If you ship Shopify or BigCommerce orders out of FBA inventory, you already know what's wrong with FBA: the referral fee, the fulfillment fee, the storage fee, the aged-inventory surcharge, and the Q4 multiplier all stack on every box. The question is what comes after it. Simpl Fulfillment is the flat-rate 3PL built for brands leaving FBA. Pricing starts at $7/order , no long-term contract, no aged-inventory surcharge, ships Shopify and Amazon FBM from one Austin warehouse. Get a quote .
When Amazon FBA stops being the cheapest option FBA wins on transit speed and Prime placement. It loses on margin once any of four things happen:
Aged-inventory surcharge. SKUs sitting in FBA past 181 days start paying long-term storage fees that scale every month they stay. A pallet of slow movers can quietly cost more in surcharges than it cost to ship in.
2026 prep policy. Amazon now expects sellers to prep, label, and poly-bag inventory before it reaches the FBA receiving dock. Brands without a prep partner end up paying per-unit prep charges on top of the fulfillment fee.
Channel lock-in. FBA inventory only ships Amazon orders. Your Shopify, Walmart, TikTok Shop, and wholesale channels each need their own fulfillment plan, or a per-order Multi-Channel Fulfillment rate that runs above most flat-rate 3PLs.
Q4 storage multipliers. Storage fees roughly triple from October through December, right when the brands holding the most inventory are paying the most per cubic foot.
A concrete example: a brand selling $30 candles through FBA pays roughly 15% referral ($4.50), the FBA fulfillment fee on a small-standard unit (~$3.86), monthly storage that compounds Oct–Dec, plus prep-policy compliance on every inbound case. Net fulfillment cost per order before ad spend lands in the $9–$11 range. The same SKU running off-Amazon through a flat-rate 3PL at $7/order ships for, well, $7. Multiply by 2,000 orders a month and the gap is a salary line.
If two of those four triggers apply to your business right now, Simpl's flat-rate pricing is worth a 15-minute call. For the broader market scan against Seller-Fulfilled Prime, FBM, Walmart WFS, and TikTok Shop, see our FBA alternatives 2026 comparison . This page is about Simpl specifically.
Simpl Fulfillment vs Amazon FBA at a glance Eight rows that decide the cost and operational picture for brands choosing between FBA and a flat-rate 3PL:
Per-order pricing. Simpl Fulfillment: Starting at $7/order, flat — includes three picks, postage, and packaging | Amazon FBA: Stacked: referral fee + fulfillment fee + storage + prep + ad fees, varies by SKU dimensions
Storage billing. Simpl Fulfillment: By warehouse storage type — small bin, large bin, shelf, or pallet | Amazon FBA: Per cubic foot, with aged-inventory surcharge after 181 days and Q4 multipliers
Channel coverage. Simpl Fulfillment: Shopify, Shopify Plus, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Squarespace, plus Amazon FBM , Walmart, eBay, Etsy, TikTok Shop | Amazon FBA: Amazon-only fulfillment (MCF available for off-Amazon at premium rates)
Customer data. Simpl Fulfillment: Yours — full email, address, and order history flows back to your store | Amazon FBA: Amazon-controlled, anonymized in most order types
Branded packaging. Simpl Fulfillment: Yours — boxes, mailers, custom inserts, branded unboxing | Amazon FBA: Amazon-branded poly bags and boxes
Same-day cutoff. Simpl Fulfillment: Orders placed by 12pm CST ship same day | Amazon FBA: Varies by fulfillment center; no published cutoff
Account management. Simpl Fulfillment: Dedicated AM for every client, reachable by email, same-day responses | Amazon FBA: Seller Central support tickets
Onboarding. Simpl Fulfillment: 5–7 days from contract to first ship; $0 setup fee | Amazon FBA: Immediate, but the 2026 prep policy shifts compliance work to the seller
The pricing row decides most calls. Simpl's pricing starts at $7/order and includes three picks, postage, and packaging. Brands paying FBA's referral + fulfillment + storage + prep + ad-surcharge stack typically land at $9–$14 all-in per equivalent off-Amazon order. The flat number is the second reason brands move: monthly invoices stop arriving with surprise line items.
