Improving Amazon IPI Scores for Stable Inventory Performance

Have you ever checked your FBA dashboard and wondered why your Amazon IPI suddenly dropped even though sales seemed steady? Many sellers struggle to understand what drives this score, or how to lift it. In this post, Megaficus will walk you through what Amazon’s IPI really means, why it matters, and how you can steadily improve your score to protect your storage space and profits.

Before diving into the details, it’s important to understand what Amazon IPI is and why it can make or break your success on Amazon.

Amazon IPI definition

The Amazon Inventory Performance Index, or Amazon IPI, is a scoring system that evaluates how effectively sellers manage their FBA inventory, ranging from 0 to 1000. Think of it as Amazon’s version of a report card, where your grade determines how much storage you can use and how efficiently your products move.

Why Amazon IPI matters for sellers?

Your IPI is a reflection of how efficiently you’re managing your FBA inventory. Keeping your IPI healthy helps you avoid costly storage limits and overage fees by ensuring your stock moves steadily and doesn’t sit idle in Amazon’s warehouses.

When your inventory flows smoothly, you’re making the most of Amazon’s storage space without paying extra for slow-moving items. This also means better cash flow, and your capital isn’t stuck in excess stock, giving you more flexibility to reinvest in fast-selling or seasonal products.

A strong IPI can even improve your product visibility. Amazon rewards sellers who keep their inventory well-balanced by giving better placement in search results to ASINs that are consistently in stock and properly managed. In other words, a good IPI not only saves you money but also helps you sell more.

Let’s say you run a home gadget brand. You had a batch of older humidifiers that didn’t sell as fast as expected. As those units sat for months, your IPI began to fall below 350. After creating a small discount campaign and bundling those units with a newer product, your score climbed back to 470, which instantly lifted your storage limits.

What Is a Good Amazon IPI Score?

For most sellers, an IPI score above 450 is the sweet spot. Hitting that mark means you’re managing inventory efficiently enough to stay clear of Amazon’s storage limits and costly long-term fees.

Amazon reviews IPI every quarter, and if your score dips below 350, your available FBA storage space shrinks, sometimes drastically. That means you won’t be able to send in new stock until your performance improves, which can stall sales momentum right when you need it most.

If you’re a new seller, optimizing early is essential. A strong start helps you avoid these roadblocks, keeping your products moving and your cash flow steady.

Meanwhile, top-performing brands often maintain scores between 600 – 800, while newer accounts typically sit around 420 – 500. Regular monitoring and small, steady adjustments each week help you maintain a strong position, prevent penalties, and secure extra storage capacity during high-demand seasons.

What Factors Affect Amazon IPI Score?

Understanding what influences your score helps you manage inventory smarter. Amazon focuses on four weighted factors: excess inventory, sell-through rate, stranded inventory, and in-stock rate. These elements together indicate how well you balance inventory supply and demand.

For example, if your sell-through rate is high and you rarely have stranded inventory, your IPI will trend upward even if you carry moderate excess stock. Conversely, listings with stagnant items and low in-stock rates will drag your score down.

We’ll show you a more detailed picture below: if your sell-through rate and excess inventory are in red (which are warnings), your in-stock rate is in yellow, but the stranded inventory is perfectly in dark green, your Amazon IPI score could be around 445 – 470, which is considered decent overall, but the red areas are clearly limiting your potential.

The top influencing factors of your IPI score will look like the image below, so you can easily identify at which level each factor is.

1. Excess inventory

If certain items sit in storage for 90 days or more without selling, Amazon flags them as “excess.” This can lead to higher storage costs and a lower IPI, especially if those products continue to move slowly. This can become an ongoing issue if you don’t carefully manage your inventory levels and restock decisions.

Level	Range	Description
Excellent (dark green)	0 – 5% excess	Inventory is optimized and well-balanced.
Good (light green)	6 – 10% excess	Slight surplus but still under control.
Fair (yellow)	11 – 20% excess	Noticeable buildup of slow-moving items.
Poor (red)	Over 20% excess	Overstocked; storage limits and fees likely.

2. Sell-through rate

This metric shows how quickly your products sell over a 90-day period. A higher sell-through rate (around 1.8 or above) usually means healthy demand, while lower rates may suggest that pricing, visibility, or seasonality are affecting sales.

Level	Range	Description
Excellent (dark green)	≥ 2.5	Fast-moving stock and strong demand.
Good (light green)	1.8 – 2.4	Healthy turnover with room for improvement.
Fair (yellow)	1.0 – 1.7	Moderate movement; may need pricing or ad tweaks.
Poor (red)	< 1.0	Inventory is stagnating; sales strategies are needed.

3. Stranded inventory

Sometimes your products are physically in Amazon’s warehouse but can’t be purchased because of listing errors or policy problems. These are known as “stranded” ASINs, and they can drag your IPI down until they’re fixed.

Level	Range	Description
Excellent (dark green)	0% stranded	All listings are active and purchasable.
Good (light green)	0.1 – 0.5% stranded	A few SKUs are inactive but quickly fixed.
Fair (yellow)	0.6 – 2.0% stranded	Some ASINs are blocked or mismatched.
Poor (red)	> 2% stranded	Frequent listing issues are hurting performance.

4. In-stock rate

This factor measures how often your top-performing ASINs stay available for purchase. Consistently keeping bestsellers in stock signals strong inventory control, while frequent stockouts can lead to lost sales and a dip in your IPI score. Staying proactive with restocks ensures you have smoother operations and steady customer satisfaction.

