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FBA - STRANDED INVENTORY

• Selling Partners may find that they have stranded inventory in a Fulfillment Centers because those units do not have an associated active offer and are not available for sale on Amazon.

• When inventory is stranded, it requires either reactivating the listing or removing inventory.

Stranded Inventory was previously identified by the error message and known as 'No Listing Error (NLE)'.

You may still see this phrase used for resources and tools created earlier such a Fix a "No Listing Error" Help page or FBA No Listing Error Paragon Workflow.

However, remember that it is old terminology and all resources will eventually be updated to reflect as Stranded Inventory when referring to these types of listings for FBA Selling Partners.

❤ REASONS OF INACTIVE LISTING ❤

• Incomplete : A listing that is still being created or that could not be created properly due to an error with the information provided or the system

• Suppressed : Some items require special permission to be sold on Amazon such as category, brand or seasonal gating. Selling Partners that list these items without permissions will see the listing as Inactive.

• Future Launches : Selling Partners are allowed to create listings for products that they don’t plan to sell just yet. When doing this, they simply state in the appropriate section (in Edit) the Launch Date of a product. When an offer has a Launch Date that is still in the future, the listing shows as Inactive.

• Prohibited Products : Listings for products like firearms and weapons or products that are not allowed on Amazon at all.

• Restriction : Listings that purposely go against policies, like promoting other sites, hate speech, or violation of copyright—to name a few.

• Manually Yanked : A listing that has been purposely disabled for purchase by Amazon because it is missing critical information or the information provided does not comply with Amazon guidelines

• Listing Violations : This refers to the fact that the Amazon system pulled the listing from the site.

• Price Alert : Refers to offers that have a price too high or too low to the expected average price for the item. To activate them, the Selling Partner must either adjust the price, or confirm that the price is correct by entering a price range in Seller Central.

• Blocked : A listing that has been directly shut down by Amazon.

❤ STRANDED INVENTORY RESOURCES❤

✔ Fix stranded inventory page

• This resource shows all the stranded inventory in Seller Central with reasons.

To locate this page, navigate to: Inventory > Manage FBA Inventory > Inventory Amazon Fulfills > Fix stranded inventory

✔ Stranded inventory report

• Stranded inventory is inventory in a fulfillment center that does not have an active offer on Amazon. Stranded inventory report shows a breakdown of units in your inventory that are in stranded status.

To locate this report, navigate to: Reports > Fulfillment/Fulfillment By Amazon > Inventory section > Stranded Inventory report

✔ Bulk fix stranded report

• The Bulk Fix Stranded Inventory report allows Selling Partners to generate a stranded inventory file, update listing information and then relist their products in bulk using the Add Products via Upload tool.

To locate this report, navigate to: Reports > Fulfillment/Fulfillment By Amazon > Inventory section > Bulk Fix Stranded Inventory report

	: STEPS to use this report to fix common listing issues

STEP1. Selling Partners can 'Request and download' Bulk Fix Stranded Inventory report on this page.

STEP2. They need to open the report in a spreadsheet programme and update the price and condition of their products.

STEP3. Selling Partners will then Upload their updated inventory file in the Add Products via Upload page.

❤ STRANDED INVENTORY REPORT ❤

✔ Primary Action

Action needed to bring inventory out of stranded status.

The possible actions are:

• Relist: For products that have been listed previously but do not have an active offer, click Add a Product in the Inventory drop-down menu to create an offer. If a message states that the product is already listed but needs to be edited, Selling Partners can click the provided link to update the listing.

• Create a new listing: If FBA inventory of a product that has never been listed, Selling Partners can create a listing for their SKU by clicking Add a Product in the Inventory drop-down menu.

• Change to Fulfilled by Amazon: If Selling Partners have an offer, but it is for a product that they fulfill themselves, none of the FBA inventory for that product will be available for sale. On the Manage Inventory page, they can select the product and click Change to Fulfilled by Amazon in the Action drop-down menu to enable FBA to pick, pack, and ship those products.

• Create removal order: For products Selling Partners no longer want to sell, they can go to the Manage FBA Inventory page, select the product, and choose 'Create Removal Order' from the drop-down menu on top.

✔ Date-stranded

This date shows how long the inventory has been stranded and without an active offer.

✔ Date classified as unsellable

This is the date when the inventory will be classified as unsellable unless the offer is made buyable.

✔ Status primary

Identifies whether the offer is active, inactive, or incomplete.

Incomplete offers are those missing price or condition.

✔ Status secondary

For inactive offers, this field identifies the reasons.

