You’re going to get stuck pretty fast, if you don’t have any Amazon FBA Shipping Supplies.
This is one of the first things that I recommend you get sorted, before you prepare your first Amazon shipment. Quite simply, you won’t be able to send anything off to Amazon without the correct supplies. You don’t want to make a loss on your inventory for the sake of some buble wrap, or tape.
The good news is that you won’t have to spend hundreds of pounds stocking your garage into a professional setup. Amazon FBA scales alongside you, and so should the tools and supplies that you use.
To help keep things simple, I’ve separated this into two categories. This will separate the Supplies you definitely need and Supplies that will make things more efficient, but not immediately required.
In this article, I’ll be sharing some tips and tricks which can help you to build an arsenal of supplies, without breaking the bank.
You can keep that for sourcing and paying for stock! Let’s get into this.
Must Have Amazon FBA Supplies
Must haves are the most important supplies that you’ll need in your home, or wherever you may package your items.
Without the below listed items, you will not be able to ship your items to Amazon.
Shipping Boxes / Packing Boxes
You need to ensure that you have plenty of boxes at your disposal.
You will use shipping boxes for packing all of your items together, ready to send off to Amazon.
The good news, is that this doesn’t have to be expensive at all. There’s plenty of avenues to explore where you can get free boxes.
I’ve had great success in getting free boxes from my local shops, they’re perfect. They can be flat packed and offer great protection.
However, as I mainly focus on Online Arbitrage now, I find that my incoming supply of boxes is perfect. I don’t need to buy any.
This will work wonders long term, as it saves you from having to buy boxes, or put the effort in to get them for free.
There’s one key thing to remember with boxes that you’ll use for sending to Amazon:
- The boxes cannot exceed 63.5cm on any side. Boxes that exceed this, will be refused.
How to Get Free Boxes for Amazon FBA:
- Ask Employees at your local shops. They will typically be putting these in the bin anyway, so they are usually happy to give them away.
- Place an advert on Facebook Marketplace asking for Free Boxes. Even if you have to collect them, that’s a result.
- Re-use boxes that you receive Online Arbitrage deliveries in
- Ask Family Members to keep their delivery boxes for you
The key thing if you are reusing any old boxes is to cross out any barcode that may be visible on the box. This will prevent Amazon employees from incorrectly scanning something, causing a discrepancy.
Weighing Scales
You’ll need to invest in a good set of shipping scales. Initially, you may get away with using your body weight scales… which is what I did.
However, this can fast become tiring to try and view the screen itself. A proper shipping scale should come with a separate monitor, which you’ll be able to use to easily see the weight. No need for awkwardly moving around the scales to try and view the figures.
If you’re thinking of starting Amazon FBA but you don’t have any scales at all, I would really advise that you didn’t do this.
You are required by Amazon to enter the weight of the shipment. This is to help with their records when checking the item in, and it keeps you covered.
I know of instances where a seller has consistently said that his parcels were 10kg, 60x60x60cm. He simply couldn’t be bothered to weigh and measure the item.
During the process of the item being checked in, it turned out that one of his Wireless Speakers were lost.
However, when weighed, the parcel was over 10kg, which matched the records for this shipment. For this reason, the sender didn’t have a leg to stand on in his claim and ended up losing the item. I’m not sure if he was re-imbursed in the end, I can’t find the thread now!
This isn’t a threat to enforce you to buy some shipping scales, but I need to warn you of potential issues that you can face without them.
There’s plenty of bad things that can go wrong such as the above, but you can also get extra charges from UPS, or further penalties from Amazon.
If you are shopping for some new shipping scales, they aren’t actually that expensive. Keep your eye out for a set which has a freestanding display, which will allow for you to see the weight with ease.
Heavy Duty Shipping Tape
As you become an efficient Amazon shipment prepper yourself, you’ll learn to maximise the empty space inside the box.
Having some heavy duty shipping tape is paramount for being able to get these boxes shut, and ensuring they seal shut.
I need to warn you away from cheap tape too, in the past I’ve bought 12 rolls for £5 and thought it was a complete bargain.
When I got home at tried to actually seal these boxes together, but the tack on the tape was horrendous. It’s definitely worth finding a brand that you know works and ‘sticking’ with them.
The puns tonight are horrendous!
I personally use a brand called Stikky Tape, as soon as you put this down on a cardboard box, it just grips.
