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Amazon FBA and inventory

Shipments, stranded units, removals, reimbursements and the inventory rules that decide what Amazon will take in. Every Seller Guide how-to and every daily tip on the subject, each linked to Amazon's own pages.

By XENA Intelligence · Updated Nov 8, 2026, 7:00 AM ET

Seller Guide

Step-by-step how-tos

Numbered steps, a tool to try and the Amazon pages behind every number.

  1. FBAOct 30How to fix stranded inventory on Amazon FBAOpen Fix stranded inventory in Seller Central, read the Stranded reason for each listing, and take the action it recommends: relist, change the…Beginner·5 min read·8 stepsCompare
  2. FBAOct 29How to file an FBA reimbursement claim for lost or damaged inventoryOpen the Inventory Defect and Reimbursement portal in Seller Central, check the Eligible for claim tab, and file from the matching claim type:…Intermediate·5 min read·7 stepsCompare
  3. FBAOct 28How to create an FBA removal order, and when to liquidate insteadIn Seller Central, open Manage Inventory, tick the products, and choose Create removal order from the Action on selected menu. Pick a method…Beginner·5 min read·7 stepsCalculator
  4. FBAOct 27How to create an FBA shipment with Send to AmazonIn Seller Central, open the Shipping Queue and choose Send to Amazon from the Shipments menu. Pick a ship-from address and your FBA SKUs, enter how…Intermediate·3 min read·7 stepsChecklist

From the daily issues

Daily tips on this topic

Newest first. Each one opens in the issue it ran in, frozen as published.

  1. Operations · No. 018 · The free year of Quick Plus expires on December 31Every primary account holder worldwide can still claim a free 12-month Amazon Quick Plus subscription through December 31, 2026, and designate two coworkers to get a…
  2. Returns · No. 017 · November orders can come back through January 31The extended holiday return window is already open. Items purchased between November 1 and December 31, 2026 can be returned through January 31, 2027 (Apple brand…
  3. Inventory · No. 016 · Storage fees stop being a puzzle on February 1Sellers told Amazon storage fees were hard to predict. The answer lands on February 1, 2027. Amazon will eliminate the storage utilization surcharge, which it says…
  4. Inventory · No. 016 · The low-inventory fee now looks four weeks forwardToday's low-inventory-level fee watches trailing 30- and 90-day sales. Starting February 1, 2027, it applies only when inventory falls below 28 days of supply, measured…
  5. Operations · No. 014 · Put a night watchman on your best sellers through Black FridaySeller Assistant automations start from a sentence. Describe the task in plain language and it builds the workflow, with pre-built options for pricing analysis, product…
  6. Fulfillment · No. 013 · · Lead tipYour container is late. Amazon just gave it two more weeks.Ocean delays, port holds and customs checks have been stretching international FBA plans past the fee line. For plans created August 1 to November 30, the line moved.
  7. Returns · No. 013 · Seller-fulfilled returns go prepaid on December 18Starting December 18, 2026, most US returns on seller-fulfilled orders need a prepaid return shipping label. The address-only label, where the customer pays to ship the…
  8. Shipping · No. 013 · A padded handling time costs you sales you never seeAmazon says every one-day improvement in promised delivery time leads to an average 5% increase in sales, and that over 87% of seller-fulfilled US orders are handled…
  9. Inventory · No. 011 · Seventy-one days to sell the kits you already builtAmazon says you can keep selling noncompliant bundle inventory before January 11. Count from today and that's seventy-one days, with Black Friday and Cyber Monday…
  10. Returns · No. 010 · Tomorrow's sales can come home in JanuaryAmazon's extended holiday return window opens November 1. Anything bought from Nov 1 to Dec 31, 2026 can be returned until January 31, 2027. Apple brand products have a…
  11. Inventory · No. 009 · 1.5 billion fast deliveries set the bar for your listingAmazon says more than 1.5 billion items arrived same-day or overnight for Prime members in Q3, which Amazon calls its fastest Q3 delivery speeds ever. Shoppers now…
  12. FBA · No. 008 · · Lead tipAmazon made multipacks out of your listings. Look before Nov 11.If you sell brand-owned products through FBA, Amazon may have built two-packs and six-packs of them for you this week. They go on sale November 11 whether you've looked…
  13. Operations · No. 008 · Fifteen days, and the quiet one is November 11Tomorrow is the Business Hour Delivery Rate review, Saturday ends off-peak AWD storage and the New Selection Program confirmation, and Sunday starts the long holiday…
  14. Inventory · No. 008 · Run out of singles and the pack disappears tooVirtual multipack orders are filled from your single-pack SKU, so you keep sending singles as usual. The flip side: when the single hits 0 available units, the…
  15. Supply chain · No. 007 · Your carrier has a business-hours report card. Read it.Account Health already grades your carriers on this. Download the report from the Program Eligibilities page and it shows which carriers got business orders delivered…
  16. Operations · No. 007 · Five deadlines, sixteen days, one calendarThis is the tightest stretch of the quarter. Today is the last arrival date for Amazon-optimized inbound splits. Friday brings the business delivery review. Saturday…
  17. Supply chain · No. 006 · · Lead tipYour website can wear the Prime badge nowAmazon is letting Multi-Channel Fulfillment merchants offer fast, free Prime delivery on their own websites, with no fee on top of standard MCF fees. Black Friday is a…
  18. Supply chain · No. 006 · Your Shopify orders, Amazon's boxesIf you'd rather keep everything in one place, the multichannel tools in Seller Central let you connect other storefronts and fulfill their orders from one screen. Pair…
  19. FBA · No. 005 · Two days left. Make your boxes the easy ones.Amazon-optimized shipment splits have to reach fulfillment centers by October 28 for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Amazon says inventory arriving after a cutoff isn't…
  20. Returns · No. 005 · Let returned stock follow your priceGrade and Resell takes customer-returned FBA items and sells them as Used, so a return earns something back instead of waiting for a removal order. Amazon added five…
  21. FBA · No. 004 · · Lead tipDecide which returns you'd rather refund than restockAmazon now lets FBA sellers pick the return reasons that qualify for a partial refund, where the customer keeps the item and gets some money back. The holiday return…
  22. Operations · No. 003 · Nine times out of ten, sellers say yes to the robotAmazon's latest Small Business Empowerment Report says Seller Assistant has more than 230,000 monthly users, and that sellers accept its recommended actions nearly 90%…
  23. Supply chain · No. 002 · One shipment, eight countries, if the plan holdsGlobal Warehousing and Distribution (GWD) lets you send one manufacturing run to one Amazon facility near your factory and serve several countries from that pool. Today…
  24. FBA · No. 002 · Count what actually arrivedAmazon says end-to-end supply chain visibility is rolling out over the coming weeks: one screen that follows a shipment from creation through Amazon-managed…