Level	Range	Description
Excellent (dark green)	98 – 100%	Almost all key ASINs are available.
Good (light green)	95 – 97%	Minor stockouts but mostly reliable.
Fair (yellow)	85 – 94%	Frequent sellouts of top ASINs.
Poor (red)	< 85%	Major stock gaps; restock management needed.

External factors like seasonal demand changes or Amazon’s restock limits can temporarily affect your IPI score. For instance, during the holidays, your sell-through rate might spike as sales surge. But once the season ends, unsold inventory could be marked as excess, which may pull your score down until it’s cleared out.

How Can You Improve Your Amazon IPI Score?

Now that you know what affects your score, let’s explore how to strengthen it using clear, actionable strategies.

1. Reduce Excess Inventory

Start by identifying slow-moving ASINs in your Inventory Dashboard. Once you know which products are piling up, consider creating removal orders, offering limited-time discounts, or running Amazon Sponsored Product campaigns to help clear aged stock.

You can also use inventory management platforms to automate some of this work. Some like RestockPro, SoStocked, or Sellerboard can flag overstocked SKUs, forecast demand, and suggest smart reorder limits based on real-time sales data. 

Tools such as Helium 10’s Inventory Protector or Jungle Scout’s Inventory Manager are also great for tracking inventory age and preventing excess stock before it becomes a problem.

By combining these insights with regular performance checks, you can stay ahead of slow sellers and keep your IPI moving in the right direction.

2. Increase Sell-Through Rate

To boost this metric, start by experimenting with small price adjustments or running Sponsored Product ads to bring more eyes to your listings. Sometimes even a modest discount can make a big difference in sales velocity. You can also bundle items to increase order value and boost units faster. 

For example, you can pair a serum with a moisturizer or a phone case with a screen protector so that you can both increase the order’s value and gain more sales. However, make sure that your bundles don’t go against Amazon’s bundling rules.

Another effective tactic is to optimize your listings. Refresh your images, rewrite your bullet points, and refine your keywords to capture more organic traffic. For seasonal items, plan promotions ahead of demand spikes so inventory flows smoothly year-round.

3. Fix Stranded Inventory

For this strategy, visit the “Fix Stranded Inventory” page in Seller Central. Amazon provides specific alerts that identify which ASINs are affected and why. By resolving these promptly on a regular basis, you can restore products’ availability and prevent unnecessary IPI penalties.

4. Maintain In-Stock Levels for High-Demand Products

Amazon places a lot of weight on in-stock performance, especially for your best-selling ASINs. When top products run out, sales opportunities are lost, and your IPI score can take a hit. Maintaining consistent stock levels signals to Amazon that you’re a reliable seller capable of meeting buyer demand.

Tools like SoStocked, RestockPro, and Helium 10 Inventory Manager make this easier by providing automated reorder alerts and accurate demand forecasts. Reviewing your restock recommendations weekly helps you spot potential gaps before they become stockouts.

Furthermore, planning ahead is particularly important before major events such as Prime Day or Q4 holidays, when demand spikes rapidly. For instance, if you use automated alerts to restock early before Prime Day, your IPI will rise by up to 100, and sales remained steady even when Amazon enforced restock limits.

5. Monitor IPI Regularly

Your Amazon IPI updates every week, giving you ongoing insight into how your inventory is performing. Make it part of your regular routine to review your score in Seller Central and track how changes in pricing updates, promotions, or restocks, etc., affect your performance.

Over time, you’ll start to see patterns that reveal what drives improvement for your business. Consistent monitoring not only helps you stay above Amazon’s thresholds but also ensures you’re using your FBA storage space efficiently and maximizing profitability.

Common Issues That Lower Amazon IPI

Even seasoned sellers slip up on simple things that quietly harm performance. Here are the most frequent issues and how to address them effectively:

1. Overstocking Low-Demand Products

Holding too many slow-moving units ties up storage space and cash flow. So you must regularly review your Inventory Age report in Seller Central to spot products that haven’t sold in 90 days or more.

To keep things balanced, try offering short-term discounts, creating product bundles, or running small ad campaigns to clear older stock. Megaficus already suggested some inventory tools above that can help you forecast demand more accurately, so you only reorder what sells.

2. Ignoring Stranded Listings

Stranded inventory can occur for a variety of reasons: missing product details, SKU mismatches, inactive listings, or policy violations. Over time, even a few stranded units can affect your IPI, since they take up storage space without generating any sales.

It’s worth checking your Fix Stranded Inventory tab each week and resolving any alerts early, just like we mentioned in the strategy above. Use the tools wisely so they can automatically flag new stranded listings, and you can act quickly before they affect performance.

3. Not Tracking Sell-Through Trends

When you’re not monitoring your sell-through rate, it’s easy to miss which products are slowing down. A dip in sales velocity often signals it’s time to adjust pricing or marketing.

Tracking dashboards that we offered above give you a clear view of how each ASIN performs over time, and figures out how to boost your sell-through rate with personalized strategies that fit your product mix, sales trends, and current performance. Using these insights helps you stay ahead of slow sellers and maintain steady movement across your catalog.

4. Letting Key ASINs Go Out of Stock

Running out of your best-selling items not only hurts sales but it can also impact search visibility and reduce your IPI. Amazon values sellers who keep popular items consistently available.

You can prevent stockouts by investing in tools, which we introduced above, that forecast demand and alert inventory. While these platforms may come with a small cost, the payoff is much greater when you have steady product availability, stronger sales momentum, and fewer missed opportunities during high-traffic events like Black Friday or the holiday season.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about Amazon IPI