With FBA you still own the inventory, it just lives in Amazon's building. AIMS360 pulls shipped FBA orders back automatically so the units leaving Amazon's shelves come off the same stock record as everything else.
You still own every unit sitting in an Amazon fulfillment center. That makes FBA closer to consignment than to a sale, and it means the stock has to stay visible in your ERP rather than vanishing the moment the inbound shipment leaves. AIMS360 pulls shipped FBA orders back automatically so the numbers stay honest.
Fulfillment by Amazon means your inventory is stored in Amazon's fulfillment centers and Amazon picks, packs, ships and handles customer service and returns. You keep ownership of the stock the whole time, which makes it closer to consignment or a 3PL arrangement than to a wholesale sale. The main benefit is the Prime badge.
That ownership point is not a technicality, it is the accounting. Units in an Amazon fulfillment center are still your asset, still on your books, and still exposed to your markdown risk. A brand treating FBA inbound as a sale ends up with an inventory position it cannot see and a season end it cannot forecast.
FBA is one of three ways to fulfill a Seller Central order. It is not the only one, and for a lot of apparel assortments it should not be the default.
The shape changed in January 2026. Model against Amazon's live rate card, but know the shape first.
| Charge | How it works |
|---|---|
| Fulfillment fee | Since January 2026, banded by item price as well as size: under $10, $10 to $50, and over $50. Apparel sits on its own ladder that runs above the equivalent non apparel band. |
| Fuel and logistics surcharge | 3.5% added to the fulfillment fee from April 2026 on US and Canada FBA, extended to Multi-Channel Fulfillment in May. Calculated on the fee, not the item price. Amazon has described it as in effect until further notice. |
| Peak surcharge | Applies 15 October 2026 to 14 January 2027, held flat against 2025 at roughly 32 cents per unit on average, and stacking on top of the 3.5% surcharge. |
| Inbound placement | Ship to a single destination and you pay the most. Let Amazon split across four or more fulfillment centers and the fee is zero, provided the shipment meets the identical carton requirements. |
| Low inventory level fee | Triggers when both your 90 day and 30 day days of supply fall below 28 days. Now assessed per FNSKU rather than per parent ASIN, which matters for size runs. |
| Returns processing | See the next section. For apparel this is the one that hurts. |
Apparel and shoes are charged the FBA returns processing fee on every single returned unit, with no return rate threshold. Every other category is charged only on returns above a category specific threshold, measured on a rolling three month window. Given that apparel has one of the highest structural return rates in retail, this is usually a bigger number than the fulfillment fee difference.
Sit with what that means for a size run. A customer who orders a medium and a large intending to keep one has done something completely normal in apparel, and has generated a returned unit you pay a processing fee on, on a category where the fulfillment fee ladder was already higher. Bracketing behavior that looks like healthy conversion on the PDP is a direct cost line in FBA.
None of that makes FBA wrong. It makes fit data, size charts and honest product photography into margin levers rather than merchandising niceties, and it makes the FBA versus FBM decision worth making per style rather than per brand.
Monthly storage is charged per cubic foot and roughly triples in the October to December peak, which lands exactly when a seasonal apparel brand is holding the most units. On top of base storage, Amazon charges an aged inventory surcharge that escalates in tiers from around six months, and 2026 added a new tier for inventory past roughly 15 months.
There is a genuinely useful apparel carve out reported here, which is that clothing, shoes, bags, jewelry and watches are excluded from the earliest aged inventory tiers and only become subject to the surcharge later. That is widely reported but comes from secondary sources rather than Amazon's own published page, so treat it as likely rather than certain and confirm against your fee preview before planning a buy around it.
Peak storage rates hit in the same quarter you are holding holiday depth. The answer is usually less inventory in FBA and more upstream, not better negotiation.
Cores sell through. The tail of the size curve is what ages, and it ages in the same fee bucket as everything else.
Since March 2026 removal and disposal are charged per unit when it actually happens, so the cost of clearing shows up when you clear.
You cannot manage aging you cannot see. FBA units have to stay on the same inventory record as the rest of the business, not in a separate Amazon dashboard.
Amazon stopped providing FBA prep and item labeling services in the United States on 1 January 2026. That covered labeling, bagging, bubble wrapping and stickering. Shipments created after that date without proper prep and labeling are not eligible for damage reimbursement. Prep is now yours, your manufacturer's, or a third party prep provider's, and for apparel that is not a trivial line item.