Showing the newest 24 of 28. Browse every issue or search the archive.

Quick answers

Short answers, then the steps

Each answer is the one at the top of its guide.

How do I fix stranded inventory on Amazon FBA?

Open Fix stranded inventory in Seller Central, read the Stranded reason for each listing, and take the action it recommends: relist, change the listing to Fulfilled by Amazon, create a new listing with the same ASIN, SKU and condition, or create a removal order. Act fast. If you don't relist or remove within 30 days of Amazon's notice, the units are designated unsellable and must be removed.

Read the full guide

How do I file an FBA reimbursement claim for lost or damaged inventory?

Open the Inventory Defect and Reimbursement portal in Seller Central, check the Eligible for claim tab, and file from the matching claim type: shipment to Amazon, fulfillment center operations, customer return or removal. Each has its own window. Fulfillment center losses must be claimed within 60 days of being reported, customer returns between day 60 and day 120 after the refund, and inbound shipments within nine months of delivery. The cap is $5,000 per unit.

Read the full guide

How do I create an FBA removal order?

In Seller Central, open Manage Inventory, tick the products, and choose Create removal order from the Action on selected menu. Pick a method (ship-to address, return-to address, Donate/Recycle or Liquidations), enter fulfillable and unfulfillable quantities, click Review, then Confirm. US removal fees start at $0.84 per unit for standard-size items up to 0.5 lb, and processing usually takes 10 to 14 business days.

Read the full guide

How do I create an FBA shipment with Send to Amazon?

In Seller Central, open the Shipping Queue and choose Send to Amazon from the Shipments menu. Pick a ship-from address and your FBA SKUs, enter how they're packed, confirm the ship date and whether it's small parcel or pallets, then print box labels. Pallet shipments add carrier and pallet steps, and any shipment not using Amazon's partnered carrier finishes with tracking details. Only SKUs already converted to FBA appear.

Read the full guide

Terms

Words you will meet

Plain-English definitions from the glossary.

FBA fulfillment fee
A per-unit fee for picking, packing, shipping and customer service on FBA orders, set by size and weight. Peak-season rates apply Oct 15 to Jan 14.
IPI
A 0 to 1,000 score of how efficiently you manage FBA stock. Higher is better.
Sell-through rate
Units sold and shipped over the past 90 days divided by your average sellable units over the same period.
Excess inventory
Stock above 90 days of supply. It ties up cash and storage space.
AWD
Amazon's bulk storage service that sends stock on to FBA automatically.

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