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🏒🏒https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gc/fulfillment-by-amazon/instock-head-start
Products in stock soon? Make them available now
With In-Stock Head Start, customers can find and buy your temporarily out-of-stock products when your shipment is on its way to the fulfillment center.
Even with the best inventory planning, popular products can sometimes go out of stock, and that can affect your product discoverability and sales. With this Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) feature, we will automatically make your out-of-stock products available for customers to find and buy when your shipment is on its way and we are confident about its arrival date. Customers will benefit from a wider selection of products, and you could see higher or more consistent sales.
How In-Stock Head Start works
Your out-of-stock inventory will be eligible for In-Stock Head Start once the shipment is on its way to the fulfillment center. We will use the information about your fulfillment center shipment to estimate the in-stock date for your products.
Note: To protect the customer experience, Amazon may not make all of your out-of-stock ASINs available for customers to find and buy before the products reach the fulfillment center. This might occur if we are not confident that the shipment will arrive on time and contain the expected number of products.
If your inventory is eligible for In-Stock Head Start, we may adjust the delivery promise to customers if we are not confident that the shipment will arrive on time.
Important: To increase the probability of out-of-stock inventory becoming buyable for customers, use Amazon Carrier Central, the Partnered Carrier program, or, for China-based sellers, Amazon Global Logistics.
How you could benefit
In-Stock Head Start has a number of potential benefits:
Discoverability: Products that are on their way to the fulfillment center will appear in search results, giving customers a wider selection and helping to increase traffic to your product detail pages.
Sales: Customers can buy temporarily out-of-stock products, which can result in improved sales.
Inventory productivity: Taking customer orders while your products are on their way to the fulfillment center can reduce the time between shipment and sale.
Important: Your fees and Inventory Performance Index (IPI) score will not be affected.
Your In-Stock Head Start status
In-Stock Head Start is active
Reactivate now
You can pause the feature at any time by clicking the Pause feature at the end of this page.
Note: It could take up to 48 hours for your status to update after you pause or reactivate In-Stock Head Start.
Frequently asked questions
How can I be sure Amazon will deliver customer orders on time?
With In-Stock Head Start, if a customer places an order for an out-of-stock item, the delivery date will be based on the estimated in-stock date. If the shipment is delayed, we will adjust the in-stock date.
Should I change my inventory replenishment cycle because of In-Stock Head Start?
In-Stock Head Start is intended for products that occasionally go out of stock. It is not meant to substitute for your regular inventory replenishment schedule. Staying in stock will lead to the best customer experience and could lead to higher sales.
How can I reconcile my inventory?
You can continue using the same Seller Central reports and tools that you have been using to reconcile your inventory. On Manage Inventory and the Manage FBA Inventory report, you will be able to see the number of units available or purchased through In-Stock Head Start.
The Available quantity on the Manage Inventory page w
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