Score direction
Whether the account's inventory score moved up, down or stayed level, and why.
Decision: changes the order of work for the next month.
Stock as a weekly routine
Amazon Inventory Management, Run as a Weekly Routine
Stock planned, checked and restocked on a fixed weekly routine. Who does each step, which Amazon report it uses, and what we do not do.
Amazon inventory management is mostly routine work. A product that runs out loses its place in search and sales. A product that sits too long takes up storage space and moves into higher charge bands. Both problems start small and show up late. This page sets out the routine we run each week, the order of the steps and the owner of each one. The routine is the same for every seller. The numbers in it are set with the seller, from their own sales and stock data.
We plan and check your stock. We do not hold it or ship it.
What every inventory management routine includes
- Five planning inputs agreed with you, each with a named owner
- Five Amazon reports read every week, in the same order
- Stranded, excess and aged stock worked in a set order: relist before remove
- Restock dates worked back from the stock-out date and agreed before each shipment
- A weekly log and a monthly report, each measure with the decision it led to
The weekly routine at a glance
- Monday: score. The inventory performance view, read as a direction as well as a level.
- Tuesday: stranded. The stranded report, worked from the highest-value units down.
- Wednesday: excess. Excess and aged stock, each product given a keep, promote or remove decision.
- Thursday: restock. Ship dates set from the restock report and the seller's lead time.
- Friday: sales. Sales read against the stock plan, ready for the monthly report.
- Planned as a routine
- Owners named for each step
- Routed to the right page
Why stock matters
Why Does Stock Decide Amazon Sales?
Amazon inventory management starts here. Stock sits under almost everything else on an Amazon account. A listing with no stock cannot sell, however good its content is. A listing with more stock than it can sell wastes space and moves into higher storage charges. Advertising, listings and rankings all depend on the stock being there when the shopper looks.
There are two ways stock goes wrong, and each one has its own report. The first is running out. Sales stop, and a listing can lose ground while it is out of stock. The second is holding too much. The extra units take up space, age, and move into higher charge bands. Most accounts have both problems at once, in different products.
Advertising does not fix either problem. Ads can speed up sales of stock that is already available, but they cannot move stock that is stranded or aged. The advertising work is covered on the advertising management page, and the boundary is set out in the boundaries section below.
Planning inputs
What Does a Stock Plan Need Before It Starts?
Amazon inventory planning is only as good as the data behind it. Before the routine starts, we agree five inputs with the seller. Each one has an owner, and the owner is named in the list.
- Sales history by product. Owner: the seller supplies it, and the team reads it. Use the period the seller trusts, with seasonal peaks marked.
- Lead time from order to Amazon receipt. Owner: the seller. Include manufacturing, transit and any inbound check the seller runs.
- Supplier reliability. Owner: the seller. Where a supplier is late often, the safety stock has to be larger.
- Safety stock. Owner: the seller signs off, and the team proposes. Set per product group, not once for the whole account.
- Storage headroom. Owner: the team reads it from Seller Central. It shows how much stock the account can hold before storage limits apply.
Targets come from these inputs. The plan sets a target number of days of supply for each product group, and the seller signs it off. Products with long lead times or uneven demand get their own line. This page does not give a target figure. The number is set for the account, not copied from another one.
Catalogue data affects stock as well. A wrong dimension or case pack can make an inbound shipment look wrong in Amazon's system, and a mistake in parent and child listings can split a product's stock across listings. Those checks sit on the catalogue maintenance page, and we link to it wherever they matter.
Weekly reports
Which Amazon Reports Do We Check Each Week?
The team uses the same reports every week, in the same order. The order matters. A change in one report often explains a change in another, and that is easier to see when the reports are read in sequence.
| Report | Question it answers | What the team does |
|---|---|---|
| Inventory performance view | How is the account scoring on stock health this week? | Notes the direction of change and raises any warning with the seller. |
| Storage capacity view | How much room is left before storage limits apply? | Sets the inbound dates that fit the headroom. |
| Stranded inventory report | Which units have no active listing to sell them? | Works the list from highest value to lowest. Relist first, remove last. |
| Excess and aged inventory reports | Which stock is sitting too long? | Sets a keep, promote or remove decision for each product on the list. |
| Restock report | Which products will run out before the next shipment arrives? | Sets the ship date for each product on the list. |
Access to these reports runs through the seller's own Seller Central account. The team does not need a separate login, and the seller can see the same reports at any time.
Inventory health score
How Do We Read the Inventory Performance Index?
The Inventory Performance Index is Amazon's own score for how well an account manages its Fulfilled by Amazon stock. It is shown in Seller Central, and Amazon sets the rules for it. We read it as a summary of four things that the other reports show in more detail. Amazon's labels are used here.
- Excess inventory: stock that is more than the account can expect to sell in the period.
- Sell-through: how much of the stock held is sold in the period.
- Stranded inventory: units in Amazon's network with no active listing.
- In-stock rate: how often the replenishable products are in stock.
