FBA Prep in China vs the US After De Minimis

By Bernardo Campelo, Forbes Business Council E-Commerce Leader, Amazon SPN Certified provider, Amazon SP-API authorized partner, and Founder of PrepVia.

Sellers who search for a prep service in China are asking a reasonable question: if the factory can apply the FNSKU and bag the unit for a few cents while it packs the carton, why pay again in the United States? For years the honest answer was "it depends on your volume." Since August 29, 2025, when the de minimis exemption ended for commercial shipments from every origin, the answer has changed shape, and this guide walks through why.

What Prep in China Does Well

The factory is already handling every unit. Adding an FNSKU label and a poly bag at that moment costs labor that is priced far below US labor, and it avoids opening the carton twice. For a private label seller with a trusted supplier, a mature listing and a stable ASIN, factory prep is efficient and there is no reason to pretend otherwise. The quotes we see from China-based prep services are commonly below US per-unit rates for the same label-and-bag task.

What It Cannot Do

Every advantage of origin prep is an advantage of doing the work early. Every weakness is the same thing seen from the other side: the work is done before the product has crossed an ocean, and nothing that happens after it is sealed can be corrected.

What De Minimis Changed

Under the old rules, a seller could ship each restock as parcels valued under 800 dollars and skip duty, formal entry and the broker. That model made direct-from-factory prep logical: the parcel went from the packing line to the fulfillment center with no US stop. That path closed on August 29, 2025. Commercial shipments now owe duty regardless of value and clear as entries, and the math pushes everyone toward consolidated freight with one formal entry per shipment. Our guide on the first Q4 without de minimis runs the parcel versus formal entry numbers in full.

The consequence for prep is structural. A consolidated shipment lands at one US address, either a fulfillment center or a dock. If it lands at the FC, every carton had to be perfect at origin and nothing can be checked. If it lands at a dock, the goods get inspected once, in the country where Amazon will receive them, by people who can fix what the ocean broke. The US stop that de minimis used to make optional is now the natural landing point, and prep is what the stop is for.

The Hybrid That Works

The setup that mature importers converge on is not either-or. The factory applies FNSKU labels and poly bags at the packing line, under a QC checklist the seller controls. The container lands at a US dock. The dock counts and inspects every carton, fixes the exceptions (wrong labels, damaged bags, crushed cartons), palletizes by SKU, holds what the current FBA plan cannot absorb, and forwards the rest. Prep at the US dock becomes exception handling plus the services that only make sense after the plan is known: bundles, inserts, expiration labels, box content.

Where Each Side Still Wins

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it cheaper to prep in China or in the US?

Per label, China is usually cheaper, because the factory is already handling the unit and its labor is priced lower. Per shipment, the answer depends on what goes wrong. A single mislabeled batch that strands at an Amazon fulfillment center costs a removal order, a relabel and a second inbound, which is more than the prep savings on the whole container. US market prep rates run about 0.50 to 1.50 dollars per unit; PrepVia starts at 0.40. The safer comparison is per pallet at risk, not per label.

Did the end of de minimis make China prep useless?

No. It removed the path that made China prep sufficient on its own: the parcel that went from the packing line to the fulfillment center with no US stop. Goods now arrive consolidated at a US address, so the question became where that address is. A dock that inspects, fixes exceptions and forwards to Amazon is the natural landing point, and factory prep becomes the first pass rather than the only pass.

What does a US prep center do if the factory already labeled everything?

It counts and inspects every carton, verifies FNSKUs against the ASIN map, repacks transit damage, fixes mislabels, adds anything the plan requires that the factory could not know (bundles, inserts, expiration labels, box content), palletizes by SKU and builds the FBA shipment after the placement decision. Labeling that is already correct is not redone.

Can PrepVia receive a container that was prepped in China?

Yes. The container comes to our Miami dock after customs release, is unloaded and counted against the packing list, inspected and photographed, and the goods move to prep or storage. Correct factory labels stay; exceptions are fixed; the FBA inbound leaves from the same dock, with FastLane 35H covering the stretch from receiving to Amazon.