Hire someone to prep your Amazon inventory, or use a prep center? The real math

Most Amazon sellers start by prepping inventory themselves. At some point the question comes up: should I hire someone, or send it to a prep center? For most individual sellers, a prep center costs less than a full-time hire until volume reaches roughly 3,900 units a month, and that comparison counts wages only. Here is how we get there.

What does one full-time prep person cost in Ontario?

Ontario's general minimum wage is $17.95 an hour as of October 1, 2026 (source). Minimum wage is the floor, and warehouse work often pays more, but we will use the floor to keep the math fair.

• 7 hours a day, 5 days a week: about $628 a week
• Over 52 weeks: about $32,700 a year, or about $2,720 a month
• Employer costs on top: CPP (5.95%), EI (about 2.28%, 2026 payroll tables), vacation pay (4%) and workplace insurance (roughly 2%, which varies by industry) add about 14%
• That brings one person to about $3,100 a month

You pay that in a busy month and in a slow one. You cannot send someone home for a month when your stock is late or your sales dip.

Why part-time or on-call help does not solve it

Most sellers do not have enough prep work for a full-time hire. The usual fix is part-time or on-call help, but people who want hours are usually looking for full-time work. When they find it, they leave, and you hire and train again. A full-time hire is reliable but you pay for the quiet weeks. A prep center charges per unit, so the cost moves with your volume.

What costs are not on the payroll?

• Your time. If you prep the units yourself, those hours do not go to sourcing and researching the next products. For most sellers that opportunity cost is the biggest one.
• Managing the work. Even with staff, someone has to schedule, check quality and fix mistakes.
• The real handling time. Putting a label on a unit is quick. The job around it is not: open the carton, inspect, plan the shipment, label, then build and submit the manifest to Amazon. Bundles, polybags and bubble wrap each add time per unit.
• Systems. You need a way to track counts and check prep quality, one place your team can use, and some automation. A prep center already runs these.

What if your volume is higher than the break-even?

Do not read the break-even number as the point where you should leave a prep center. Our published tiers stop at 1,000 units per prep order, and above that we quote custom volume pricing. A seller moving tens of thousands of units a month should contact us for a quote. You keep the flexibility of paying per unit, and the rate comes down.

When can doing it in-house still make sense?

When your volume is steady, you already have space and staff, and someone can manage the process. Even then, get a quote at your volume before you decide.

What changes as you grow?

Returns, removals and orders from your own online store each need their own process. Doing it yourself means building each one. With a prep center you add an order, and the inventory counts, labelling and shipping are already running. See how Amazon FBA prep and fulfillment work together here, how to read a 3PL quote, and how FBA, FBM and a 3PL compare.