Amazon US launch checklist: verify product eligibility, FBA costs and shipment readiness

Editorial methods · Updated 2026-10-13

Decide whether one US-store product is ready for a first shipment

Use this record when you have a real physical product and want to decide whether to sell it in the Amazon US store using Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) or your own fulfilment route. Finish with a named owner, evidence references, a cost scenario and a proceed, pause or gather-evidence decision. This is not an Amazon approval, a prediction of sales or a substitute for checking the rules applying to your product and business location.

Prepare one SKU and variant, a packaged sample, supplier documentation, proposed selling price, destination store, shipping quote, return assumptions and an authorised Seller Central account where available. Keep the product version fixed while checking eligibility and costs. A listing for a similar-looking product is not evidence that your own item or account is eligible. Official sources checked on 13 October 2026; the prices cited below apply to Amazon's US-store pricing page.

Keep selling permission separate from FBA eligibility

Record the exact store, product, variant and seller account. Check whether you can offer the product and whether any account, brand or product approval is still pending. Save the actual restriction notice and the relevant current policy, rather than treating the absence of a warning on a public catalogue page as permission. Where documentation is requested, link the document to this product version and assign an owner to obtain or correct it.

Amazon's public FBA guide tells sellers to review FBA product restrictions and programme requirements before assigning eligible products to FBA. Selling an item and sending it through FBA are separate checks: some items require prior approval, are not eligible for FBA, or must meet specific requirements. Source: Amazon FBA guide.

Your evidence record should distinguish four states: confirmed eligible for the scoped route; approval pending; explicitly restricted; and not checked. Pause purchasing or shipping stock for the proposed route when a required approval is missing or the item is restricted. An unknown condition means gather evidence, not approved. If you consider merchant fulfilment instead, check its own requirements; changing the logistics method does not resolve a selling restriction.

Measure the packaged product before calculating fees

Keep the sample's packaged dimensions, weight, unit count, photographs and version date together. Record where each number came from and what remains uncertain. Ask the supplier to confirm the production packaging matches the sample, including inserts, protective material and bundled accessories. Re-measure after a packaging change instead of reusing an earlier estimate.

Amazon describes FBA fulfilment costs as depending on product price, weight and dimensions, with storage charges related to occupied space. Its Revenue Calculator can compare FBA with your own fulfilment method using a catalogue product or product inputs. Sources: Amazon FBA guide and US pricing.

Run the calculator with the scoped product and save the date, inputs and result for each fulfilment option. Keep calculator estimates separate from later billed charges. A lower packaging estimate is not evidence that Amazon will assign the same measurement or charge; retain a scenario using your measured production packaging and revisit it if the received dimensions differ.

Build a cost record rather than copying an average margin

Amazon's US pricing page currently lists the Individual plan at US$0.99 per item sold and the Professional plan at US$39.99 per month. Referral fees depend on fee category, with the stated percentage or minimum applied as appropriate. Amazon also notes that a fee category may differ from the customer-facing store category. Source: Amazon US pricing. These amounts are not a complete landed-cost quote or a fee schedule for another country.

Record each relevant cost with its unit, currency, date, evidence and whether it is confirmed or assumed: product cost; inspection and preparation; inbound transport and applicable import costs; referral fee; fulfilment; storage; selling-plan allocation; returns or unsellable-stock allowance; advertising; and any other applicable service. Do not use a blank field to mean zero. Check for double counting, such as adding outbound delivery again when it is already included in the fulfilment charge you are using.

A working contribution calculation is: selling proceeds retained, excluding amounts you do not retain, minus product cost, preparation, inbound costs, selling fees, fulfilment, storage, return allowance, advertising and other attributable costs. This is a planning contribution, not accounting profit. Keep tax treatment, fixed overheads, financing and unsold-inventory exposure separately visible with their responsible owners; do not assume the calculator covers them all.

If allocating a monthly plan across units, show both the expected unit count and a lower-volume scenario. An allocation based on hoped-for sales is an assumption. Compare FBA and merchant fulfilment using the same product, sales-volume assumption, cost boundary and service promise.

Test a delay and return case before approving the budget

Write a base case from current evidence. Then create a slower-sales case with more storage time and less volume over which to allocate fixed fees, and a return case using your own documented assumptions. Record the cash committed to initial stock separately from per-sale contribution. A positive unit scenario does not demonstrate that buyers exist or that inventory will sell before cash is needed elsewhere.

For a purely illustrative exercise, assume US$25 retained selling proceeds, US$8 product cost, US$3.75 referral fee, US$4.50 fulfilment, US$1.10 preparation, US$1.20 inbound costs, US$0.60 storage, US$1 return allowance, US$2 advertising and US$0.40 plan allocation. The planning contribution is US$2.45. These invented exercise inputs are not Amazon's rates, supplier quotes or a real seller result; replace every amount with your own evidence.

If the same exercise needs US$1 more storage and US$1.50 more return allowance, contribution becomes minus US$0.05. The result tells you to review the scoped assumptions and risk budget, not that FBA is generally profitable or unprofitable. Do not present an unverified cost as zero to make a scenario pass. Use the Doukua Cost scenarios tool to retain your own inputs, then reconcile them with the current Amazon calculator and applicable documents.

Assign shipment, exception and returns responsibilities

Amazon's FBA guide describes the Send to Amazon workflow for preparing, packing, labelling and creating an inbound shipment. Its documented fulfilment process includes receiving inventory, storing it, shipping customer orders, and handling customer service and returns. Source: Amazon FBA guide. That programme description does not establish that a particular shipment has been accepted or that every cost and exception is covered.

Before dispatch, record the supplier or prep provider, transport owner, recipient instructions, shipment reference, packaging checks, expected handover evidence and owner for mismatches. Distinguish a shipment being created, handed to the carrier, delivered and received into inventory. Verify each actual state; do not promise availability from the existence of a shipment label.

For exceptions, name who investigates a missing or damaged unit, checks the platform record, supplies evidence and decides the next action. Record how returns and unsellable inventory affect your product, cost assumptions and available stock. Set a review date and an authorised initial stock budget. These are Doukua working recommendations, not universal Amazon quantity requirements.

Copy this launch decision record

Prepare the decision record

1. Fix the US-store account, product revision and fulfilment route before checking evidence.
2. Separate confirmed conditions, missing evidence and explicit restrictions.
3. Compare costs and exception responsibility on the same product and batch basis.
4. Record a scoped decision, owner and review date; unresolved mandatory conditions require a pause.

Save this in a permitted team record system. Link to evidence locations and account references without putting customer or account secrets in public notes. The record is complete only when another responsible person can reproduce the checks and distinguish confirmed facts from estimates and unresolved items.

Apply the decision and review actual outcomes

Proceed only for the stated product version, store, account and fulfilment route when required permissions are confirmed, relevant cost inputs and responsibilities are documented, and the proposed commitment fits your own approved risk budget. Pause for an explicit restriction, missing mandatory approval or an unacceptable evidenced cost case. Gather evidence when a required condition, measurement, fee category or responsibility is still unknown.

After changing the product, packaging, store, route or commercial terms, repeat the affected checks. After the first shipment and orders, compare received inventory and actual fees with the saved estimates, record discrepancies and decide whether to replenish, correct the process or stop. Do not scale stock simply because the listing is live. Refer to the related fulfilment guide for handover responsibilities and the market-entry brief for customer evidence; they answer complementary tasks rather than certify this launch.

Choose a verification path for one SKU

Editorial working method, not an additional eligibility or fee promise. Check current official requirements for your entity, product and location.

Checks an active account does not settle

Decision questions