The two labels get used interchangeably, and plenty of UK companies genuinely do both. But they solve different problems, and paying for the wrong one is a common and avoidable cost.
What a prep centre does
A prep centre exists to get your stock into Amazon. Goods arrive, get inspected, labelled and packaged to FBA standards, and leave again for a fulfilment centre. Storage is incidental - a staging area, not the product.
The billing model reflects that: you pay per unit prepped, plus forwarding. It suits online arbitrage, wholesale and private label sellers whose sales all happen through FBA.
What a 3PL does
A 3PL holds your inventory and ships individual orders to end customers on your behalf. The warehouse is the product, and billing reflects that too: storage by pallet or cubic metre, plus a pick-and-pack fee per order.
This is what you need for Shopify, your own website, eBay, TikTok Shop or Seller Fulfilled Prime - anywhere Amazon is not doing the fulfilment for you.
Why most UK providers do both
The overlap is large. The same warehouse, staff and systems can prep an FBA shipment in the morning and pick D2C orders in the afternoon, so most of the companies in this directory offer both - Prep365, MCF Fulfilment, TSP Fulfilment, We Prep and FastPack FBA among them.
That is convenient, but it means you have to be specific about what you are buying. If you only need FBA prep, you should not be paying for storage you do not use; if you need multi-channel fulfilment, a pure prep centre will not cover it.
Which do you need?
Selling only on Amazon FBA: a prep centre. Selling across several channels, or running Seller Fulfilled Prime: a 3PL. Importing containers and drip-feeding stock into Amazon to control storage fees: both, which is why hybrid providers exist.
Whichever you pick, price it on a realistic month of your actual order and shipment profile. The right answer is usually obvious once the numbers are on the same page.
Compare UK prep centres
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