Who Simpl is the right FBA alternative for Best-fit brands look like this:
Shopify or Shopify Plus stores shipping 50 to 5,000+ orders per month
Brands wanting Amazon FBM and Shopify shipped from one inventory pool — no FBA dependency
Brands building customer relationships through branded unboxing, inserts, and post-purchase email, all of which FBA strips out
Brands stung by aged-inventory surcharges or Q4 storage multipliers
Brands tired of Seller Central tickets who want a named account manager
Brands selling across multiple marketplaces (Amazon FBM, Walmart, eBay, Etsy, TikTok Shop) who want one operational view across all of them
Order accuracy is 99.99%, and any pick or pack error gets corrected at Simpl's cost — return shipping plus re-fulfillment of the right order. That promise is usually what brands leaving FBA mean when they say they want real support. The other tell: the AM team works from one warehouse, watches your account daily, and answers email same day. Compared to a Seller Central ticket queue, the difference is the difference between a logistics partner and a vendor.
Who Simpl is NOT the right FBA alternative for Honest disqualifiers, because the wrong fit costs both sides:
Brands needing multi-warehouse US distribution for split-coast 2-day ground. Simpl runs a single warehouse in Austin, TX. Most of the continental US receives in 2–4 days via ground, but brands needing both East and West node inventory are better served by ShipBob alternative or ShipMonk alternative .
Brands selling exclusively on Amazon with no off-Amazon channel ambition. If 100% of orders ship through FBA and there's no Shopify, Walmart, or TikTok Shop in the plan, the Prime badge and embedded transit network usually outweigh the fee stack.
Brands shipping fewer than 50 orders per month. The $750/month account minimum (roughly 100 orders at the starting rate) sits below the line for hobbyist or pre-launch scale.
Brands with heavy or oversized SKUs. Items heavier than 10 lb or larger than a typical shoebox fall outside our sweet spot. Red Stag Fulfillment is the specialist for that category.
How brands actually leave FBA for Simpl The migration follows a four-step path. Most brands run FBA and Simpl in parallel for two to three weeks to avoid fulfillment gaps:
File an FBA removal order. Through Seller Central, request return of the inventory you want to pull out of FBA. Amazon charges per-unit removal fees and outbound freight scales with volume. Get the removal estimate in writing before pulling the trigger.
Ship inventory to Simpl's Austin warehouse. Once your Simpl account is open, send removed inventory to 3714 Bluestein Drive, Suite 700, Austin, TX 78721. Receiving runs 1–3 days from arrival. If you're keeping a smaller FBA seed pool live for the Prime badge, Simpl's Amazon FBA prep service handles the 2026 prep-policy compliance work on inbound cases to FBA.
Switch the Amazon listing to Merchant Fulfilled. Once the listing flips from FBA to FBM, Simpl picks and ships the Amazon order from the same Austin inventory pool as your Shopify, Walmart, and TikTok Shop orders. Brands building toward Seller-Fulfilled Prime usually start a 30-day FBM track record here before applying.
Dual-fulfill every channel from one inventory pool. From there, Shopify, Shopify Plus, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Squarespace, Amazon FBM, Walmart, eBay, Etsy, and TikTok Shop all ship out of the same Austin stock. One inventory count, one AM, one invoice.
A practical note on overlap: the parallel-run window matters. Most brands route new orders to Simpl on day one of go-live, drain FBA stock through Amazon-native demand for two to three weeks, then issue the removal order for whatever's left. This avoids paying double for storage on the same SKU and also keeps the Prime badge intact on the FBA seed pool. Get the FBA removal-fee schedule and any pallet-prep charges in writing before pulling inventory — the BBB review corpus for FBA exit costs is full of surprise line items on the removal invoice.
Onboarding is 5–7 days from signed contract to first ship. There's no setup fee, no long-term contract, and no inventory-removal penalty if the relationship doesn't work out. The account manager runs the cutover and stays in email reach for same-day questions throughout. Get a quote — we'll size your specific SKU mix, order volume, and shipping zones in a 15-minute call.
FAQs What's the best Amazon FBA alternative in 2026? For Shopify and BigCommerce brands shipping 50 to 5,000+ orders per month, Simpl Fulfillment is the most direct FBA alternative — flat-rate pricing starting at $7/order, no aged-inventory surcharges, ships Amazon FBM from the same inventory pool as every other channel. Brands needing split-coast 2-day ground via multiple US warehouses are better served by ShipBob or ShipMonk. Brands shipping heavy or oversized SKUs should look at Red Stag Fulfillment. Brands with zero off-Amazon channel ambition can stay on FBA and treat the fee stack as the cost of Prime placement.
Is Simpl Fulfillment cheaper than Amazon FBA? For most brands shipping under 1,500 orders per month, yes. FBA's per-order cost stacks a referral fee, a per-unit fulfillment fee, monthly storage, aged-inventory surcharges past 181 days, Q4 storage multipliers, and prep fees under the 2026 prep policy. Brands typically pay $9–$14 all-in once every line item is added up. Simpl Fulfillment starts at $7/order and includes three picks, postage, and packaging. Where Simpl loses on price is fast-moving low-margin SKUs that never trigger FBA storage surcharges and ship Prime — in that scenario the Prime badge usually wins the math.
