Managing Stranded Inventory

Stranded inventory is stock that Amazon is holding for you but cannot sell, because there is no valid offer attached to it. It is invisible unless you look, it is still paying storage fees, and it is usually fixed in under a minute. This short lesson covers finding it and clearing it.

What stranded means

The stock is physically in Amazon's warehouse and it is in good condition. The problem is on the listing side: something about your offer means the units cannot be sold. Unlike unfulfillable inventory, covered in the Getting Started module, nothing is wrong with the goods.

Because it is a listing problem rather than a stock problem, it is normally repairable, and the units go straight back on sale.

Where to find it

Open the Inventory page in Seller Central. If you have any, a Stranded Inventory entry appears with a count. Click through and each item is listed with its reason and the actions available.

The two common causes

A pricing error

Your listing price falls outside the minimum and maximum you have set for that product. In the example, the minimum price had been set higher than the selling price, which is a contradiction Amazon resolves by refusing to sell the item at all.

This one is worth watching for if you use a repricer, because minimum and maximum prices are set for every product and a mistake in them strands the stock silently.

The fix: correct the price, or go to the pricing settings and adjust the minimum and maximum so the selling price sits between them. The item leaves stranded inventory once the values are consistent.

A deleted listing

The offer no longer exists. The usual sequence, as in the example, is: you sell an item, you later delete the listing because you have no more stock, and then a customer returns one of the units. The returned unit arrives back in the warehouse with no offer to attach to.

The fix: recreate the listing, and the returned unit goes back on sale. This is often worth doing even for a single unit, because the alternatives are paying to have it sent back or paying to have it destroyed.

Your options on each item

• Fix the offer. Correct the price, or create the missing listing. Best outcome: the stock becomes sellable again.
• Create a removal order. Have the units sent back to you. Sensible when you no longer want to sell that product.
• Have it destroyed. The last resort, because it recovers nothing.

Why to check regularly

Nothing tells you that stock has become stranded. There is no alert, and the units simply stop selling while continuing to accrue storage fees. It is entirely possible to have working capital sitting in a warehouse for months, unavailable and costing money, because a minimum price was set wrong once.

Make it part of a weekly check on the Inventory page. It takes seconds when there is nothing there, and when there is something, it is usually a few clicks to recover stock you have already paid for.