Overview

Amazon's Inventory Feed provides sellers with a systematic way to update stock levels for their products through XML-based data submissions. This feed is essential for merchants who manage inventory programmatically, whether they fulfill orders themselves or use Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA). Understanding how this feed works helps sellers maintain accurate stock counts, avoid overselling, and seamlessly switch between fulfillment methods.

Key Points / What Sellers Need to Know

• Quantity updates replace existing values — Each time you submit a quantity for an item through the Inventory Feed, the new number completely replaces the previous stock count rather than adding to it. Always send the current total you have available.
• Zero quantity deactivates listings — When your submitted quantity reaches zero, the item becomes unavailable for purchase on Amazon and the Buy Box is removed until you send a replenishment value.
• Multi-channel sellers should use a buffer — If you sell across multiple platforms, Amazon recommends configuring your systems to send a quantity of zero once available inventory drops to a threshold you define, preventing overselling.
• Default shipping lead time is two days — If you don't specify a Fulfillment Latency value, Amazon assumes a two-business-day window between order placement and shipment. You can customize this per item.
• You can switch fulfillment methods via this feed — The Inventory Feed supports toggling items between Merchant Fulfilled Network (MFN) and Amazon Fulfilled Network (AFN) using the SwitchFulfillmentTo field.

How the Inventory Feed Works

The Inventory Feed uses Amazon's standard XML envelope format to transmit stock data. Each submission requires a valid SKU to identify the product — every item must have a unique SKU in your catalog. When you send a quantity greater than zero, Amazon activates the Buy Box for that listing and decrements the count with each incoming order. Once the quantity hits zero, the listing is effectively paused until you submit an updated count. Sellers who only sell on Amazon should send their exact current stock number, while those using multiple sales channels need a more conservative approach to avoid commitment conflicts across platforms.