How to prepare for Amazon Prime Day?

Prime Day is about to start, and I believe many sellers are actively preparing for the big sale, wanting to reserve more storage space for new and popular products, so as to better win massive orders during the peak season. Here is a guide to peak season storage capacity management to help sellers plan sufficient storage space to welcome the peak season sale!

1. The difference between replenishment restrictions and warehouse capacity restrictions

Replenishment limits and storage capacity limits are two different capacity limits that sellers may currently see applied to their FBA accounts. They help sellers manage the inflow of new inventory (replenishment limits) and the use of physical space in fulfillment centers (storage limits). You can view these limits through the Replenishment and Storage Capacity Monitor.

Replenishment limits determine the quantity of inventory items you can send to a fulfillment center and are set for different storage types (e.g., assortables, oversized items, apparel, and footwear). They are based on your historical and forecasted sales. Replenishment limits are independent of your Inventory Performance Index (IPI).

Storage limits are measured in cubic meters and represent the total amount of inventory you can store in an Amazon fulfillment center. If your Inventory Performance Index score is above 400, you have no additional storage limits beyond your replenishment limits.

Sellers, please note that Amazon has updated the replenishment restrictions and inventory performance index scores (IPI) for each site. Please plan your inventory management reasonably according to the updated requirements.

Replenishment restrictions: Amazon US, UK, and European sites (Germany/France/Italy/Spain) currently implement replenishment quantity restrictions, while the Japanese site has cancelled the FBA delivery/replenishment quantity restrictions.

IPI score requirements for the third quarter:

Applicable sites: Amazon US, UK, Europe (Germany/France/Italy/Spain) and Japan.

Assessment time:

① The first time in the third quarter (week of May 9, 2022)

② The second time in the third quarter (week of June 20, 2022)

If your inventory performance index score is lower than the site's inventory performance index threshold in both rounds of assessment, you will be subject to storage restrictions in the third quarter. Currently, Amazon recommends that you keep your inventory performance index score above 400.

2. Ensure storage capacity during peak season

In order to use storage capacity more rationally and prepare for the peak season, sellers are advised to promote sales and clear redundancy in two steps to release storage capacity for big sales.

Boost sales! Various promotional tools help clear excess inventory

Dealing with inventory backlogs and clearing inventory during seasonal changes is an important part of inventory management. Sellers are advised to use Outlet Deal & Outlet Sale tools to effectively help reduce inventory pressure.

Clearance Sale: A promotional offer placed on the Outlet page for a limited time (usually 2 weeks) is a promotional means of clearing out overstocked inventory, helping sellers effectively increase exposure and quickly clear overstocked inventory!

Clearance Sales: Regular sales promotions created by sellers by reducing prices. Good news! Amazon US, UK, France, Spain and Italy launched the Fashion Sales and Deals Spring Promotion in April! If you currently have a lot of ASIN inventory in the fashion category, it is recommended to check the Outlet Deals suggestions in the "Seller Platform-Manage Inventory Status" tool and create Outlet deals. After approval by the backend, you will have the opportunity to display them on the Outlet page.

3. Actively replenish stocks

After preparing sufficient storage capacity, it is time to replenish stocks! Amazon recommends that sellers confirm the best-selling products that need to be replenished on the "Replenish Inventory" page of the seller platform when sending/replenishing stocks, and use "Custom SKU Settings" to improve supplier delivery time, preparation time, replenishment frequency, supply chain and other information to make the calculation results more accurate!