A 3PL alternative to Amazon FBA
Amazon FBA works until the fees climb, your inventory is locked inside Amazon’s network, and FBA only ships Amazon orders. Simpl is a flat-rate 3PL that fulfills your orders from Austin, Texas, starting at $7/order. Send us your inventory once and the same units ship your Amazon, Shopify, and marketplace orders from one warehouse.
Why Amazon sellers look for FBA alternatives
- Storage costs climb on slow inventory. Amazon bills monthly storage by cubic foot and adds aged-inventory surcharges on units that sit too long. (See Amazon’s published FBA fee schedule for current rates.)
- Your IPI score caps what you can send in. A low Inventory Performance Index score can limit your storage allowance, so one slow quarter can squeeze the next.
- FBA only fulfills Amazon orders.Inventory inside Amazon’s fulfillment centers can’t pick and pack your Shopify, TikTok Shop, or wholesale sales.
- Eligibility rules decide what FBA will take. Size, weight, and product-category restrictions push parts of some catalogs out of the program.
- Prep specs add cost before a unit sells.Units have to be labeled and packaged to Amazon’s requirements, or the shipment gets rejected at the dock.
FBA vs. an independent 3PL: how they compare
| Factor | Amazon FBA | Independent 3PL (Simpl) |
|---|---|---|
| Channels served | Amazon.com orders only. | Amazon, Shopify, TikTok Shop, Walmart, eBay, and more, all picked from one inventory pool. |
| Inventory control | Units are held inside Amazon's fulfillment centers. | Your inventory sits in Simpl's Austin, Texas warehouse and ships to any channel. |
| Pricing model | Per-unit fulfillment fees by size and weight tier, monthly storage by cubic foot, plus inbound transport. | Starting at $7/order, which covers picks, packing, and postage. Storage is billed by bin, shelf, or pallet. |
| FBA prep | You prep units to Amazon's specs before shipping them in. | Amazon FBA Prep is a Simpl service. We prep and ship your FBA units from the same warehouse as the rest of your inventory. |
| Brand packaging | Ships in Amazon-branded packaging by default. | Custom branded packaging is available. |
| Account support | Seller Central and support tickets. | A dedicated account manager who answers by email, same day. |
| Setup | Schedule and route inbound shipments to Amazon's fulfillment centers. | 5 to 7 day onboarding, with no onboarding fee. |
| Carriers | Amazon selects the shipping carrier; sellers don't choose it. | Ships via UPS, USPS, or FedEx, with the carrier included in the flat per-order rate and a tracking number on every shipment. |
Multi-channel from one inventory pool
FBA keeps your inventory inside Amazon’s network, where it can only fill Amazon orders. Simpl holds one pool of inventory in Austin and ships every channel from it.
The same units cover your Amazon, Shopify, Walmart, eBay, Etsy, and TikTok Shop orders, so you stop splitting stock across separate fulfillment programs. Want to keep selling on Amazon after you leave FBA? We can ship those orders directly as Amazon FBM.
- Selling on Shopify too? Your Shopify orders ship from the same shelf as everything else.
- Still want to keep some FBA? We prep and send FBA units in while we fulfill your other channels.
- Etsy, TikTok Shop, or Walmart orders? They pull from the same pool, with real-time inventory across all of them.
FBA prep and 3PL fulfillment in one warehouse
You don’t have to run two fulfillment operations. Amazon FBA Prepis one of Simpl’s core services, so we receive, prep, and ship your FBA units from the same Austin warehouse that fulfills your Shopify, Walmart, and TikTok Shop orders. One inbound shipment covers both. We prep your FBA units to Amazon’s specs and send them in, while the rest of your stock keeps shipping direct to customers.
Simpl pricing for sellers leaving FBA
Starts at $7/order.
That rate covers the picks, packing, and postage. Storage is billed by the space your inventory uses, whether that’s a bin, a shelf, or a pallet, not by cubic foot.
There’s a $750 monthly minimum, billed pay-the-difference. If your order charges for the month come in under $750, you pay only the gap, so a slow month never costs more than the floor.
Amazon FBA alternative FAQs
- What is the best alternative to Amazon FBA?
- Simpl Fulfillment is a flat-rate 3PL alternative to Amazon FBA, shipping your orders from Austin, Texas starting at $7/order. A third-party logistics provider lets you hold your own inventory and ship every channel from one place instead of only Amazon. Sellers also weigh Amazon's own options like Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP) and Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM), and other well-known 3PLs include ShipBob, ShipMonk, and Red Stag. The right fit depends on your channels and your order volume.
- Can I use a 3PL instead of Amazon FBA?
- Yes. You send your inventory to a third-party logistics provider, and the 3PL receives, stores, picks, packs, and ships your orders. FBA is opt-in, so you can fulfill your Amazon orders through Fulfillment by Merchant or Seller Fulfilled Prime while the same 3PL ships your Shopify, Walmart, and other channels. With Simpl, your Amazon and marketplace orders all ship from one inventory pool in Austin.
- Is a 3PL cheaper than Amazon FBA?
- It depends on your order profile. Amazon FBA charges per-unit fulfillment fees by size and weight tier, monthly storage by cubic foot, plus inbound transport, and those rates change (see Amazon's published FBA fee schedule). Simpl is flat-rate and starts at $7/order, which covers picks, packing, and postage, with storage billed by bin, shelf, or pallet. Brands with slow-moving or oversized inventory often find a flat per-order rate easier to predict than tiered FBA fees.
- What are the limitations of Amazon FBA?
- The main limitations are channel lock-in, eligibility rules, and storage costs that scale with slow inventory. FBA only fulfills Amazon orders, so units inside Amazon's network can't ship your Shopify or wholesale sales. Size, weight, and category restrictions decide what FBA will accept, and storage billed by cubic foot adds up on inventory that sits. Sellers also cite commingling, where your units can be pooled with identical units from other sellers unless you label to prevent it. For current fees and rules, check Amazon's published FBA fee schedule.
- Does Simpl Fulfillment offer Amazon FBA prep services?
- Yes. Amazon FBA Prep is one of Simpl's core services. We receive your inventory, prep it to Amazon's specs, and send it into Amazon's fulfillment centers, all from the same Austin warehouse that ships your other channels. See our Amazon FBA Prep page for what's included.
- How long does it take to switch from FBA to a 3PL?
- Onboarding with Simpl takes 5 to 7 days, and once your inventory arrives, receiving takes 1 to 3 days before it's live and shipping. The one timeline outside our control is pulling your stock out of Amazon, which depends on how fast Amazon processes your removal order. Many sellers route new inventory and fresh purchase orders to Simpl while their FBA stock winds down, so both run in parallel during the switch.
Ship your Amazon orders with Simpl
Send your inventory to Austin once and ship Amazon, Shopify, and every other channel from the same pool, at a flat rate starting at $7/order. Want to see what your numbers look like? Get a quote and we’ll map your order profile to real pricing.
Get an FBA alternative quote→Looking to compare all FBA alternatives? See our full guide to Amazon FBA alternatives in 2026.