Overview

Amazon's Send to Amazon workflow includes a critical step where sellers must provide packing information for individual units being shipped to FBA fulfillment centers. This step determines how your inventory is organized into cartons and shipments, and directly affects whether your goods are received smoothly or delayed at the warehouse. Understanding the packing process helps sellers avoid costly errors and speed up the inbound process.

Key Points / What Sellers Need to Know

• SKU-based shipment creation — For eligible workflows, Amazon now allows sellers to create shipments based on SKUs and quantities alone, without needing to provide detailed carton-level packing information upfront.
• Skipping carton details is conditional — You can only skip the carton information step if your workflow does not include case-packed SKUs, pallet templates, or cross-border transportation programs.
• Box content information is still required — Even when you skip the initial packing step, you will need to submit box content information for each shipment later in the process using an Excel spreadsheet.
• Transportation options may be limited — If you create shipments before providing packing information, your transportation options may be restricted to partnered carrier programs. Non-partnered shipment options may not be available in this flow.
• Quantity edits have restrictions — Once you move past the shipment confirmation stage, you cannot edit SKU quantities within individual shipments. Quantity adjustments must follow Amazon's stated policies and are handled in a later step.

How the Send to Amazon Packing Workflow Operates

The Send to Amazon workflow guides sellers through a multi-step process for getting inventory into FBA. When packing individual units, sellers begin by specifying which SKUs they want to send and in what quantities. For standard workflows without case-packed items or cross-border requirements, Amazon offers a streamlined path that lets sellers skip directly to shipment creation without entering carton-level details first. This reduces friction for sellers shipping smaller or simpler assortments of products. However, sellers working with case-packed goods, pallet templates, or international shipments will still need to provide full packing details before shipments can be created.