This page provides answers to common questions regarding the Inventory Performance Index (IPI).
IPI score measures how efficient and productive you are in managing your FBA inventory. Multiple factors could influence your IPI score, however, the most important ones are your actions: 1) maintain a balanced inventory level between sold and on-hand inventory and avoid excess inventory (overstock), 2) avoid long term storage fees, 3) fix listing problems, and 4) keep your most popular products in stock at the right levels, when possible, to meet customer demand and maximize customer satisfaction.
Your IPI score is designed to represent your overall inventory performance and considers both your recent and long-term inventory performance. When you take actions to improve your inventory efficiency, these actions can take time to result in IPI improvements. IPI is built to account for seasonality or unexpected disruptions in your business, allowing your long-term inventory performance to serve as your safeguard and prevent your IPI score from short-term fluctuations. This gives you more time to adjust your business and manage your inventory more efficiently in different circumstances.
While every sellers’ business is different, we recommend the following general guidelines to manage your inventory performance:
As IPI measures the efficiency and productivity of your FBA inventory over time, higher IPI scores usually indicate that you are managing your inventory more efficiently, thus optimizing your sales and minimizing your storage costs.
Refer to the FAQ above for the best ways to improve your IPI score.
No, new products up to 90 days do not impact your IPI score.
Once a removal order or liquidation request is placed, the inventory is no longer considered in your IPI score. Remember that actions taken today, like a removal order, will take time to reflect in your IPI score.
No. There are two score check weeks that we announce and evaluate to determine your storage volume limits. You will need to reach the required IPI threshold during either of these score check weeks to be exempt from storage volume limits for the following period. Your current volume limits remain in effect until the new period starts. We encourage you to take actions to maintain your IPI score in time for the next storage volume limit cycle.
Scenario | 1st score check week | 2nd score check week | Will you be subject to storage volume limits? |
---|---|---|---|
1 | On or above IPI threshold | On or above IPI threshold | No |
2 | Below IPI threshold | On or above IPI threshold | No |
3 | On or above IPI threshold | Below IPI threshold | No |
4 | Below IPI threshold | Below IPI threshold | Yes |
We will inform you 4-8 weeks prior to the new period limit going into effect what the IPI threshold will be and which IPI score check weeks we use to evaluate if you will be subject to storage volume limits. You can check your IPI scores for the current and past weeks on your Inventory Performance dashboard. The week that applies to your current score is shown just above your score, and you can view past weeks by clicking the Show details link below your score
Visit the FBA inventory storage limits Help page for more information.
For purposes of calculating IPI, we consider an item excess or overstock if it has over 90 days of supply based on the forecasted demand.
Your in-stock rate indicates in general how well you replenish your inventory to meet the demand of customers. The in-stock rate itself is not a direct input into your IPI score and a low in-stock rate does not negatively impact IPI, unless your most popular products consistently go out of stock, and the products that remain in-stock have low sales, are aged, or overstocked.
Marking a listing as non-replenishable does not impact your IPI score, it simply removes the ASIN from your FBA in-stock rate calculation to keep it accurate, allowing you to keep your in-stock rate up to date. Your performance with on-hand inventory affects your IPI score.
The two main ways to improve sell-through are to increase sales in relation to your on-hand inventory or to remove inventory that is not selling. To improve sales, consider your pricing and where applicable create sales, improve keywords, or advertise with Sponsored Products. Recently and consistently sending high volumes of inventory to Amazon may impact your sell-through rate if your volume of sales is not increasing at the same rate over the same time period.
Sell-through rate is updated daily and looks at the past 90 days of shipped units and average inventory over that same time period. We encourage you to try to maintain a sell-through rate in the green (or “good” rating) year round.
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 fulfillment centers 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.
Total units sold (cumulative) in past 90 days | 120 units |
Date | Today | 30 days ago | 60 days ago | 90 days ago |
---|---|---|---|---|
Inventory available | 80 units | 150 units (new shipment of 150 units received) |
40 units | 50 units |
Average available inventory = (50 + 40 + 150 + 80) / 4 = 80 units
Sell-through rate = 120/80 = 1.5
An IPI score is available only for sellers with a Professional selling plan, inventory at a fulfillment center, and recent account activity. If you are new to FBA or have not been active in the past 13 weeks, you may not have an IPI score until more data becomes available.