For example, blocked or out of stock.

✔ Error message

For select inactive offers, additional information is displayed here.

For example, quality alerts.

❤STANDARD INVENTORY TROUBLESHOOTING❤

A ‘no listing’ error means that the Selling Partner's listing cannot be viewed on Amazon. The listing must be fixed to make the Selling Partner's product available for purchase.

’No listing’ errors are often the result of incorrect feeds.

However if the feed is correct and the inventory is stranded, the standard troubleshooting questions to consider when Selling Partners receive a ‘no listing’ error are listed below with standard troubleshooting steps:

✔ IS THE ACTIVE LISTING ACTIVE? : The listing may be inactive or the Selling Partner may need to create a new listing.

  1. On the Manage Inventory page, type the product MSKU in the Search box, and click Search.

  2. If the status is Inactive, review the note in parentheses to determine next steps. For example: • For Inactive (Blocked) items, review any communication Selling Partners may have received for next steps. • For Inactive (Out of Stock) items, recommend that Selling Partner replenish their inventory. • For Inactive (Closed) items, click Relist.

3.If Selling Partners can't find the listing, they can click the Add a product button at the top right corner of the page and create a new listing. • If the Selling Partner has a Professional selling plan, and prefer to work with their product listings offline, they will use the Add Products via Upload feature.

  1. If the status is Active, continue to the section entitled 2. Is your listing accurate.

✔ IS THE LISTING ACCURATE?

	: If the listing is not accurate, it may not be associated with the product that Selling Partners have sent to the fulfillment center.

  1. Are the Merchant SKU and ASIN/ISBN the same as the product causing the error? • If the Merchant SKU, ASIN, or ISBN don't match, click the Add a product button and create a new listing with the same merchant SKU as the product causing the error.

  2. Is a price listed for the product (Price + Shipping)? • If the price is missing, click Edit in the far right column of the inventory listing that you want to modify. In the Your Price field, type the price, and then click Save and finish.

  3. Is the condition the same as the product causing the error? • If the condition is different, click Add another condition in the far right column of the inventory listing that you want to modify. Edit the condition, and then click Save and finish.

  4. Is the Fulfilled by column set to Amazon for that product? • If it is set to Merchant, select the listing for that product and, on the Action on selected menu, click Change to Fulfilled by Amazon.

✔ Is the product restricted or reserved?

	: Amazon regularly reviews and occasionally removes product listings as a result of product restrictions, selling restrictions, or finding duplicate detail pages, and then sends an email regarding these changes.

  1. Request Selling Partners to check their email and notifications to see if they have received any communications from Amazon regarding this product. • If they have received communication regarding this product, they will need to follow the instructions received.

  2. If they have not received any communication, continue to the section entitled 4. Is the Start selling date accurate.

✔ Is the Start selling date accurate?

		: If Selling Partners set a Start selling date that is in the future, Amazon will not make those products available for sale until that date.

  1. On the Manage Inventory page, click Edit in the far right column of the inventory listing that you want to modify. Locate the Start selling date field. • If the Start selling date field is in the future, delete the date and click Save and finish.

  2. If the Start selling date field is blank or if the date occurs in the past, continue to the section entitled 5. Is your product a variation of another ASIN.

✔ Is the product a variation of another ASIN?

		: You can create variations on a parent ASIN.

		: For example: A T-shirt may be available in different sizes and colors. The T-shirt is the parent ASIN, and the listings for different sizes and colors are the product variations, also called child ASINs.

		: If the parent-child ASIN relationship is incorrect, it may cause a "no listing" error.

  1. In All Inventory view, click the ASIN/ISBN for the product.

  2. If there are color and/or size options, your listing is a variation of another ASIN. Select the color and/or size of the product that you are offering. Scroll down the page and select and copy (Ctrl+C) the ASIN for this listing.

  3. In All Inventory view, paste the ASIN that you copied into the Search box and click Search.

  4. On the left side of the page, click All Inventory. In the Status column, look for Variation Parent.

  5. If Variation Parent does not appear in the Status column, click the Add a product button, paste the ASIN that you copied into the Find it on Amazon search box and click Search. Click Sell yours to create a new listing with the correct parent-child relationship.

     		: If there are no color and/or size options, and if Variation Parent appears in the Status column, continue to the section entitled 6. Are your account settings current.

✔ Are the account settings current?

		: If every item in the Selling Partner's inventory is displaying a "no listing" error, there may be an issue with their account.
  1. Check the Selling Partner's account settings and make sure that: •Valid tax information is updated. •Selling privileges have not been suspended or removed.