A low score matters because it can limit how much stock the account can send in. Amazon applies its limit at the point it sets, which is why the team checks the score each Monday and does not wait for a warning.
This page does not state the score at which limits apply. Amazon sets that point and can change it.
If the score is low, the order of work is set in section 5. Stranded stock comes first, because it is the quickest change to make. Excess and aged stock follow, and restock timing comes last. Shipment mechanics for stock sent in are covered on the FBA management page.
Stranded stock
What Do We Do With Stranded Stock, in Order?
Stranded stock is Amazon's term for units held in its network with no active, buyable listing. The units take up space and do not sell. The fix is usually a listing problem, so the work starts with the listing. Listing fixes sit on the product listing page, and the routine links to it where a listing is the cause.
Relist
Where the listing can be made active again, relist it. The stock stays available for sale.
Correct
Where the report gives a listing error, fix the error first, then relist.
Remove
Where the units cannot be relisted, submit a removal order. This is the last step, not the first.
Check
Confirm the listing is active and the units can be bought, then close the item in the log.
The order rule is simple. Work the report from the highest-value units to the lowest. Relist before removing. Relisting keeps the stock for sale, and removal takes it out of the network.
We work the stranded report every week. Each unit found in the report is dated in the team's log, so a unit that is still stranded after two reports in a row is raised with the seller that week. Reimbursement for lost or damaged stock is a separate process, and its claim rules are set out on the FBA management page.
Excess and aged stock
How Do We Handle Excess and Aged Stock?
Excess is stock beyond what the account can expect to sell in the period. Aged stock is stock held past set ages, which Amazon measures from the date the units arrive. Both are reported separately, and both lead to the same three decisions.
Keep and monitor
The product sells on its own trend, so it stays on the list. The team checks it the following week. Owner: the team.
Promote
The product is moved by a planned offer or an advertising push, with the seller's sign-off. Owner: the seller signs off, and the team plans the promotion.
Remove
The units are taken out of Amazon's network. Owner: the seller decides, and the team submits the order.
Charges apply to aged stock and to removals. This page gives no amounts and no age thresholds in copy, because Amazon changes them and the bands differ by product size. The team states the current charge for each product before a removal decision is taken.
Promotions are planned together with the advertising owner, so an offer does not push stock into a higher age band before it sells. The advertising route is on the advertising management page.
Restock timing
How Do We Set Restock Dates?
A restock date is the day stock must arrive in Amazon's network, not the day it leaves the seller. We work back from the projected stock-out date, through the lead time, to the ship date, and keep the safety stock as a margin above it.
- Find the projected stock-out date for each product from the restock report.
- Subtract the lead time to get the latest ship date.
- Add the safety stock and check the storage headroom for the shipment.
- Agree the ship date with the seller before the inbound shipment is created.
Amazon's own restock recommendations are one input. The team checks each one against the seller's lead time, because a recommendation cannot know a supplier's delays. Where the two disagree, the seller's data is used and the difference is noted in the log.
We set restock dates with the seller before each inbound shipment is created. The shipment itself, including the inbound plan, labels and prep, is covered on the FBA management page.
Where each page fits
Which Parts Sit With the FBA Page?
This page covers the planning and the routine. The FBA management page covers the shipment and the claim mechanics. The two pages refer to each other, and the table says which page to read for which job.
| If you need | Go to | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Planning and the weekly routine | This page | The routine, the owners and the decisions taken each week. |
| Inbound shipments, prep and labels | FBA management page | Shipment mechanics that follow the restock date. |
| Reimbursement for lost or damaged stock | FBA management page | Claim rules, and what evidence Amazon needs. |
| Full account management | Account management | The wider account, of which stock is one part. |
| Catalogue data and dimensions | Catalogue maintenance | The data that drives inbound and stock planning. |
| Stock-led advertising | Advertising management | Ads for products with stock. Ads do not fix stranded or aged stock. |
Vendor stock
How Does Vendor Central Stock Fit In?
Vendor Central stock follows a different process. The retailer places the orders, and the replenishment, purchase orders and vendor reports all sit inside that channel. This page does not cover that cycle.
Where a seller sells through both Seller Central and Vendor Central, the routine keeps the two stock views apart, and each step says which channel it belongs to. The vendor work sits on the Vendor Central management page.
Monthly report
What Does the Monthly Report Show?
Once a month, the team sends one Amazon inventory management report to the seller. It uses the same four measures each month, so the seller can see direction and not only a single week.
Stranded and aged stock
Whether the stranded and aged units are falling, rising or holding.
Decision: whether the relisting and promotion work continues.
Restock dates
Whether restock dates were met or missed, and for which products.
Decision: changes the lead time or safety stock for the product.
Promotions and removals
Which decisions were taken, and what each one did to the stock.
Decision: confirms or reverses the keep, promote or remove rule.
Each measure has a decision attached, so the report ends with what the seller agreed to do next.
Tools
Which Software Do You Need?
You can run the routine in Seller Central alone. Many sellers do, with a spreadsheet for the planning inputs. Others use a third-party inventory tool. The routine works the same way whichever tool holds the data.
