Amazon Easy Ship vs FBA Labels: Key Differences Explained

Amazon Easy Ship vs FBA labels are two completely different label types, and mixing them up can get your shipment rejected or your FBA stock refused at the warehouse. Easy Ship labels are shipping labels Amazon's courier picks up from your address. FBA labels are applied to individual units or boxes before you send stock to an Amazon fulfillment center. You need to use Amazon Label Crop to convert either type from A4 PDF to a clean 4x6 thermal format before printing. Let's break down exactly how they differ.

What Is an Amazon Easy Ship Label?

When you get an order and choose Easy Ship, Amazon's courier (usually Amazon Logistics) comes to your address to pick it up. You download a shipping label from Seller Central. This label is typically A4 size — 210 x 297 mm. It contains the buyer's address, your address, the order ID, and a barcode. The courier scans this barcode at pickup. If you print it on a full A4 sheet and stick the whole thing on a small packet, it looks unprofessional and the excess paper can peel or tear. The right size for thermal printing is 4x6 inches (101.6 x 152.4 mm). That's what thermal label rolls are cut to.

What Is an Amazon FBA Label?

FBA stands for Fulfillment by Amazon. You send your stock in bulk to an Amazon warehouse — called a Fulfillment Center (FC). Amazon stores it, packs it, and ships it when a customer orders. FBA labels come in two types:

1. FNSKU labels — These go on each individual product unit. FNSKU stands for Fulfillment Network Stock Keeping Unit. It is Amazon's internal barcode. Size is usually 1x2 inches (25.4 x 50.8 mm) or 2x1 inches depending on your printer settings. You print these in bulk — sometimes hundreds at a time.

2. Box/carton labels — These go on the outside of the boxes you ship to the warehouse. They tell Amazon which shipment ID and FC the box belongs to. These are typically printed at 4x6 inches on a thermal printer.

For a full breakdown of FNSKU sizes and formats, see our Amazon FBA Label Requirements guide.

Key Differences at a Glance

	Easy Ship	FBA Box Label	FBA FNSKU
Goes on	Packed order	Shipping box to FC	Each product unit
Size (thermal)	4x6 inch	4x6 inch	1x2 or 2x1 inch
Downloaded from	Seller Central → Orders	Seller Central → Inventory → Send	Seller Central → Manage FBA
Courier scans it	Yes, at pickup	Yes, at FC	Yes, at FC inbound
GST invoice on label	Sometimes	No	No

For Easy Ship, Amazon sometimes combines the shipping label and tax invoice on the same A4 PDF. You only need the top shipping label portion for the thermal printer. That's exactly why a crop tool matters — you don't want to stick an invoice on the outside of your packet.

How to Print Easy Ship Labels on a Thermal Printer

Step 1: Download the label PDF from Seller Central. Go to Orders → Manage Orders → Print Shipping Label.

Step 2: Open the PDF. It is A4, 210 x 297 mm. Your thermal printer roll is 4x6 inches (101.6 x 152.4 mm). They do not match.

Step 3: Upload the A4 PDF to Amazon Label Crop. The tool auto-detects the label area and crops it to 4x6. No manual dragging needed.

Step 4: Download the cropped PDF. Send it directly to your thermal printer. Set paper size to 4x6 in printer settings — do NOT choose "fit to page" or the barcode shrinks and may not scan.

Step 5: Stick the label on your packed product. Make sure the barcode is flat, not folded over an edge.

If you are new to thermal printer setup, our complete thermal printer setup guide walks you through driver installation and paper loading for brands like Zebra, Xprinter, and TSC.

How to Print FBA Box Labels on a Thermal Printer

FBA box labels are already designed for 4x6 thermal output in most cases. But sometimes Seller Central gives you an A4 PDF with multiple labels on one sheet. Here is what to do:

• If you get a single label per page at A4 size, crop it to 4x6 using the tool above.
• If you get two labels on one A4 page, you can use the Custom PDF Crop tool to manually draw the crop area around each label.
• Print at 203 dpi or 300 dpi (check your printer specs). Most budget thermal printers like Xprinter XP-470B run at 203 dpi. That is fine for FBA box labels.
• Do not print FNSKU labels at 4x6 — they will look stretched. Use a label sheet in Seller Central set to 30 labels per A4 page and print on a regular inkjet/laser, or set your thermal printer to 1x2 inch label stock.

Common Mistakes Indian Sellers Make

Printing the whole A4 on thermal paper. A 4x6 thermal roll is not A4. Your printer will cut it wrong, the barcode prints half off the sticker, and the courier rejects the pickup. This costs you time and possibly a ₹250–₹500 penalty per failed pickup in some cases.

Using Easy Ship label on FBA shipment boxes. The barcodes are completely different. An Easy Ship label on an FBA box will cause your stock to be misrouted or refused at the FC.

Not checking if the invoice is included. For Easy Ship, if your PDF has both the shipping label and the GST invoice on A4, crop only the top shipping label (roughly the top 50% of the page). Never stick the full invoice on the outside — it shows buyer pricing details.

Scaling to fit when printing. Always print at 100% / actual size. Scaling down even 5% can make a barcode unscannable. Amazon's scanner tolerance is tight at FBA inbound.

For more tips on avoiding label printing errors, see our guide on top mistakes sellers make with thermal printers.

Which Label Type Should You Use?

This depends on your business model. If you are a small Meesho or Amazon seller dispatching 5–30 orders a day from home, Easy Ship makes sense — no upfront inventory cost, no warehousing fee. If you sell high-volume products (for example, a fast-moving fashion item where you sell 200+ units per month), FBA can reduce your per-shipment effort significantly, though FBA fees in India start around ₹27 per unit for small/light items and go higher based on size and category. You also pay monthly storage fees — currently around ₹75 per cubic foot for standard items.

Both models require the right label format on a thermal printer. Getting that right is the most basic operational step — and it is free to fix with the right crop tool.