Restock Inventory

How does Amazon generate restock recommendations?

One of the keys to good inventory management is keeping the right amount of inventory in stock. This can be challenging, because the “right amount” varies based on future demand and the cost of carrying too much or too little inventory.

To help you overcome these challenges, Amazon has developed a sophisticated optimization model that calculates a suggested replenishment quantity, and ship date for your products. The quantity and date recommendations take into account your variable costs, expected revenue, and estimated future demand. The recommendations are intended to provide you with information you can use to balance the cost of running out of stock (lost sales) vs. the cost of carrying too much inventory (capital costs and storage fees) to help you get the highest return on your inventory investment.

Keep in mind that the model relies on your inputs and leverages an estimate of future demand to generate a restock recommendation.

Do I need to follow Amazon’s restock recommendations?

We encourage you to follow the recommended replenishment quantity and ship dates to avoid out of stock or low stock situations. Our recommendations take into account future demand forecasts and the product-level information you provide. Please fine-tune your restock recommendations by adjusting product-level information, such as seller and supplier lead times, and replenishment frequency. To update these settings for a particular product from the Restock Inventory page, select Customize SKU settings from the drop-down menu to the right. You can also configure your settings in bulk by clicking Customize SKU settings at the top right of the page. Currently, our recommendations do not take into account the quantity limits, so please note the Maximum shipment quantity before creating a shipment.

Do I need to send my shipments by the recommended ship date?

These dates are our best estimate of when to send in a shipment to help you avoid low stock or out-of-stock scenarios. However, it is always your decision whether or not to follow our recommended ship date.

How will I know which products have quantity limits?

Products that are eligible for shipment creation and have a quantity limit are marked with a Limited restock tag on the Restock Inventory page.

How does Amazon calculate the quantity I am able to send for limited restock products?

We calculate the quantity you can send based on past sales, current inventory levels, and the capacity available in our fulfillment centers.

How can I determine how much of my product I am able to send?

To determine how much you can send to a fulfillment center, go to the Restock Inventory page. In the Days of Supply column for your product, click on the units right above the color bar to open a pop-up window that contains your Maximum shipment quantity allowed.

How does Amazon calculate the maximum shipment quantity allowed?

Your Maximum shipment quantity equals your Maximum inventory level allowed minus Utilization.

To find utilization for your product, click on the units right above the color bar in the Days of Supply column to open a pop-up window that contains the Utilization number.

Utilization represents your current inventory at Amazon, which counts against your maximum inventory level and helps determine your maximum shipment quantity. It includes incoming shipments, inventory pending removals, and your reserved inventory. This may or may not match with the Inventory supply at Amazon number in the pop-up window.

Can I appeal for an increase in my product's quantity limit?

No, we are not accepting requests to modify quantity limits.

Why is a restock recommendation not available for some of my products?

Temporarily, we are not showing restock recommendations for products marked with the Limited restock tag.

How do I create a shipment from the Restock Inventory page?

You can create a shipment by selecting the SKU and clicking the Create shipping plan button. To create a shipping plan for multiple SKUs, check the box to the left of each SKU and then click Create shipping plan.

Make sure you have the right user permissions to create a shipment. You can check and update your user permissions in Seller Central under Settings. Select User Permissions from the drop-down menu, then ensure Inventory Planning has the “view and edit” permission enabled.

How do I adjust my restock settings?

You can fine-tune your restock recommendations by adjusting product-level inputs such as supplier lead time and replenishment frequency. To update these settings for a particular product, click on the drop-down menu in the Action column and select Customize SKU settings to be taken to the SKU Details page. You can also configure your settings in bulk by clicking Product settings at the top right of the Restock Inventory page.

Why do I see an alert displayed at the bottom of the Configure SKU settings page?

Alerts let you know about certain conditions that may affect the relevance of your recommendations. For example: “You do not have the lowest-price offer” displays when there are multiple sellers with offers on a given product and you do not have the current lowest offer price.

How can I provide feedback about the recommendations or the Restock Inventory feature?

We welcome your feedback to help us improve our inventory management tools. Send any feedback by using the Feedback button on the bottom of the Restock Inventory page.

I'd prefer to keep my supplier’s name private. Do I have to enter the supplier’s name?

No. You can enter a nickname or code to represent your suppliers. Doing this will not change the quality of your restock recommendations.

How do I flag ASINs as not replenishable?

You can indicate that a SKU is not replenishable on the Restock Inventory page 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.

Note that hiding replenishable SKUs is not an effective way to increase your Inventory Performance Index (IPI) score for the following reasons:

• Hiding SKUs does not directly change your IPI score.
• The SKUs you hide will no longer display restock recommendations.
• Inaccurate FBA inventory settings may cause you to miss valuable restock opportunities.

Days of supply

The estimated number of days your current inventory supply will last based on the projected demand for your product.

Estimated shipment value amount

The estimated value of the inventory you are restocking for a particular product from your supplier. It’s calculated by multiplying your recommended replenishment quantity with your cost of purchase.

Low stock

This alert identifies items where the days of supply is less than the lead time, which indicates that replenishment shipments may need to be expedited in order to avoid going out of stock.

Out of stock

This alert is shown for items that are no longer in inventory.

Recommended ship date

The suggested date to ship the product to avoid a low- or out-of-stock scenario, based on your estimated days of supply and lead time.

Recommended replenishment quantity

The recommendation for the number of units to be restocked for FBA.

Restock inputs

Enter values in these fields to fine-tune your recommendations for your business.

• Cost of purchase: The per-unit cost that you pay to order the specified product from your supplier.
• Per-unit variable costs: Additional per-unit cost that you pay, not including Amazon fees (for example, shipping cost per unit).
• Supply chain setting: Indicates how your supply chain is configured for the specified product so that the recommendation model can calculate the appropriate lead time.
  
  1. Supplier ships directly to Amazon: Indicates that the product is directly shipped from your supplier to Amazon. Selecting this supply chain type will cause the model to use only Supplier lead time when calculating recommendations. Enter value: 1.
  2. Supplier ships to your facility, then you forward the full shipment to Amazon: Indicates that the full order for the product is shipped from your supplier, then prepped before sending to Amazon. Selecting this will cause the model to use Supplier lead time plus Seller lead time when calculating recommendations. Enter value: 2.
  3. Supplier ships a bulk supply to your facility, then you replenish inventory to Amazon: Indicates that you typically store inventory for this product at your facility and replenish to Amazon directly from that facility. Selecting this will cause the model to use only Seller lead time when calculating recommendations. Enter value: 3.
• Seller lead time: Number of weeks needed for you to deliver a product from your facility to Amazon.
• Supplier lead time: The amount of time needed for your supplier to deliver a product to your facility.
• Replenishment frequency: The frequency at which you typically replenish the specified product.
• Case pack quantity: Also known as order multiple, this is the number of sellable units per case or carton ordered from your supplier.
• Minimum replenishment quantity: The minimum number of units that you send when restocking FBA inventory.

Sales (last 30 days)

The value for the total sales of this SKU in the last 30 days.