Can Simpl Fulfillment handle Amazon FBM orders? Yes. Amazon FBM is core to why brands leave FBA for Simpl. Once a listing is switched from FBA to Merchant Fulfilled, Simpl picks and ships the Amazon order from the same Austin warehouse as Shopify, BigCommerce, Walmart, eBay, Etsy, and TikTok Shop orders. One inventory pool, one account manager, one invoice. Most brands also keep a smaller FBA seed pool live for the Prime badge and rely on Simpl's Amazon FBM fulfillment for everything else. Same-day shipping for orders placed by 12pm CST applies to FBM orders too.
How do I migrate inventory from FBA to a 3PL? Three operational steps. First, file an FBA removal order through Seller Central — Amazon charges per-unit removal fees and you pay the outbound freight. Second, ship the removed inventory to your new 3PL's receiving dock (for Simpl Fulfillment, that's 3714 Bluestein Drive, Suite 700, Austin, TX 78721). Receiving at Simpl runs 1–3 days from arrival. Third, switch the Amazon listing to Merchant Fulfilled so the 3PL picks and ships the order. Most brands run FBA and the new 3PL in parallel for two to three weeks to avoid fulfillment gaps during cutover.
Does Simpl Fulfillment charge a long-term storage fee? No. Simpl bills storage by warehouse storage type: small bin, large bin, shelf, or pallet. There's no aged-inventory surcharge added when a SKU crosses a day count. Slow-moving inventory pays the same rate at day 30 as it does at day 300. That's the opposite of FBA, where SKUs past 181 days trigger long-term storage fees that scale every month they stay. For brands holding seasonal stock or side-channel wholesale inventory, that single rule often closes the price gap before per-order fees are even compared.
What does Simpl Fulfillment charge per order vs FBA? Simpl Fulfillment starts at $7/order, flat — three picks, postage, and packaging (boxes, mailers, dunnage, tape) all included. FBA's per-order cost is a stack: a referral fee on the sale, a per-unit fulfillment fee that varies by size and weight tier, monthly storage, ad spend if the listing competes, and prep fees under the 2026 prep policy. Apples-to-apples on most Shopify-native SKUs, FBA brands pay $9–$14 per equivalent off-Amazon order. The flat number is what makes monthly invoices predictable, which is the second reason brands move.
Can I run FBA and Simpl Fulfillment at the same time? Yes — most brands that move to Simpl run this way. The standard pattern is a smaller seed pool of FBA inventory holding the Prime badge on fast-moving SKUs, with Simpl handling Shopify, BigCommerce, Walmart, TikTok Shop, eBay, Etsy, and any Amazon FBM listings out of one Austin inventory pool. Dual-fulfilling keeps Prime placement where it earns its keep and pulls the rest of the catalog out from under FBA's storage and surcharge structure. The Simpl account manager runs reorders against the FBA seed pool on a same-day-email cadence.
Does Simpl Fulfillment handle FBA prep? Yes. Amazon FBA Prep is one of Simpl's seven core services. The 2026 FBA prep policy moved prep work to sellers — bagging, labeling, bundling, expiration-date checks, and case-pack compliance all have to happen before inventory reaches Amazon's FC dock. Simpl handles that prep work at the Austin warehouse and ships compliant cases inbound to FBA on whatever cadence the SKU velocity requires. Brands running a hybrid Simpl-plus-FBA model use this service to keep their FBA seed pool topped up without doing the prep work in-house.
How does Simpl Fulfillment compare to FBA on shipping speed? FBA wins on national 2-day ground because Amazon's 100+ fulfillment centers put inventory close to most US buyers. Simpl ships from one warehouse in Austin, TX. Orders placed by 12pm CST ship the same day, and most of the continental US receives within 2–4 days via ground. For SKUs where Prime-badge transit is the lever, FBA stays the right call. For brands where 2–4 day transit at flat-rate pricing beats Prime-badge transit at the FBA fee stack, Simpl wins the math. Most brands keep both running and split SKUs by velocity.
Does Simpl Fulfillment require a long-term contract? No. Simpl Fulfillment runs month-to-month with no long-term contract, no setup fee, and no inventory-removal penalty. Either party can end the agreement and you get your inventory back. The structural reason: month-to-month means the account-management team has to keep earning the account every month rather than relying on a multi-year lock-in. That's a feature in a category where brands leaving FBA are leaving precisely because they want to stop being trapped by exit costs. Onboarding is 5–7 days from signed contract to first ship. ---
