Inventory performance

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:

• Reducing excess inventory to increase profitability
• Increasing sell-through to balance your inventory weeks of cover
• Ensuring inventory is buyable by fixing listings that are stranded
• Increasing sales by keeping popular items in stock.

The IPI dashboard displays a performance bar for each of the four categories

• Excellent (dark green)
  
  

• Good (light green)
  
  

• Fair (yellow)
  
  

• Poor (red)
  
  

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.

• The Excess units quantity is the number of units for which the cost of holding your inventory would likely be more than the cost of taking action (such as reducing prices to increase sell through or removing excess units). This value is based on product demand and your costs (including fees, unit costs, and cost of capital inputs).
• Total estimated storage cost is the sum of estimated costs you would incur if you take no action to boost sell through or remove your inventory. This includes storage fees (such as the Long-term Storage Fee) and the holding cost of capital, if applicable.
• The Manage excess inventory button indicates how many SKUs have recommended actions to sell through inventory more quickly. Click the Manage excess inventory button to visit the Manage Excess Inventory page.

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:

• The Stranded units quantity is your total count of units in a fulfilment centre without an active offer.
• The Fix listings button indicates in how many SKUs have units in a fulfilment centre but do not have an active offer. Click the button to visit the Fix Stranded Inventory 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:

• Units sold (past 90 days) are the total FBA units sold and shipped in the past 90 days.
• The Improve sell-through button displays a number that indicates the number of ASINs that have an opportunity to improve sell-through. Click the button to visit the Inventory Age page to see recommendations.

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:

• Estimated FBA lost sales in the last 30 days is equal to the forecasted unit sales on days your products were out of stock multiplied by the average sales price.
• The Restock today button indicates the count of SKUs where the days of supply is less than the restock lead time. Orders from your supplier may need to be expedited to avoid going out of stock.

How does flagging an ASIN as non-replenishable affect my IPI score?

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.

I followed the recommended actions. Why hasn’t my IPI score improved?

There are two reasons your IPI score may not have improved.

1. Your IPI score is based on your historical performance so actions you take today will take time to fully reflect in your score.
2. The recommendations provided are subject to many factors that influence actual demand for your products, including price changes, consumer demand shifts, and changes in competing offers for those products. Recommendations are not a guarantee of future results.

I see a symbol on my dashboard. What does that mean?

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.

I see a symbol on my dashboard. What does that mean?

This symbol means that your current performance in the influencing factor is in the top tier of sellers. You're doing an excellent job!

Why don’t I have an IPI score?

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.

Why is my IPI red while my top influencing factors are green?

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.

How does FBA sell-through rate affect my IPI score?

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.

How is the FBA sell-through rate calculated?

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.

Average available inventory = (50 + 40 + 150 + 80) / 4 = 80
Sell-through rate = 120/80 = 1.5

How can my excess inventory be green while my sell-through rate is not?

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.

How can I improve my 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.