We do not recommend a product, rank tools or resell software. The choice belongs to the seller, and we work from the data they have. If a tool is in use, we ask for the export that the routine needs and check it against Seller Central before we rely on it.
The tool question is one of the planning inputs in section 2, not a separate step.
Boundaries
What We Do Not Do, and Who Does
The routine is clearer when each step has one owner. The grid below sets out who does what, and it shows the boundary of our work as plainly as the work itself.
Seller
- Signs off the target days of supply.
- Decides the stock plan and the promotions.
- Holds the physical stock and arranges the shipment.
- Decides on removals.
Team
- Reads the reports each week.
- Proposes targets from the seller's inputs.
- Sets restock dates with the seller.
- Keeps the weekly log and the monthly report.
Amazon decides
- The inventory score and the limits that follow from it.
- Storage capacity.
- The outcome of any reimbursement claim.
- Changes to its own rules.
Our Amazon inventory management services stop at this line. We do not hold stock, run a warehouse, or act as a third-party logistics provider. We do not ship products. Where a warehouse or a prep partner is needed, the seller arranges it, and we check the stock figures that come from it.
Amazon sets its own capacity and makes its own decisions on claims and reimbursements. Our role is to read those decisions, explain them and set the next step. We do not promise a stock level, a score or a claim outcome.
Our approach
Why GrowithAmazon for Inventory Work
The method is written down, so the seller can read each step and change it. Nothing in the routine depends on a method that only the team can see. If a step does not fit the seller's business, the seller can change the step, and the change is logged.
The team works through the seller's own Seller Central access. The seller grants that access and can withdraw it at any time. The weekly log and the monthly report are the record of the work, so the seller can check what was done, when, and on whose sign-off.
What the seller receives
- A written routine for the account, with an owner named for each step.
- The list of reports the team checks, with the menu path for each one.
- The weekly log, in a file the seller can open at any time.
- The monthly report, with the four measures and the decision each one led to.
- A sample week of the routine for one product, before any agreement is signed.
What we ask from the seller
- Sales history for each product, for the period the seller trusts.
- Lead times, and any supplier notes that change them.
- Read access to the reports the routine uses, through the seller's own account.
- A named person who signs off targets and promotions.
Where the seller cannot provide one of these, the routine still runs. The matching step is marked as waiting for data in the log until the data arrives, so the gap is visible and not hidden.
We do not offer a stock figure, a client count or a rating on this page. The method is the evidence we can show before any work starts, and the sample week is where the seller can test it on their own data.
Amazon sets the rules, and it makes the final decisions on capacity, scores and claims. Our part is to read those decisions clearly, explain them to the seller and set the next step. Where a step is outside what we do, we say so and point to the page or partner that handles it.
Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
What does inventory management on Amazon cover?
Inventory management covers how much stock an account holds, where it sits, when it must arrive, and what happens to units that do not sell. We run it as a weekly routine: the reports checked, the owner of each step, and the decision each report triggers.
Do you hold or ship my stock?
No. We do not hold stock, run a warehouse or ship products. The seller arranges storage, prep and shipment. We plan the stock and check the reports that show how it is moving.
Do you need my Seller Central access?
Yes, through the seller's own account. The reports the routine uses are in Seller Central. The access can be withdrawn at any time, and the seller can see every report the team uses.
What is the Inventory Performance Index?
It is Amazon's own score for how well an account manages its Fulfilled by Amazon stock. It draws on excess stock, sell-through, stranded stock and in-stock rate. We read the score each week, as a direction as well as a level.
What do you do first if I have stranded stock?
We work the stranded report from the highest-value units down. Each unit is relisted where the listing can be fixed. A removal order is used only where a unit cannot be relisted, so stock stays for sale wherever possible.
How do you decide between promoting and removing stock?
The decision follows the age and the sales trend of each product. A product selling on its own trend stays under review. A product ageing with no sales is promoted first, and removed only if the promotion does not move it.
How are restock dates set?
We work back from the projected stock-out date, through the lead time and the safety stock, to the latest ship date. The seller agrees each date before an inbound shipment is created.
Who handles inbound shipments and reimbursements?
The FBA management page covers inbound shipments, prep and labels, and reimbursement claims. This page covers the planning and the routine that decides what is sent and when.
Do you handle Vendor Central stock?
Not by default. Vendor Central replenishment follows its own cycle and sits on our Vendor Central management page. Where the two channels meet, the routine keeps the stock views apart.
Do you recommend inventory software?
No. The routine works in Seller Central alone, or with a tool of the seller's choice. We do not rank tools or resell software, and we check any export against Seller Central before we rely on it.
Next step
What's the Next Step?
Send us your store list, the stock locations you use, and the sales and stock history for one product. We will return a sample week of the routine and the first list of stranded and aged units to work.
What comes back to you:
- A sample week of the routine for one product
- The first list of stranded and aged units to work
- The reports we would check, and the owner of each step
We plan and check your stock. We do not hold it or ship it.