Amazon is making changes to its FBA storage as well as the fees. It charges in specific capacities. FBA sellers often face issues with FBA storage limits and IPI Storage Limits. Restock limits are calculated based on your historical sales and forecasted demand at both seller/ASIN levels. Restock limits are set per storage type based on your past and forecasted sales, allowing you to allocate these limits across your ASINs. Mainly, Restock Limits and Storage limits are two different limits that are designed to manage the inflow of inventory and the usage of physical space in fulfillment centers.
What are Restock Limits
Restock limits are calculated based on your historical sales and forecasted demand at both seller/ASIN levels. Storage limits are based on volume, measured in cubic feet, and set for each storage type. Amazon sets limits for different categories. There are 4 main categories for Restock Limits, which are-
✅ Standard size storage
✅ Oversize storage
✅ Apparel storage
✅ Footwear storage
If you sell flammable or aerosol products, you will also see separate storage limits for these categories. But Amazon has not released its calculation for restock limits.
Still, it appears to be based primarily on the rate you sell compared to the available inventory in each category. We can see that Amazon has implemented more limits on how much product quantity can be sent to FBA warehouses! There are a few things that can easily be confused with restocking limits. These points are:
✅ IPI score gives each seller a score based on their inventory performance.
✅ The IPI score is something entirely different from restocking limits.
✅ Amazon has a separate storage limit for each seller, which may confuse many merchants.
✅ If you have an IPI score of 450 or more, you will have unlimited storage.
✅ If you have an IPI score of less than 450, you will have storage limits.
✅ If you have “Unlimited Storage,” you will still be subject to restock limits.
What Are IPI Storage Limits
Now let’s talk about what IPI storage limits on FBA are. Storage limits work with your Inventory Performance Index (IPI) score, which measures how efficient and productive you are in managing your on-hand FBA inventory. Amazon makes sure their customers always find their preferred items on the marketplace through their Fulfilled by Amazon warehouses. Regardless, overcrowding is a big issue since many sellers send stock to Amazon that they can’t sell quickly. This slows down the restocking of in-demand items.
Because of that, Amazon implements a scoring system to evaluate – sellers’ Inventory-Performance Index, which means the ‘IPI.’ This is to determine which sellers can send stocks and which should be limited from sending. Amazon IPI or Inventory Performance Index is a metric that measures a seller’s inventory performance over time. It’s a score showing how efficiently and productively sellers manage FBA inventory. IPI is a score ranging from 0 to 1,000.
It combines the sales, inventory levels, and expenses of the previous or last three months into a unique rolling metric, which updates weekly. This will help balance inventory levels and sales. It also helps to fix listing problems, such as having unavailable in-demand items and keeping popular products in stock. Overall, it represents your inventory health.
Required IPI Measures and Actions
The are some of the IPI measures taken by Amazon:
✅ Inventory management for a while.
✅ The overall balance of inventory levels and sales
✅ The seller’s ability to keep popular items in stock.
Also, To be more productive, you must increase your IPI score by taking the recommended actions from Amazon. The 4 most important factors that can help boost your IPI Score are-
✅ Removing excess inventory from the Amazon warehouse
✅ Increasing the sales of FBA items
✅ Fix Stranded listings to make your FBA inventory available for purchase on Amazon
✅ Keep your popular products in stock to avoid lost sales.
Moreover, poor inventory management and sales loss can lead to storage restrictions and affect your seller account and IPI.
How IPI Affects Storage Limits
Now we’ll go over how the IPI score affects the storage limit: Here are some basic points we have prepared for you to make it easier for you to understand. These points are:
✅ Sellers with consistently higher IPI scores will receive higher storage limits.
✅ If the IPI score is low, then the restock limits will be low.
✅ The punishments for a poor IPI score are inventory storage restrictions and higher storage fees.
✅ Both storage limits and restock limits may apply to your account.
✅ If you reach the limit, you will not be able to send further inventory to FBA.
✅ If your score is too low, it could result in overage fees and limits being placed on your FBA storage.
✅ For your Low IPI Score-You might even be unable to send items to the FBA.
✅ IPI measures the efficiency and productivity of your FBA inventory over time;
✅ Higher IPI scores usually indicate that you are managing your inventory more efficiently.
✅ Your current storage limit remains in effect until the next adjustment cycle.
✅ Higher IPI score will have unlimited FBA storage for standard and oversize items.
✅ New sellers who have been active for less than 26 weeks, will not receive storage limits.
Misunderstandings About IPI Score
It is very difficult to understand all the criteria set by Amazon, and we know that clearing these points is very important. So we have prepared some critical points to clear all your confusion completely. We have listed below some of the common misconceptions about IPI scores:
✅ IPI Scores affect ASIN Limits – This is false. During periods when Amazon has ASIN replenishment limits, your IPI scores do not negatively or positively affect ASIN limits.
✅ New products hurt your IPI score – This is also not right, guys! Cause Amazon only looks at the sales history of products after 90 days, therefore, launching new products does not hurt your IPI score.
✅ You can quickly improve your IPI score by large amounts – No, this is not true. Your IPI is a reflection of both recent sales/storage activity and historical sales/storage activity.
✅ Marking items as non-replenishable helps your IPI score – This is also false, guys! Marking an item as non-replenishable does not have any impact on your IPI score.
Final Words!
Throughout the entire post, we have explained the IPI Storage Limits and Restock Limits! But Still, if you have any questions or confusion, Let us know in the comments box below. Let us know what your experiences with restocking limits & IPI Storage Limits have been and what your plan is for dealing with restocking limits and IPI Storage Limits.
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