E-commerce companies who sell through Amazon need to know where their products are at all times. Are they in the warehouse awaiting shipment? Have they made it to the customer? Are there bottlenecks that are causing delays?
One of the key metrics for tracking all of this is your Amazon FBA reserved inventory. Understanding what reserved inventory is and tracking it is important for fine-tuning your company strategy.
This guide will help you understand reserved inventory and why your products are ending up there.
What Does Reserved Inventory Mean on Amazon?
So what is Amazon reserved inventory? Reserved inventory are any products an Amazon seller has in their inventory that are unavailable for fulfillment for a number of reasons, ranging from a recent customer order to a pending investigation. In some cases, they may still be available for purchase, but their delivery date may be delayed.
A more straightforward way to understand what is reserved inventory on Amazon is to think of them as products that have been pulled by Amazon and are temporarily unavailable for shipping to customers.
Amazon FC Processing and FC Transfer
FC stands for “fulfillment center”. FC transfer and FC processing refers to a specific status of your reserved inventory, or the units that are in the status “processing”. Amazon FC processing means that your units are at one of the company's many fulfillment centers around the world. Your FBA inventory arrives for FC processing at an Amazon warehouse, the fulfillment center processes it, and then distributes some of it to other warehouses in order for the company to ship as efficiently as possible and therefore lower costs.
This constant flow of inventory between warehouses is FC processing and FC transferring. We’ll get into the differences between the two terms more in the next section.
Why Is My Amazon Inventory Reserved?
There are several reasons why your Amazon inventory may have been placed in reserve status. Amazon divides them into three categories: customer orders, FC transfer, and FC processing.
Customer Orders
In this scenario, the product has been ordered by customers. Once the customer orders an item, that item goes into your reserved Amazon inventory. These units have been sold, so you can't sell them again.
If you’ve run out of your stock of that item, an "out of stock" message would accompany the item until you replenish that stock.
What is FC Transfer
These items are being transferred from one fulfillment center to another. This is when Amazon sends a product from one fulfillment center to another to place your Amazon seller reserved inventory closer to customers, and as a result they are available for sale but they can’t be shipped just yet. It may be listed as back-ordered and the shipment date may get pushed.
As Amazon states within Seller Central: "Units in FC Transfer status are available for customers to buy. Customers may be shown a future ship date if no units are available for immediate fulfillment."
What is FC Processing
Items in this category are undergoing verification or are pending an investigation at the fulfillment center. This would be similar to the out-of-stock scenario with a customer order. These are going through product check-in, verification of item dimensions and weight, and pending investigations. They're not available at the time, but once they make it through the process, they will become available for sale.
How Do I See Which Products Are in the Reserved Inventory?
You can view your Amazon Seller Central reserved inventory by logging into Seller Central, clicking on the "Inventory" drop-down menu at the top, and then clicking on "manage FBA inventory." This will show your inventory in the FBA system, which are the products you've bought from a supplier, sent to Amazon, and are now sitting on Amazon shelves.
On the right side, you will see a "Reserved" column -- 11 reserved of one product, four of another, and so on. Click on that number and it will break down the number of reserved items into the three categories listed above.
Want To Better Track Reserved Inventory and Other Amazon Seller Data? You Have Options
Many Amazon sellers have difficult accessing data that tracks reserved inventory, and other important business metrics. Our free whitepaper download below provides a handy guide on what options you have for better accessing that data.
READ MORE:
Turn Amazon Data into a strategic Asset
The breadth of Amazon sales, marketing, and supply chain data lets brands find patterns and insights to optimize their Amazon business and other e-commerce channels. But only if you have a plan for extracting the data from Amazon systems, storing it, and preparing it for analysis.
This guide will help you take ownership of your Amazon data—by preparing your business for a data-driven future, and analyzing the most common methods for extraction, automation, storage, and management.
)