If you haven’t dealt with poor packing tape before, you’ll be wondering what I’m going on about.
Some sticky tape, just doesn’t stick. You often find this out the hard way. You spend all the time packing your items up neatly into a box.
You pick the box up. CRASH.
The contents of the box ends up on the floor, because the sticky tape just completely fails to operate. In all fairness, the cheap stuff is alright for light items, but I wouldn’t trust it for anything over 2.5kg.
In the past, I’ve honestly taped up a single CD in a jiffy bag and I’ve noticed the tape becoming loose and worn out, before 20 minutes have passed.
You’ll be packing up and shipping lots of boxes, so don’t be worried about purchasing in bulk to save money. I replenish my Tape if I have less than 6 rolls left, that’s how much I use!
Tape Gun
It’s starting to look a little bit professional, now!
A Tape gun is a tool that you’ll only ever have to purchase once. If you buy from specific sellers, you may also get one of these included for free.
Now strictly, I know this shouldn’t be in the ‘Must Need’ area, but due to the fact that you can get these bundled in your tape, you must add it!
A Tape Gun is ideal for packing boxes up fast. Instead of having to pull tape apart with your teeth, you’ll find a handy little sawtooth blade on the gun that goes through the tape with ease.
This wil lmake things so much quicker, but also ensure that you don’t have that nasty tape taste stuck on your mouth.
I’m all for tools that make FBA easier, and that’s up there with the best. Especially for the price!
Laser Printer
You can’t do Amazon FBA without owning or having access to a printer.
We need a printer to be able to print the product barcode labels, but also to print the UPS and FBA labels that attach to the outer box.
You’ll find a few Laser printers that can do this with ease.
If you’re purchasing a new printer, I’d consider jumping straight in for a Label Printer. This will work like a laser printer, but it will be so much faster.
I’ll discuss why, below when I mention the label printer!
Items that make FBA Easier
Next up, I have included some items which will make your day to day operations much easier. They might not be required right away, but once implemented, you’ll not be able to cope without them.
Label Printer
I got a little lucky in that I know how to repair Label Printers.
This led me straight to eBay, where I purchased one for £1 and I could immediately tell that it needed a sensor calibration.
I typically wouldn’t recommend that you buy a used label printer. From my knowledge, I can tell you that replacement parts inside the machine will cost hundreds of pounds.
For example, if the printhead gives up on my SX4T, It would cost about £370 to replace it.
You don’t need a label printer like this for your Amazon FBA, I myself have even considered getting rid of mine as it’s too big.
There are many benefits to a label printer. You can print out hundreds of labels in the matter of seconds, and instead of having to tape things to boxes, you simply peel the back away.
Label Printers are a significant investment at around £119.99 for a good one, but if you need a printer anyway get one!
Over the course of a few years, you’d save that in Tape alone!
Poly Bags
There are lots of items on Amazon that need to be shipped in a Poly Bag.
From Kids toys, to liquids, the list is actually really long!
You’ll always be advised if the item needs to be poly bagged though, as Amazon warn you on every shipment if this is required.
Amazon request this to help protect shippers. If you send in 30 Face creams and one breaks, there’s a great chance that it will spoil the packaging of the remaining 29.
As each one is inside an individually sealed bag, it limits the damage to the single unit.
This also works with toys, protecting them from dirt, rain, or even dust.
Bubble Wrap
Another requirement by Amazon when sending specific items, is that you add bubble wrap to the package.
This won’t be required for every package, but I like to ensure my parcels arrive safe and well.
I’d always advise a nice roll of bubble wrap. It’s cheap, it doesn’t take up too much room and it’s effective.
Sticker Sets
Another one for your Preperarion requirements, Amazon sometimes requests that you attach a ‘Set – Do Not Separate’ warning to any bundles that you send in.
As your profits start to grow, you’ll find it less and less worth your time to write this on your inventory.
You’ll be better off invesitng in some stickers, or better yet, if you’ve taken the advise for a label printer you can Print them yourself!
Final Thoughts
That wraps up my favourite Amazon FBA Shipping Supplies. There’s a few more things that you can add to your inventory, such as residue removers for labels that you find on your used shipping boxes, but these are all down to preference.
If you take some of the ideas above onboard, you’ll be well on your way to sending your first amazon shipment.
