shipments. Now you’re in the Send to Amazon workflow.

“We break this workflow up into a bunch of steps to simplify and piece it out. You can start the workflow, leave, go get a cup of coffee, come back.

“There are a bunch of other benefits for using the Send to Amazon workflow.

“One of them, for example, is reusable case-pack templates. This means if you’re sending identical shipments over and over again, you don’t have to repeatedly enter the same information. There are discounted partner carrier rates in the Send to Amazon workflow. And there’s also automated tracking, so we take care of all of that for you.

“You’re going to need to pick your shipping mode when you’re using the Send to Amazon workflow—a small parcel or a pallet, for example. If you’d like a full overview of Send to Amazon, go ahead and look for the link in the description. There’s another link down there for you.

“At this point, your inventory is in our fulfillment network, so you’re going to need to track and manage it. We offer a really great tool for this called the FBA dashboard. You can track your shipments. So shipments coming into our network. You can track your inventory. So how much you have in stock. And best yet you can track your sales to understand how much you’re making in relation to Fulfillment by Amazon.

“The dashboard also offers replenishment alerts, so it lets you know, “Hey, this stock might be going out soon. Replenish.” There’s a restock tool in there so you can quickly replenish.

“And we also offer you an IPI score. “IPI” stands for “Inventory Performance Index.” It’s essentially a measurement of the health of your inventory. So it lets you know, “Hey, you’re doing a great job. Your inventory is healthy and you’re keeping things in stock so customers can buy them.”

“Last step. You are a pro at FBA. You’re making sales. You’re managing your inventory. You’re restocking. Everything’s going great. So now it’s time to optimize and expand.

“And the best way to do this is think about related programs. I’ve already mentioned one of them, which is Subscribe & Save. Subscribe & Save, there are opportunities there to add additional discounts that can increase the number of customers who are subscribing and saving.

“You can also think about programs like Remote Fulfillment. Remote Fulfillment allows customers in for example Canada and Mexico to make purchases and pull from your US inventory. You don’t have to do anything. It’s automatic.

“I can’t say enough about Multichannel Fulfillment and Buy with Prime. These programs, again, allow customers to make purchases off Amazon and then pull from your inventory. Couldn’t be simpler.

“If you really want to get fancy, think about programs like Pan-European FBA. This allows you to ship your inventory to one country in Europe, and then we distribute it across Europe for you. So you don’t have to learn the difference between storing things in Italy and France. We’ll take care of that.

“You should also think about non-fulfillment-related programs that can help with FBA. Think about promotions, think about ads. They’re classic tools and programs for a reason. And don’t forget, we give you a ton of incentives to get started with FBA.

“You can get $100 off shipments with the Partner Carrier program. We give you free storage and returns with the FBA New Selection program. It basically means if you bring new eligible inventory into our network, we give you free storage and returns.

“You can also enjoy a $400 credit for the inbound placement service. That means that we’ll distribute your inventory around our network, optimize its placement, and give you a $400 credit for getting started with us.

“And there you have it. That is FBA. We know it’s a big topic. We know there’s a lot of conversation out there. We know people have a lot of questions. I hope I’ve demystified it a little bit for you.

“We’re also going to make more videos about FBA, so like and subscribe to stay tuned. Feel free to drop any questions that you have into the comments below. And in the meantime, please go visit sell.amazon.com/fba, or check out the Amazon Seller University YouTube channel. Awesome resources about FBA and a lot of other programs.

“Thanks for watching! I’m Mickey Toogood, I will see you next time.”