Explore Our Product Launching Service – Learn More
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!
, 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.
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:
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:
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.
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:
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:
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!
There are quite a few reasons why your stock may get stranded on Amazon:
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!
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!
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
Stranded inventory is tough for Amazon sellers. It leads to unsellable stock, rising storage fees, & lower IPI scores. Managing this issue fast can help keep your products available for customers and avoid extra costs. That’s where AMZ-DOC.COM steps in!
AMZ-DOC.COM has special services to help Amazon sellers manage their FBA inventory better. They handle stranded inventory problems too! Their platform has tools & expert support that guide you through common issues like listing errors, pricing mistakes, or ASINs that aren’t working. With the right help, you can quickly relist or remove stranded stock and keep sales flowing.
Comprehensive Solutions: AMZ-DOC.COM gives full solutions for stranded inventory. They make sure your listings are reviewed quickly and any issues fixed fast! They help you figure out what went wrong and suggest plans to fix it, whether you need to relist an item or correct a price mistake.
Minimize Storage Fees: Stranded inventory racks up storage fees at Amazon, which add up over time. Fixing problems fast with AMZ-DOC.COM helps you avoid these costs and keeps your IPI score healthy!
Expert Support: AMZ-DOC.COM has years of experience managing FBA inventory. They know how to guide you through Amazon’s processes smoothly so your products can return to shelves without delay!
Don’t let stranded inventory hurt your business. Partner with AMZ-DOC.COM! Manage your inventory well & keep your listings active. Visit www.amz-doc.com for more about their services & take charge of your Amazon business today!
FAQ
