Introduction:
Inventory plays an important role in the success of any business because it is the base of your operations running all over the company. There is no doubt that you will not flourish in the current world of businesses if you are not concerned enough about the inventory management of your business. It is very essential that all the parts that are related to the inventory are handled efficiently by expedient employees so that the margin of mistake is near to zero.
Furthermore, if any carelessness occurs, the main and most crucial problem that any business faces is the overstock or stranded inventory problems. It occurs when you are not focusing on the levels of your stock and buying more and more of it without the correct observation of customers’ orders. However, when you employ automated software like Inventooly, it creates an environment of comfortability for the effective management of the inventory of your business. The world’s most popular e-commerce platform like Amazon also suffers from the problem. Therefore, now there are many causes stated and solutions too about how to fix stranded inventory on Amazon.
What is Stranded Inventory?
An inventory that is stuck in the warehouse of the company due to some particular reason is known as Stranded Inventory. The reason could be anything that happens due to the inefficiency of employees themselves. However, any enemy competitor could also be the reason that affects the sale of your product and they left right there in the warehouses of the company.
Stranded inventory represents a very bad image of your business’s dealings showing that you are not concerned much about the sale of your product and just doing business for fun. Moreover, it causes a major disadvantage to the warehouses because there is no space left for the new products to enter for shipment to the customers. Therefore, effective measures should be taken to revive the stranded inventory and sell it to the desired customers.
The world’s most trusted and vast platform like amazon also faces this huge problem. Amazon FBA storage houses are full of those inventory items that have some kind of problem due to which they are not being able to ship further and sold out to the customers. But there are many ways about how to fix the stranded inventory on Amazon, one just needs to focus a bit.
Causes of Stranded Inventory on Amazon:
Before talking about the solutions to this great problem of stranded inventory on Amazon, let us first dive into the causes that really get your business in this position. Amazon FBA is a huge facility offered to Amazon users in order to store, pack, ship, and deliver their products to the ultimate customer. You can be relaxed and free of worries regarding the fact that how your product is going to reach its original destination, Amazon FBA got you covered in every aspect. But a problem occurs for Amazon itself also when the company is not careful regarding the fact that they should properly list the items and check whether they are similar to the orders placed by the customers.
In addition to this, if you have a threat from any other businessman or some old grudge, you must be careful of the fraudulent activity on the part of your competitor, who can try his level best to destroy your reputation. Let us now dive into the main causes that will let you suffer from this problem of stranded inventory on Amazon;
- Price Error:
The first and foremost cause of stranded inventory on Amazon is that in case you have forgotten to enter the price over your product. Or when the price is mistakenly changed than that of being displayed over your original E-commerce store’s page on Amazon. For instance, a product’s price is $5.99, but it got entered $8.99. Then it will be considered as a pricing error due to which your inventory will be left stranded in the FBA warehouses.
It creates an environment of difficulty for the FBA itself because there is no assurance regarding what the original price really is. Therefore, there is a great need to look out when the product is being sent to the warehouses in order to deliver to the desired customers so it will be helpful to fix the stranded inventory.
- Matching Error:
Another cause ofo stranded inventory includes the matching error of products than that stated in the list of the order of the customer. It could be any factor regarding the color size or quantity of the product. If anything does not match, it creates a problem for the Amazon FBA because they have to ship the exact required product to the customer as it is entirely their responsibility to do so.
- Listing Mistake:
A listing error also proves to be the cause of stranded inventory on Amazon. This issue occurs when the product that you have delivered to the FBA storage houses does not match the listings of Amazon. The product that you are sending to the warehouses of Amazon is bound to be connected with the Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN) in the first place.
It would create a problematic situation and a new listing revision would be asked to create to fix the stranded inventory on Amazon.
- Not Qualified for Selling:
Another reason for the stranded inventory on Amazon is that when the brand or the Seller himself is not registered with the Amazon FBA. so when the product reaches the Amazon warehouses, it matches the details of the owner and sees if it matches the authorized sellers or not. If not, then the inventory is left stranded in the warehouses.
- Product expiration:
Another basic reason that can affect your stock to become stranded inventory on Amazon is that when the product that you are wishing to sell does not qualify for selling itself. Sometimes, it is caused by the seller himself that he fails to check the duration of the product until which it can be qualified to be sold to the customers for usage. Other than that it would simply be known as Stranded inventory.
Therefore, it should be checked thoroughly before dispatching the products to the Amazon FBA storage houses whether it can be used and has a good time period before its expiration or not.
How to fix stranded inventory on Amazon?
It is very important that one should know how to fix the stranded inventory as well as the overstocking problems of the business. When the inventory is not given much attention or handled by some professional who will carefully deal with it, issues like stranded inventory occurs on Amazon.
As we all know that a platform like Amazon will not conduct such stupidity by itself because it will risk the customer confidence and reputation of this most trusted worldwide platform. Therefore, there are also some ways stated that will be helpful in order to fix stranded inventory on Amazon, let us discuss them in detail;
Step 1:
The pricing errors of your stranded inventory on Amazon could be easily fixed and reset if you go into your Seller Central account and open the “Manage Inventory” section. There you can add the maximum or minimum price of your product. Or you can eliminate this issue simply by setting your price to the normal range as it was stated on Amazon’s product page of your business or brand. It will help you fix the stranded inventory of your business on Amazon.
Step 2:
If your product does not match with the order that is stated in the customer’s order, the FBA might provoke the sale and term your inventory as stranded on Amazon. Then it is left lying in the warehouses until it is sold. But you can resolve this issue when you see that your order is not being dispatched by the warehouses, you can simply relist your product as stated originally n the order of the customer. It will encourage the Amazon FBA to deliver and ship your products to the desired destination.
However, even if after relisting your products, still your inventory is termed as stranded, you can then contact Amazon Seller Support to know what you have to do in order to solve this issue and conduct a proper sale.
Step 3:
When your products are expired, the FBA saves your items in the storage houses as stranded inventory and it is not sold to the customers after that. Therefore, when you are informed that expiration is the major cause of your stranded inventory on Amazon, the best thing would be to simply remove your products from the FBA centers. Because Amazon itself would not take a chance which will threaten its reputation.
In addition to this, it is stated that a product must have much expiration time so that it could be consumed easily, plus an additional time of 90 days must be given so that the Amazon FBA checks and confirms that it could be used or not.
Step 4:
When your brand does not qualify for selling on a huge platform like Amazon FBA, then a huge problem occurs and your brand is considered as unapproved for the shipment towards the customers. However, to fix the stranded inventory on Amazon you can now file an appeal decision and ask Amazon to approve your brand so that you can be qualified for selling to the customers through hiring amazon FBA as your fulfillment program.
However, if the appeal is still denied by Amazon itself, you may have to take back your inventory from the Amazon storage houses because then there is no option left.
Order’s Removal to fix stranded inventory on Amazon:
As there is only a limited amount of time before your inventory is termed as unable to sell through Amazon FBA, but if you have yourself crossed that time limit, then the best thing to get rid of such a situation is the removal of order.
It can help you as well as your customer who will be waiting for his order to be delivered without knowing that it will not happen. You can simply apologize to your customer and also remove the order by going into the “Manage Inventory” section of your Amazon Seller Central account. It would be helpful to fix the stranded inventory on Amazon and also make a good place for your future sellings.
Conclusion:
As we have concluded from above that what exactly is the stranded inventory and how can you fix the stranded inventory on Amazon. If you have reached down here then you surely will be able to know how to handle such situations in the future while dealing with the most huge and trusted platform like Amazon. However, using an automated inventory management software like Inventooly could be greatly helpful for the correct and error-free inventory management of your business.