Stranded Inventory on Amazon: A Guide to Understanding and Resolving

Stranded inventory is one of the four big factors that influence your IPI ( Inventory Performance Index) score with FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon). It includes any stock sitting in an Amazon warehouse. This stock takes up space and costs you money yet isn’t getting sold. Why? Because the listing might be inactive, incomplete, or even missing. If you don’t deal with it soon, your IPI score could drop. That drop can affect how much inventory you’re allowed to store.

So, it’s super important to keep an eye on what’s happening with your inventory all the time! You want to move it through Amazon’s warehouses quickly.

In this article, I’ll help you understand how FBA products get stranded in the first place. Plus, I’ll suggest some steps you can take to fix this problem!

Understanding the IPI Score (Inventory Performance Index) with FBA (fulfillment by Amazon)

, let’s talk about the Inventory Performance Index, IPI score. This score is super important for Amazon sellers who use the Fulfillment by Amazon service. It shows well you are looking after your FBA inventory. a good IPI is key! It helps you avoid storage limits, save on costs, & make your business run better overall.

What Exactly is the IPI Score?

The IPI score is a number that Amazon gives to sellers. It goes from 0 to 1,000. The higher your number, the better you’re managing your inventory. This score looks at a few important things:

• Excess Inventory: If you have too much unsold stock in Amazon’s warehouse, your IPI score will drop. Amazon wants you to keep just enough stock and not overdo it.
• Sell-Through Rate: This tells you how fast your items are selling over time. A high sell-through rate means you’re doing great at managing what you have, which helps your score go up.
• Stranded Inventory: Sometimes, products can’t be sold because of listing problems. This “stranded” inventory can hurt your IPI score. You need to keep your listings updated & fix any issues quickly to stay on track.
• In-Stock Inventory: If you run out of popular items too often, this can negatively affect your score, too. Keeping balanced stock levels is essential so you meet customer needs without running out.

Why Does Your IPI Score Matter?

Having a low IPI score isn’t good! It might mean you face storage limits or extra fees. Amazon has a minimum IPI score—often around 400—and if you’re below that, they may restrict how much stock you can send in for FBA. That can really slow down business growth, especially during busy times like Black Friday or Prime Day!

How Can You Improve Your IPI Score?

Want to keep that IPI score healthy? Here are some friendly tips:

• Regular Inventory Audits: Check your inventory often! This helps avoid too much excess stock and lets you track sell-through rates.
• Fix Stranded Inventory: Don’t wait! Quickly resolve any stranded inventory problems so customers can buy again.
• Stock Replenishment: Make sure you’re restocking at just the right times to avoid running out of goodies.

If you focus on these points, you’ll likely boost that IPI score of yours! In turn, this will help your FBA operations run smoother & make more money!

What is Stranded Inventory?

Amazon’s FBA runs on automation. When they receive your shipment, your product needs to have a live listing that’s complete to be processed. If you forget to make it active or if details don’t match up, guess what? You might see a stranded inventory message from Amazon.

A stranded alert means your products are stuck. Customers can’t find them or buy them because the listing is either inactive or there’s some sort of issue in Amazon’s system.

You really need to tackle this problem! The longer your items stay stranded in an FBA warehouse, the more storage fees you’ll rack up. It could also hurt your Inventory Health.

Stranded Inventory vs. Unfulfillable Inventory

Do you sometimes mix up stranded inventory with unfulfillable inventory? Totally understandable! They’re kind of similar since both types can’t be sold and therefore can’t be purchased by customers.

However, there are differences! The way you can tell them apart is by looking at the listing status.

Unfulfillable inventory has an active offer but still can’t be shipped or sold. This happens if items are misplaced, damaged, or missing parts due to bad packing or moving. There could also be issues like shipping discrepancies or labeling mistakes. Even if you have unfulfillable stock, Amazon keeps charging you storage fees until you resolve this.

On the flip side, stranded inventory refers to items stored in an FBA warehouse that simply lack a live listing—they aren’t listed for sale at all.

The key difference comes down to listings: stranded inventory has no active listing attached so all of that ASIN’s stock becomes stranded. Unfulfillable inventory usually relates to a small part of the stock that sits under a live listing but can’t be sold due to various issues like damage.

Either way—stranded or unfulfillable—you’re stuck paying storage fees at Amazon until you fix it!

You might face different kinds of fees like:

• Monthly Storage Fees
• Long-Term Storage Fees
• Overage Fees

Top Reasons to Avoid Stranded Inventory

As mentioned before, leaving stranded inventory unattended will just result in higher fees. But wait! That’s not all! Here are more reasons why keeping your listings active and making sure your items are available for sale matters:

1. If it’s stranded, customers cannot see those products.
2. Amazon might just remove those stagnant items from FBA.
3. Stranded items negatively impact your IPI score!

