seller
- What changed
- Warehouses where Amazon stores, picks, packs and ships orders
- When
- Updated October 2026
- Who it affects
- FBA sellers and Amazon's own retail business
- What to do
- Prep and ship cartons correctly so units are received fast
Key takeaways
- Fulfillment centers store, pick, pack and ship FBA inventory; other buildings receive, sort and deliver it.
- Amazon assigns destinations, but your inbound placement choice changes the fee.
- Clean prep, labels and timing are the levers sellers control.
Amazon facilities by the numbers
What is an Amazon fulfillment center?
A fulfillment center, often called an FC, is where inventory waits until a customer orders it. When an order arrives, associates and robots pick the item from storage, pack it and send it toward the customer. Amazon describes its network as hundreds of fulfillment centers worldwide.
For sellers, the fulfillment center is where FBA happens. Amazon stores your units, handles picking, packing, shipping, customer service and returns, and your products become eligible for Prime delivery. Our guide to what an FBA seller is explains the model from the seller's side.
Types of Amazon facilities
Amazon runs several kinds of buildings, and each has a different job. Knowing them helps when you read shipment tracking or a receiving report.
- Sortable fulfillment centers: about 800,000 square feet, for smaller items such as books, toys and housewares
- Non-sortable fulfillment centers: 600,000 to 1 million square feet, for bulky items such as furniture and rugs
- Receive centers: take in large inbound shipments and spread inventory across the network
- Sortation centers: sort packed orders by destination onto trucks
- Delivery stations: prepare orders for last-mile delivery
- Specialty buildings: handle specific categories or peak volume
How FBA inventory moves through the network
Your inventory takes a predictable route. You create a shipment in Send to Amazon, choose how many inbound locations to ship to, and Amazon assigns destinations. Cartons may arrive at a receive center first and be distributed to fulfillment centers closer to customers. Once units are received and checked in, they become available to sell.
When a customer orders, the nearest fulfillment center with stock picks and packs the item. The package then moves through sortation and a delivery station to the customer. Returns come back into the network, are graded and, if sellable, go back into your available stock.
Path of an FBA unit
- 1Send to Amazon
Create shipment and labels
- 2Receive center
Large loads split up
- 3Fulfillment center
Stored until ordered
- 4Sortation
Routed by destination
- 5Delivery station
Last mile to customer
How robots and automation fit in
Amazon has invested heavily in automation. Its Shreveport, Louisiana next-generation site spans five floors and more than 3 million square feet, and Amazon says its Sequoia storage system there can hold more than 30 million items. Robotic arms sort and consolidate products and autonomous robots move carts to outbound docks.
For sellers, automation is one reason packaging and labels matter so much. Machines read barcodes, so a damaged or covered label can slow receiving or send a unit to manual handling.
Can you choose which fulfillment center gets your stock?
Not directly. Amazon assigns destinations based on where customers are and where capacity exists. What you can choose is the inbound placement option: sending to fewer locations is simpler for you but usually carries a higher inbound placement fee, while splitting across more locations can cost less. Compare the options in Send to Amazon before you confirm each shipment.
What sellers control at the fulfillment center
You cannot run the warehouse, but several of your decisions shape cost and speed once inventory arrives.
- Correct prep and FNSKU labels, now required from sellers in the US
- Accurate carton contents and box labels
- Shipment timing ahead of peak season cutoffs
- Stock levels within restock limits
- Inventory age, to avoid aged inventory surcharges
- Fast claims for units lost or damaged in the network
What sellers control
- Prep and FNSKU labels
- Carton contents and box labels
- Shipment timing
- Restock limits
- Inventory age
- Reimbursement claims
Fulfillment centers versus Amazon Warehousing and Distribution
Amazon Warehousing and Distribution, or AWD, is a separate bulk storage service. Instead of sending every unit straight to fulfillment centers, you store cases in AWD at lower cost and let Amazon replenish FBA automatically. Amazon says AWD uses pay-as-you-go pricing with no seasonal surcharges and includes FBA inbound placement. It suits brands with large volumes or long ocean lead times, because fulfillment center space is limited by restock limits and becomes expensive from October to December.
Lost and damaged inventory in fulfillment centers
With millions of units moving every day, some go missing or get damaged. Amazon reimburses many fulfillment center losses automatically, and since March 2025 units lost before a customer order are valued at manufacturing cost. Shipments that arrive short, and returns that never come back, still need checking. Our guide to FBA reimbursement covers the claim types, and the Amazon LPN number guide shows how returned units are traced.
Making fulfillment centers work for your brand
The sellers who get the most from FBA treat inbound as a process: compliant prep, well-timed shipments and a monthly check of what Amazon received against what was sent. Our Amazon prep center guide helps if you outsource the prep step.
PPC Spider's FBA inventory management service plans shipments, watches stock in SpiderOS and files reimbursement claims monthly, so ads never push a product that is about to run out.
Sources
- Amazon: Facility types at Amazon (aboutamazon.com/workplace/facilities)
- Amazon: Inside Amazon's next-generation fulfillment center (aboutamazon.com/news/operations/amazon-fulfillment-center-robotics-ai)
- Amazon: Fulfillment by Amazon (sell.amazon.com/fulfillment-by-amazon)
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