Stickerless commingled inventory ended on 31 March 2026. Resellers and sellers not in Brand Registry must apply FNSKU barcodes to every unit, and stock received without the right barcode is treated as defective. Brand owners enrolled in Brand Registry can keep using manufacturer barcodes, with Amazon tracking units virtually per seller. Which side of that line you are on is worth confirming before your next inbound.
| Apparel prep requirement | What it means |
|---|---|
| Polybag, transparent | Required for apparel and soft goods that a customer could touch directly, even when the item is also boxed. |
| Minimum 1.5 mil | Bag thickness. Thinner bags fail on receipt. |
| Suffocation warning | Required once the bag opening measures five inches or more. Required font size scales with bag dimensions, and published guidance on the exact table is inconsistent, so verify against Amazon's own prep page. |
| Scannable barcode | Has to read through the bag without folds, or be applied to the outside. |
| Adult items | Black, non transparent bags. |
| Sets and bundles | Banded or shrink wrapped as one unit, marked as a set, carrying a single FNSKU. |
Amazon Warehousing and Distribution is upstream bulk storage. You hold reserve depth there at lower storage rates and it auto replenishes your FBA positions, which is the standard answer to a seasonal apparel buy that would otherwise sit in FBA accruing peak storage and aged inventory surcharges. Apparel is eligible. One constraint to plan around: you cannot move inventory from FBA back into AWD, so the sequencing has to be right on the way in.
Multi-Channel Fulfillment ships your non Amazon orders out of FBA inventory, so a DTC or wholesale order can be fulfilled from the same pool. That is attractive right up until you realize it means one inventory position serving several demand streams, which is exactly the situation that needs a real available to sell number underneath it.
Naming note, because it dates a page instantly: Supply Chain by Amazon was rebranded Amazon Supply Chain Services in May 2026, and opened up to businesses that do not sell on Amazon at all. If a vendor page still says Supply Chain by Amazon, you know when it was last touched.
Through an API connection that retrieves shipped orders from FBA and pulls them into AIMS360 automatically. Because you still own FBA inventory, it is modeled the way consignment stock is modeled: units sitting in an Amazon fulfillment center stay visible on your books rather than disappearing from the ERP the moment the inbound shipment left your dock.
Owned inventory in someone else's building is a pattern AIMS360 already handles for 3PL warehouses. FBA is the same shape.
The API pulls FBA shipments into AIMS360 so units come off inventory and revenue lands, without somebody exporting a report.
FBA, FBM, wholesale and EDI retailers all draw from the same record, which is the only reliable defense against promising the same unit twice.
Every FNSKU is a real size in a real style, not a row in a spreadsheet, because the matrix is native data.
What apparel brands ask before sending inventory in.
Fulfillment by Amazon means your inventory is stored in Amazon's fulfillment centers and Amazon picks, packs, ships and handles customer service and returns. You keep ownership of the stock throughout, which makes it closer to consignment or a third party logistics arrangement than to a wholesale sale. The main benefit is the Prime badge.
Yes, through an API connection that retrieves shipped orders from FBA and pulls them into AIMS360 automatically. Because you still own FBA inventory, it is modeled the way consignment stock is modeled, so units sitting in an Amazon fulfillment center remain visible on your books rather than disappearing from the ERP the moment they ship inbound.
Two reasons. Apparel sits on its own fulfillment fee ladder that runs above the equivalent non apparel rate at every size and price band. And apparel and shoes are charged the returns processing fee on every returned unit, with no return rate threshold, while other categories only pay it on returns above a category threshold. Given apparel's structurally high return rate, that second one is usually the larger number.
No. Amazon ended its FBA prep and item labeling services in the United States on 1 January 2026, covering labeling, bagging, bubble wrapping and stickering. Shipments created after that date without correct prep and labeling are not eligible for damage reimbursement. Prep is now your job, your manufacturer's job, or a third party prep provider's job.
Apparel and other soft goods must be sealed in a transparent polybag of at least 1.5 mil thickness, even when also boxed. A suffocation warning is required when the bag opening measures five inches or more, and the required font size scales with bag dimensions. The barcode has to be scannable through the bag or applied to the outside. Confirm the current specification against Amazon's own prep guidance before you commit a packaging run.
It depends on your Brand Registry status. Amazon ended stickerless commingled inventory on 31 March 2026. Resellers and sellers not enrolled in Brand Registry must apply FNSKU barcodes to every unit, and inventory received without the correct barcode is treated as defective. Brand owners enrolled in Brand Registry can continue using manufacturer barcodes, with Amazon tracking units virtually per seller.
AWD is Amazon's bulk upstream storage service. You hold reserve inventory there at lower storage rates and it replenishes your FBA positions automatically, which suits seasonal apparel buys that would otherwise sit in FBA accruing aged inventory surcharges and eating capacity. Apparel is eligible. Note that you cannot move inventory from FBA back into AWD, so the sequencing has to be planned inbound.
No, and treating FBA as the default is how apparel brands lose money on Amazon quietly. Velocity styles usually earn their fees back through Prime conversion. The tail of the size curve often does not, because it ages in storage, returns at apparel rates, and pays a fee ladder set above other categories. Make the call per style, and keep the slow half on FBM where your own warehouse economics apply.
Last reviewed 17 August 2026. FBA fee structures, prep requirements and program rules reflect publicly reported information as of August 2026. Amazon revises fees and requirements frequently, published sources disagree on some cent level rates, and the apparel carve out from the earliest aged inventory tiers is reported by secondary sources rather than confirmed on Amazon's own published page. Model against your live fee preview and Amazon's current rate card in Seller Central rather than against any summary, including this one.
Bring your Amazon assortment and your return rates to a demo, and we will walk how FBA inventory stays visible in the ERP and where the fees are landing.