Amazon does let sellers know when inventory strands and gives them 30 days to sort it out—whether that’s fixing the listing or removing the stock. If nothing happens after that time, Amazon may just return those stranded units back.

The big takeaway here is simple: Amazon prefers not to be thought of as a storage service! They want to focus on distribution and fulfillment instead! You want sales instead of being stuck with extra unsold stock!

Why Does Inventory Get Stranded on Amazon?

There are quite a few reasons why your stock may get stranded on Amazon:

Amazon Listing Error

?Sometimes errors happen when a product isn’t connected properly to an active ASIN number. A competitor may delete your listing by mistake too! The good news? Just relist it, and most of the time it’ll reconnect perfectly! If that doesn’t work out? Don’t sweat it—just call Seller Support!

Closed Listing

?If you close a listing, that’s like saying “Hey! No more sales!” Your product becomes inactive even if it’s still stored at Amazon’s warehouse. So customers won’t be able to buy those items anymore—enter stranded status!

Incomplete Listing Information

?Missing details means no sale! Listings can get disabled if there’s new mandatory info required by Amazon for listings now always being met—for instance—if they recently added new required fields—a common reason for deactivation is missing this info! To fix up any incomplete listings: just go in & add what’s missing—or reach out to Seller Central if need be!

Pricing Error

Sometimes you might make a mistake with your prices. This can happen if you your prices without checking the Minimum Advertised (MAPs) if you adjust them a lot compared to what similar products cost. If Amazon sees that your price is much different than expected, they may call it a pricing error & suspend your listing. fix this, try adding a minimum and maximum price in your Seller Central “Manage Inventory” section. You could also just set your price back to what is normal.

Suspended Listing

Amazon can suspend any listing that has missing info. This includes things like images, age requirements, or even bullet points. They may also suspend listings if you break their rules, like having too many customer returns or using restricted terms & claims.

Amazon Tags Products as Out of Stock

Sometimes Amazon will mark products as out of stock, even when you still have stock in your FBA warehouse. The good news? You can fix this by relisting your inventory! More on that later.

Restricted ASINs

Some ASINs are called “restricted” because of poor quality or they might need extra safety testing. Since the reasons for restriction can be different, it’s smart to contact Seller Support for help with this issue.

Often, other sellers in the Amazon community can give good advice too. They might have faced similar problems & can share what worked for them. Just remember not all advice is good—trust those who seem knowledgeable!

Expired Product

If a product is expired, Amazon will tag it as stranded. In this case, it’s best to remove them from the fulfillment center. For products to be checked into FBA facilities, they need to have enough time for you to sell them plus an extra 90 days.

For example, if a product has 30 servings, it should have a total shelf life of 120 days (90 days + 30 days). If it doesn’t move quickly enough, it could be labeled as expired & then stranded.

Item Needs Brand Approval

If your item needs approval from a brand or an authorized distributor, go ahead and apply through Amazon’s system. There are many resources online about how to do this.

Sometimes you might get approval from the brand on Amazon, send in your items, but then that approval gets taken away. This will strand your products! You can try to appeal their decision but if it’s still denied, you’ll have to remove that inventory from FBA.

Setting FBA Items as MFN

Setting FBA products as merchant-fulfilled (MFN) could lead to stranded inventory! To fix this little hiccup, just switch back from MFN to FBA on your listing page.

Software Bugs in Amazon’s System

Occasionally there are system glitches or downtime causing your listing to look inactive even though everything is fine! If this happens, I suggest calling Seller Support for assistance with relisting your inventory on Amazon.

Shipping More Boxes Into FBA Than Your Restock Limits Allow

Generally speaking, Amazon doesn’t let you send more than your restock limits allow—but sometimes it seems like it does! A seller might find their limits at one level & then ship their inventory. While it’s on its way, AMAZON drops the limits! So they find themselves over their limits when sending in more inventory.

This could lead to lost sales or shipping & handling fees! And if Amazon doesn’t return the shipment right away? It might just sit there without being checked in & sold. Although it’s not usually marked as stranded inventory outright—it acts like it since it’s stuck in limbo!

In tough cases like these? There isn’t much you can do except wait. I always encourage having backup plans for shipping & fulfilling customer orders.

Consider partnering with a third-party logistics company so you can send extra inventory somewhere else just in case Amazon cannot accept it!

How to Relisting Your Stranded Units

Recently, Amazon released a cool feature which helps manage stranded inventory automatically! If a listing error caused your offer to deactivate and the suggested fix is to relist it—don’t worry!

