The Inventory Performance dashboard is the hub for optimizing your FBA business. From this page you can identify opportunities to grow your sales, reduce costs, track key performance metrics, and compare your performance to other sellers.
The Inventory Performance Index, or IPI, is a single metric to gauge your overall performance over time. Amazon uses the IPI to measure the performance of sellers' FBA businesses.
Your IPI score is based on how well you drive sales by stocking popular products and efficiently managing on-hand inventory.
Currently there are four categories of recommendations to help improve your IPI:
The IPI dashboard displays a performance bar for each of the four categories
The inventory performance page also provides additional metrics of interest within each factor, which you can see by selecting Show more details. Clicking the Show more details box associated with each category will take you to related inventory management tools, which provide recommendations to improve your performance
The Inventory Performance page also provides additional metrics of interest within each factor, which you can see by selecting Show more details. Clicking the Show more details box associated with each category will take you to related inventory management tools, which provide recommendations to improve your performance.
Carrying too much inventory decreases profitability due to storage fees and holding costs. Track your performance in this category and identify opportunities to improve profitability using Excess inventory percentage, which is the percentage of your FBA inventory units that have been identified as excess.
In addition to the performance bar, three related metrics of interest are displayed with the Excess inventory percentage on the Inventory Performance dashboard.
When inventory is not available for purchase due to a listing problem it results in lost sales and storage costs. This inventory is referred to as Stranded inventory. Performance in this category is measured by the percentage of your FBA inventory units that are currently not available for purchase on Amazon, or Stranded inventory percentage.
In addition to the performance bar, two related metrics of interest are displayed with the Stranded Inventory percentage on the Inventory Performance page:
Tracking the ratio between your units sold and how much inventory you hold on average can be a good indicator of your inventory health over time. Even if you just sent a shipment to Amazon a few weeks ago, you can track how much traffic your product detail pages are getting as well as your conversion rates in your Business Reports. Giving your products a sales boost by advertising with Sponsored Products, improving keywords, or creating a sale can have a lasting effect on your overall business and the popularity of your products. Track your FBA inventory levels relative to your sales and identify opportunities to improve traffic and conversion by viewing your FBA sell-through rate, which is your units sold and shipped over the past 90 days divided by the average number of units available at fulfilment centres during that time period.
In addition to the performance bar, two related metrics are also displayed with your FBA sell-through rate on the Inventory Performance Dashboard:
Keeping popular, replenishable products in stock helps maximize your sales. You can track your performance in this category using FBA in-stock rate, which is the percent of time your replenishable FBA ASINs have been in stock during the last 30 days, weighted by the number of units sold for each SKU in the last 60 days.
You can indicate that a SKU is non-replenishable at Restock Inventory by clicking View details in the Action column and selecting Hide recommendation. Hiding all SKUs associated with an ASIN will exclude the ASIN from your FBA in-stock rate and estimated FBA lost sales.
In addition to the performance bar, two related metrics of interest are displayed under the replenishable FBA in-stock rate percentage on the Inventory Performance page:
Flagging an ASIN as non-replenishable removes it from your FBA in-stock rate calculation, which allows you to better determine from your in-stock rate if lost sales due to stock outs on replenishable products are affecting your IPI score. Reducing seasonal and other non-replenishable Amazon inventory will help improve your IPI score and minimize your FBA storage fees. ASINs – including non-replenishable products – with no inventory and no sales will not affect your IPI score.
There are two reasons your IPI score may not have improved.
This symbol means that your current performance in the influencing factor is in the bottom tier of sellers and may affect your IPI score if you do not take steps immediately to improve your performance.
This symbol means that your current performance in the influencing factor is in the top tier of sellers. You're doing an excellent job!
IPI is available only for Pro sellers with FBA inventory and recent account activity. If you are new to FBA or have not been active the past 13 weeks, you may not have an IPI score until more data is logged.
IPI score is a trailing measure of your average inventory performance, while your influencing factors are current snapshots of your performance. Improving your IPI score requires ongoing inventory management. Keep up the good work and your score will improve over time.
Improving your sell-through rate can help you increase your IPI score, and conversely, a decrease in sell-through (holding too much inventory compared to sales) may decrease your IPI score over time.
Your FBA sell-through rate is your units sold and shipped over the past 90 days divided by the average number of units available at fulfilment centres during that time period. We calculate your average units available by taking a snapshot of your inventory levels today and 30, 60, and 90 days ago, then we average those numbers. For example: You shipped 120 units in the past 90 days, and you had an average of 80 units available during that time period. Your sell-through rate would be 120/80 = 1.5, as shown below.
Date | Today | 30 days ago | 60 days ago | 90 days ago |
---|---|---|---|---|
Total units sold (cumulative) | 120 units | 50 units | 10 units | 0 units |
Inventory available | 80 units |
150 units |
40 units | 50 units |
Average available inventory = (50 + 40 + 150 + 80) / 4 = 80
Sell-through rate = 120/80 = 1.5
For a given product, you must have at least one unit of inventory over 90 days old or more than 90 days of supply before the inventory will be considered excess inventory. It is possible that your inventory is not yet old enough to be considered excess, but you have sent enough inventory to Amazon to negatively impact your sell-through rate.
You can improve sell-through by advertising with Sponsored Products , improving keywords, or creating a sale. On the Inventory Age page, you can also filter on low-traffic and low-conversion alerts to see recommended actions and opportunities to improve sell-through. You may even consider removing some of your inventory to better balance your sales and inventory levels.