Overview

Stranded inventory is one of the most common — and costly — issues FBA sellers face. It refers to stock sitting in Amazon's fulfillment centers that has no active listing attached to it, meaning it cannot be sold. Until the underlying issue is resolved, those units generate storage fees without producing any revenue, making it essential for sellers to monitor and address stranded inventory promptly.

Key Points / What Sellers Need to Know

• Stranded inventory has no active offer — These are units physically stored in Amazon's warehouses but disconnected from any buyable listing, so customers cannot purchase them.
• Common causes include listing changes — Deleting, closing, or converting a listing from Fulfilled by Amazon to Fulfilled by Merchant can strand the associated inventory.
• Policy and system issues also cause stranding — Listing violations, intellectual property complaints, and occasional Amazon system errors can deactivate listings and leave inventory without a sales channel.
• Do not send more inventory for stranded ASINs — Amazon will block inbound shipments for ASINs that already have stranded units. Attempting to ship additional stock will trigger an alert and the shipment will not be processed.
• Resolution requires action within a window — If stranded inventory is not addressed, Amazon will eventually remove it from fulfillment centers based on your auto-removal settings.

How Inventory Becomes Stranded

Inventory becomes stranded whenever the link between your physical stock and an active product listing is broken. The most straightforward scenario is when a seller deliberately closes or deletes a listing without first recalling the associated inventory. Switching a product's fulfillment method from FBA to Merchant Fulfilled has the same effect — the FBA units lose their listing association. Beyond seller-initiated changes, Amazon may suppress or deactivate listings due to policy violations, safety complaints, intellectual property disputes, or catalog data issues. System-level errors on Amazon's side, while less common, can also strand inventory without any action from the seller. In every case, the result is the same: units in the warehouse with no path to a customer.