A truism: If your item is not in stock on Amazon, it cannot be sold. Now there are several reasons why your item may not be in stock at Amazon.
The Amazon Order algorithm ensures that items are reordered on time and in sufficient quantities. However, the automatic order system works rather conservatively and usually has great difficulty with new items that have no sales history.

What reasons may cause Amazon to not have your item in stock?

 

1. too little traffic on the product detail page

Internally, Amazon measures the number of daily detail page views for all products. If an item receives few or no clicks from Amazon customers, Amazon will not order the product from you either. If Amazon does not have your product in stock, this leads to even fewer clicks -> a downward spiral begins…

What can you do?

  • Increase traffic to your product detail page.
  • Link the article with similar products to variants and thus bundle the traffic
  • Use social media channels like Facebook or Pinterest and link directly to your article on Amazon
  • Run AMS campaigns to improve the visibility of the product on Amazon

2. too low P-level

Internally, Amazon works with so-called probabilistic levels, e.g. P70 or P90. A P70 level means that there is a 70% probability that weekly customer demand will be below this level.

What can you do?

If Amazon often reorders an item too late or in insufficient quantities, ask your vendor manager or per case in the VC for the current P-level and have it increased.

3. too large VPE

Particularly in the case of small-priced items, manufacturers like to put together large packaging units in order to keep logistics costs as low as possible. If items on Amazon have significantly lower demand and a VPE would last longer than four weeks, Amazon may not order the item at all.

What can you do?

Adjust your VPE and MOQ to Amazon’s needs and prefer to start with small packaging units for new items. Once your product is established and selling regularly in larger quantities, you can always adjust the VPE upwards again.

4. too long preparation and transport times

The Amazon ordering system includes times for shipment preparation and shipping. If your preparation takes longer than calculated or your carrier is delayed, this can also lead to availability problems.

What can you do?

Confirm and process Amazon orders within 24 hours. Make sure your shipping service provider or carrier is an “Amazon Certified Carrier”.

Currently these are:

  • Dachser GmbH & Co KG
  • DHL Freight GmbH
  • Kuehne + Nagel (AG & Co.) KG
  • Schenker Germany AG
  • trans-o-flex Schnell-Lieferdienst GmbH
  • United Parcel Service Germany Inc. & Co

If you find that you can’t meet Amazon’s delivery windows, talk to your vendor or supply chain manager at Amazon or open a case in VendorCentral and have them extend the delivery windows.
Note: These extensions usually apply only to future orders, not to POs already received.

[box type=”info”] Since 2017, extensions of the delivery windows are actually no longer accepted by Amazon. In order to be able to obtain an exception, detailed reasons should be given (e.g. system changes such as EDI, own production, foreign orders, …). Usually the extension is not accepted at the first request, but there are first inquiries about the process flow, etc.. So persistence is needed, but this will lead to a high percentage of success.[/box]

Sample text for case opening: Dear team, we request to extend the delivery window to XX days.

Since 2017, extensions of the delivery windows are actually no longer accepted by Amazon. In order to be able to obtain an exception, detailed reasons should be given (e.g. system changes such as EDI, own production, foreign orders, …). Mostly, the extension is not accepted at the first request, but there are first inquiries about the process flow and the like. So persistence is needed, but this will lead to a high percentage of success.

5. production delays

Of course, your own capacity bottlenecks in production can also be the cause of “out of stock” items.
If they recognize that there may be shortages of a product, it is helpful to take early action to maintain a presence on Amazon for as long as possible. Because if an item is no longer purchasable on Amazon websites, it slips very quickly in visibility and ranking, and rebuilding it is tedious and time-consuming.

What can you do?

Possible measures to extend visibility on Amazon are for example:

  • Turn off all additional traffic sources (AMS, Facebook, Instagram, other links to Amazon).
  • Lower the confirmation rate on Amazon orders and ship only parts
  • For longer-term outages and production in the Far East: check whether they fly in some of the goods, talk to your vendor manager about the extent to which Amazon shares in the higher transport costs per item

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