How to Improve Your Amazon IPI Score

What is the IPI score?

The Inventory Performance Index (IPI) measures how efficiently you manage your FBA inventory on a 0-1000 scale. Think of it as a credit score for your warehouse management — it determines how much storage space Amazon allocates to your account each quarter.

Amazon introduced IPI to incentivize sellers to maintain lean, well-managed inventory. Before IPI, sellers could hoard unlimited warehouse space with slow-moving products, creating capacity problems across the FBA network. Now, your storage allocation is directly tied to your inventory management performance.

For a deep dive into how IPI is calculated and what each factor means, see our What is IPI guide. This article focuses on specific actions to improve each factor.

The 400 threshold and why it matters

Keep your IPI above 400 to avoid storage restrictions. Below 400 at the quarterly evaluation date, Amazon caps your FBA storage by category (standard-size, oversize, apparel, footwear). The consequences are severe:

• Cannot create new shipments if current inventory exceeds your storage limit
• $10/cubic foot/month overage fee if you're above the limit
• Can't stock up for peak seasons — the worst time to have restricted storage is Q4
• Vicious cycle: restricted storage → can't restock winners → stockouts → lost sales → lower sell-through → lower IPI → even lower storage limits

The threshold has historically been 400, but Amazon has temporarily raised it to 500 during capacity crunches. Build your processes around maintaining 500+ to create a safety buffer against threshold changes and seasonal fluctuations.

The 4 IPI factors in detail

Excess inventory

Products with more than 90 days of supply based on current sales velocity. This is typically the highest-weighted factor and the one most sellers struggle with. Amazon flags products individually — one product with massive excess can drag your entire account score down.

Sell-through rate

Calculated as units sold and shipped over 90 days divided by average units available during that period. A healthy rate is above 3.0 (turning inventory 3+ times per quarter). Below 2.0 signals a problem. This uses rolling 90-day data, so improvements take time to show.

Stranded inventory

Stock sitting in FBA without an active listing — it can't sell but you're still paying storage. Common causes: listing closed (pricing/policy), listing suppressed (image compliance), listing deleted accidentally, ASIN restricted. See our stranded inventory guide.

In-stock rate

Measures how often your replenishable FBA products are available for purchase. Amazon only counts products it considers "replenishable" — those with consistent sales history. Stockouts on your best sellers are doubly painful: lost revenue + lower IPI.

How to check your IPI

Navigate to Inventory → Inventory Planning → Performance tab in Seller Central. Your current IPI score is displayed at the top with a color-coded indicator (red, yellow, green) and a breakdown of each factor's contribution.

Key pages to bookmark for IPI management:

• Inventory Performance Dashboard: Overview of all four factors with current status
• Manage Excess Inventory: Every ASIN Amazon considers excess, with estimated age and recommended actions
• Fix Stranded Inventory: All stranded ASINs with specific fix instructions
• Restock Inventory: Amazon's restock recommendations for maintaining in-stock rate
• Inventory Age: Units approaching aged inventory surcharge thresholds

Quick wins (improve within days)

Fix all stranded inventory (24-48 hour impact)

This is the single fastest way to improve IPI. Go to Fix Stranded Inventory and resolve every item:

• Closed listings: Relist at compliant price or fix the policy violation
• Suppressed listings: Upload compliant main image, fill required attributes
• Deleted listings: Recreate the listing matched to the original ASIN

Stranded inventory percentage updates within 24-48 hours of fixing. Even a small improvement here can move your IPI 15-25 points because this factor is weighted at ~25%.

Create removal orders for dead stock (1-week impact)

Identify ASINs with zero sales in the last 60 days. These are dragging your excess inventory percentage down with zero chance of recovery. Create removal or disposal orders immediately.

Cost: $0.50-1.00/unit for removal. Compare that to the ongoing IPI damage and potential aged inventory surcharges ($6.90+/cubic foot at 365+ days). Removal is almost always cheaper.

Medium-term improvements (2-6 weeks)

Reduce excess inventory through promotions

For products that are selling but too slowly (90+ days of supply), accelerate sell-through with promotions:

• 20-30% coupons: Visible in search results, boosts velocity within days
• Lightning Deals: One-time burst of sales that reduces excess count
• Price reductions: Even 10-15% off can dramatically improve sell-through on stale inventory
• Bundle slow movers: Pair with a popular product in a new bundle listing

Right-size restock quantities

The reason you have excess inventory is that you sent too much. Adjust your restock approach:

• Send 30-45 days of supply instead of 60-90 days
• Replenish more frequently with smaller shipments
• Use actual sales velocity (not optimistic projections) for reorder calculations
• Account for seasonal decline when ordering during peak periods

See our FBA restock automation guide for data-driven reorder formulas.

Improve sell-through rate

Since this uses 90-day rolling data, improvements take time. But every action you take now will pay off over the coming weeks:

• Optimize listings to improve conversion rate (better images, title, bullets)
• Increase PPC spend on products with healthy margins but low velocity
• Reduce the denominator by removing excess stock (fewer average units in stock = higher sell-through)

Long-term IPI strategy

Once you're above 400, build processes that keep you there permanently:

Proactive inventory management

• Weekly IPI check: Every Monday, check your score and factor breakdown. Investigate any factor trending downward.
• 90-day inventory review: At the 90-day mark, evaluate every product. If sell-through has dropped, take action before the product becomes "excess."
• Pre-season cleanup: 8 weeks before Q4, clear out any excess inventory. You need maximum storage capacity for peak season.
• Reorder discipline: Use data-driven restock quantities. Resist the urge to over-order "just in case."

Set target IPI of 550+

400 is the floor, not the target. With a 550+ IPI, you have buffer for seasonal fluctuations and Amazon's occasional threshold adjustments. Products going through slow periods won't immediately tank your score below the danger zone.

Emergency recovery plan (below 400)

If your IPI is below 400 with a quarterly evaluation approaching, here's the prioritized action plan:

Combined, these actions can typically improve IPI by 50-80 points within 4-6 weeks. Start with steps 1-2 immediately — they provide the fastest score improvement with the least revenue sacrifice.

Ongoing monitoring cadence

Automating the daily stranded inventory check and weekly IPI alerts saves the most time and prevents the slow-creep problems that catch sellers off guard at evaluation time.