Amazon has a term for products that end up in fulfillment centers with no way of leaving: “amazon stranded inventory.”
The term is associated with ships sinking, castaways on a desert island, and messages in bottles drifting aimlessly on the sea with no hope of being found. Fortunately, the reality isn’t nearly as terrible. In terms of listings, stranded inventory has nothing to do with deserted islands and everything to do with Amazon FBA sellers.
Let’s talk about how inventory gets stranded in the first place and what you can do to reverse this situation so that you may prevent it from happening again.
What Is FBA Standard Inventory?
In basic terms, an Amazon Stranded Inventory is unsellable inventory that’s sitting in a fulfillment center. More specifically, it’s stock that you can’t get rid of because there are no active offers for the product on the website. In other words, your stranded products are taking up space in a warehouse with no way to be sold—hence, stranded.
Amazon can be a great place to get leads, but it isn’t the most efficient. Customers who are looking for your items on Amazon may not find them. The product is either missing, inactive, or lacking in some way. It might have been deleted by mistake.
Why Did Your FBA Inventory Become Stranded?
An Amazon-stranded inventory notification may appear for a few reasons, which can be easily rectified.
Incomplete Product Listing
If you have missing information in your Amazon listing, like the ASIN, your product becomes “stranded” and unsellable.
Deleting A Product Listing
Any changes to your listings, such as deleting them, may result in stranded inventory due to returns. Before taking any action, monitor your inventory levels closely to avoid having leftover products.
Bulk Upload Error
If you try to upload many items all at once, especially if the quantity column is filled in, the Bulk Upload Error will occur. This will switch your listing from “Fulfilled by Amazon” to “Fulfilled by Merchant,” leaving your inventory stranded.
Expired Products
A stranded inventory notification on Amazon typically indicates that the corresponding listing has reached its expiration date and is no longer active.
Suspended Product Listing
Amazon may have suspended your listing due to a lack of quality or missing information, called stranded inventory.
Pricing Concerns
Amazon might abandon stock due to pricing concerns. They will automatically flag the listing if your items are overpriced or undervalued. By altering your seller central settings, you may counteract these issues.
Why Is It Important To Fix FBA Stranded Inventory ASAP?
Fixing the stranded inventory issue is crucial for the following reasons.
- Stranded inventory cannot be sold. It continues to fill Amazon fulfillment centers, adding to storage costs and monthly storage fees.
- Furthermore, having too much inventory that doesn’t sell will lower your points on the Inventory Performance Index (IPI). If your IPI falls below 400 (with 1-1000 being the full range), Amazon may limit how much storage space you have for your account.
- Stranded inventory occurs when a product is listed, but no sales or revenue are made within the specified period.
How To Find And Fix Stranded Inventory
The first thing you should do is verify whether you have stranded goods in your account. You can find this out right away on the dashboard, as we said.
Visit the “Account” page. From there, you can access your Seller Central Account and go to
Inventory > Manage Inventory > Fix Stranded Inventory
If you have an inventory labeled as stranded and sitting in Amazon warehouses, don’t fret! There are steps you can take to recover it.
We know that an online marketplace like Amazon would never do anything like this on its own since it would jeopardize consumers’ trust and reputation. As a consequence, there are various strategies for resolving stranded inventory on Amazon that we will go through in-depth:
- Investigate the reason your inventory is among Amazon’s unsellable stock. If there is a listing error, go to your Amazon Seller Central account and find the Inventory option at the top. After clicking on it, you can see why your inventory cannot be sold to the public.
The most straightforward way to fix this issue is by double-checking that the products you’re sending to Amazon FBA for shipment are in stock and accurately match what’s on Amazon’s page. If not, you’ll need to create a Removal order so they can take back your inventory.
- To fix stranded inventory on Amazon, visit your Inventory dashboard and check that the prices match what is displayed on the products. If there is a mistake on your part, listing maximum and minimum prices would be helpful in such a case.
- Another thing that can assist you in getting rid of your Amazon stranded inventory is establishing a removal order for the afflicted goods. As we all know, there is only so much time before your inventory becomes stranded inventory.
- Creating a removal order benefits you and your customer who is expecting his order to arrive. You can explain to the customer that the order has been canceled and withdrawn from your Amazon Seller Central account’s Manage Inventory area. It would be beneficial to repair the stranded inventory on Amazon and provide a nice location for future sales.
How to deal with stranded inventory: the main idea is that you need to get rid of outdated or no longer-needed products. This can be a huge problem, but by following these steps, you can maintain your inventory and update it accordingly.
Final Thoughts
A business is always a risky investment, and sometimes you must put in extra work to make everything run smoothly. Although FBA makes selling quicker and easier for vendors, there are many things you still need to consider to remain in control of your inventory – even though it isn’t physically with you.
Storing unsold products on Amazon can be fixed by frequent monitoring. It’s one of those things that is simple to repair, yet it is also susceptible to neglect.
Do you have a story about stranded inventory gone wrong? Let us know in the comments section!