Best Tips to Manage Amazon Products Out of Stock
Amazon products out of stock can affect very badly your performance since the situation provides customers with a bad experience
Nicole Scupola 4 min read
Table of contents
Even the most prepared, well organized Amazon seller can face Out-of-Stock Inventory. Amazon products out of stock can affect very badly your performance since the situation provides customers with a bad experience and you lose sales and Amazon SEO rank while your competitors continue to grow and increase their Amazon sales.
In this article we want to give you some hints to prevent an out-of-stock Inventory and, in the case you can’t prevent it, how to manage it in order to mitigate bad consequences.
Consequences of Amazon Products out of stock
Lose Sales & Competitive Advantage
When you run out of stock the first thing you have to take into consideration is a descrease in sales. This happens because Amazon removes your listing, marking it as “inactive” so that customers can’t see your products and/or make a pre-order.
Jeopardize Your Product Sales Rank & Visibility
While your listing is inactive and you don’t have sales as you don’t appear in search results, competitors make new and more sales, they’re able to source more product reviews and ultimately build up their own Amazon SEO.
Customers Dissatisfaction
You could lose their trust and business, and could wind up with a negative review.
We have seen so far what are the main consequences of running out of stock, now we are going to tell you how to avoid it or, in case you can’t prevent it, how to manage Amazon products out of stock.
PREVENTING AMAZON STOCKOUT
Manage your Relationships with suppliers
Once you know your sales cycle you can look at the production cycle of your suppliers and decide if you want to negotiate new terms in order to establish a profitable relation for both or make a contract with another one.
Know Your Sales Cycle & Sales Velocity
This could seems obvious, but often people forget to place orders in time for high season, Amazon Prime Day, Black Friday. This means you have to take into consideration event or periods in which you know your sales will increase and plan your replenishment.
Lower your PPC spend
Lower your PPC spend is a valuable strategy, because it permits to slow down sales and gain a couple of days. Usually it is not recommended to reduce sales but in this case it is a strategy which help a lot.
MANAGE AMAZON PRODUCTS OUT OF STOCK
Take a portion of your incoming inventory and air freight it
In order to have earlier your products it could be recommended to choose the Airplane. You may send something like 100 units via air freight and 900 by sea. That way, you don’t completely run out of stock or at least it buys you more time where you continue to sell and then not run out of stock for as many days.
Pump up your PPC spend
As soon as your product is back in stock a, you can pump up your PPC spend a minimum for the first one to two weeks in order to increase your sales velocity.
One more thing…
You can use our software in order to make an order and control your stock in the FBA section. You can select the account that interests you, the country of destination and the season.
From Epinium’s stock forecast section, you can generate a stock forecast with quantities that best suit your account based on demand. In this way, you will minimize your storage costs in the Marketplace. Additionally, you will have the option of applying a minimum stock, also known as a safety stock. And finally, check the products with excess stock or see the products without stock to send. The advantage is that you can have all your stored stock under control from the same platform much faster.
FAQ: Managing Amazon Out-of-Stock Products
What happens to my Amazon listing when I run out of stock?
Amazon marks your listing as “inactive,” which removes it from customer view and pre-order options. This immediately cuts off sales and lets competitors capture the traffic, reviews, and SEO momentum you lose during the outage.
How can lowering PPC spend help during a potential stockout?
Reducing your PPC spend slows down your sales velocity, which buys you a couple of extra days of inventory before you run out completely. It’s a rare case where slowing sales down deliberately is the right strategy.
What’s the strategy behind splitting inventory between air freight and sea freight?
Sending a smaller portion of incoming inventory by air — for example 100 units by air and 900 by sea — gets some stock to you faster, so you don’t completely run out or at least buy more selling time while the bulk shipment is still in transit.
Why should I increase PPC spend once my product is back in stock?
Pumping up PPC spend for the first one to two weeks after restocking helps rebuild your sales velocity quickly, recovering the ranking and visibility momentum lost while the listing was inactive.
How does Epinium’s stock forecast tool help prevent stockouts?
It generates a stock forecast with quantities suited to your account based on demand, lets you apply a minimum or safety stock level, and flags products with excess stock or products at risk of running out — all from a single platform.