Just go to the “Fix Stranded Inventory” page in your Seller account & click “Edit Automatic Action Settings.” A popup will appear where you can choose how long (1-30 days) Amazon has to automatically relist your inventory!

Creating a Removal Order

For expired products or items from deleted listings (like things that are discontinued), you can create a removal order in your Seller Central account. When you submit this order for those items—you’re giving permission for Amazon to return them back to you!

You may have seen Amazon offer waived removal fees now and then—especially around holidays! But be careful! Sometimes the downsides might outweigh the upsides here… Yes, lower holding costs seem great but it could mean waiting months before sending in more stock for that SKU again!

How to Fix Stranded Inventory on Amazon

Fixing stranded inventory on Amazon is crucial to ensure your products are available for sale and to avoid unnecessary storage fees. The first step is to review your Stranded Inventory Report, which provides details on why each listing is stranded.

Steps to Fix Stranded Inventory:

1. Log in to Seller Central: Access your Amazon Seller Central account.
2. Navigate to the Stranded Inventory Report: Go to Inventory > Manage Inventory. Click on the Inventory Dashboard. Select the Fix Stranded Inventory option.
3. Review the Report: This report will show all your stranded ASINs (Amazon Standard Identification Numbers) and explain why each product is stranded. For instance, the issue could be due to a listing error, price suspension, or missing information.
4. Take Action: Once you identify which listings have inactive offers, fix the problem. This may involve relisting the product, updating missing details, or correcting pricing issues. In some cases, Amazon may suggest specific actions to resolve the issue directly from the report.

By following these steps, you can quickly identify and resolve stranded inventory problems, ensuring your products are back on the market and preventing further storage fees.

Take Control of Your Stranded Inventory

Amazon wants things to move quickly It’s not a great to keep products that listing issues. They made that clear by raising storage fees, which get pretty high over time.

Also, stranded inventory might hurt your IPI score. If your score drops, you struggle to get the you need in the. But don’t worry! You can list delisted again to start selling them or create a removal if relisting doesn’t work.

To avoid stranded inventory, check your Stranded Inventory Report regularly. Make sure inactive offers aren’t clogged up for too long. Take action right away! Gain full control over your inventory.

FAQ

1. What is stranded inventory on Amazon? Stranded inventory refers to products in an Amazon fulfillment center that are not currently available for sale due to listing issues. These items are in stock but cannot be purchased by customers, which can lead to storage fees without generating sales.

1. How do I identify stranded inventory in my Amazon Seller Central account? To identify stranded inventory, go to your Seller Central dashboard, click on “Inventory” and then select “Manage Inventory.” Look for the “Stranded Inventory” tab, where you’ll see products with listing issues that need to be resolved.

1. What causes inventory to become stranded on Amazon? Inventory can become stranded for several reasons, including listing errors, SKU mismatch, inactive listings, pricing errors, ASIN suppression, or expired product listing permissions.

1. How can I fix stranded inventory issues on Amazon? To fix stranded inventory, go to the “Stranded Inventory” report in Seller Central. Review the reasons for the stranded status and follow the provided steps to resolve the issue, such as updating listing information, pricing, or correcting SKU mismatches.

1. Does stranded inventory affect my seller performance or account health? Yes, stranded inventory can negatively affect your seller performance because it leads to unsold products sitting in Amazon’s warehouses, which can increase storage fees and harm your Inventory Performance Index (IPI).

1. How long does it take to resolve stranded inventory on Amazon? The time it takes to resolve stranded inventory depends on the issue. Simple fixes like updating product details or pricing can be done immediately, while more complex issues may take a few days to process once changes are submitted.

1. Can stranded inventory lead to removal fees on Amazon? Yes, if stranded inventory remains unresolved for a long time, Amazon may charge you long-term storage fees or removal fees if they dispose of the unsellable products.

1. Is there a way to prevent stranded inventory in the future? You can prevent stranded inventory by regularly checking your inventory health, ensuring that product listings are updated, addressing any listing errors promptly, and keeping an eye on Amazon’s listing policy changes.

1. What happens if I don’t resolve stranded inventory on Amazon? If stranded inventory issues are not resolved, your products will continue to sit in Amazon’s fulfillment centers, incurring storage fees. Over time, Amazon may remove or dispose of the inventory, which could lead to additional fees and lost profits.

1. Does Amazon notify sellers about stranded inventory automatically? Yes, Amazon sends notifications about stranded inventory through your Seller Central account. You can also set up email alerts to be notified immediately when inventory becomes stranded, allowing you to take quick action.

Don’t let stranded inventory hurt your business. Partner with team! Manage your inventory well & keep your listings active.