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The Amazon FBA Restock Checklist

By Joshua Purba, founder of ReplenFlow

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After 6 years managing thousands of ASINs on Amazon, I've learned that the sellers who grow aren't the ones with the fanciest tools — they're the ones who stick to a routine. This is the exact checklist I use (and now automate inside ReplenFlow) to keep my FBA inventory healthy, avoid stockouts on top movers, and catch dead stock before it eats my cash flow.

1

Daily (5 minutes)

Catches fires before they spread.

  • Check top 10 ASINs for "Reserved" spikes — hidden stockouts happen here first
  • Scan for new Buy Box losses (someone undercut you? stock issue? account health?)
  • Check any ASIN where rank drops don't match your sales — often a pricing or availability issue
  • Review FBA reimbursement notifications (Amazon owes you money more often than you think)
  • Look at "Inventory at Risk" in Seller Central — anything flagged for removal, LTSF, or stranded
2

Weekly (45 minutes, every Monday)

The core restock rhythm. Do this religiously.

  • Upload fresh Inventory Health Report + Restock Report + Active Listings into ReplenFlow (or your spreadsheet)
  • Calculate reorder quantities using: (Daily velocity × Lead time) + Safety stock − On-hand − Inbound
  • Flag every ASIN with < 30 days of cover — these are your priority restocks
  • Review 30-day sales velocity vs 7-day velocity — a big divergence means something changed (seasonality, competitor, trend)
  • Check supplier lead times — are any of your suppliers slipping? Update lead time assumptions
  • Export your buy list and send POs before end of day Monday
  • Archive completed buy lists so next week starts clean
3

Monthly (1 hour, first Monday of month)

The strategic view — where most sellers never look.

  • Profit audit: Recalculate true per-unit profit for every ASIN (cost + FBA fees + referral fee + storage + returns)
  • Identify dead stock: any ASIN with 0 sales in 60 days + on-hand inventory = create a clearance or remove
  • Review long-term storage fee exposure (items aged 271+ days — act BEFORE day 365)
  • Check ROI bracket distribution: are you over-indexed on low-ROI SKUs? Kill them
  • Compare this month's velocity to last month per ASIN — trending up or down?
  • Update reorder thresholds for any ASIN whose velocity changed > 25%
  • Check your "inventory performance index" (IPI) in Seller Central — below 400 = restock limits
4

Quarterly (2 hours, once a quarter)

The reset button. Skip this and you accumulate waste.

  • Full catalog review: every ASIN sorted by profit contribution (top 80% gets priority attention)
  • Negotiate with top 3 suppliers using your actual sales data — "I'm buying X units/month, I need Y% off"
  • Kill SKUs in the bottom 10% of profit contribution — they eat storage fees and attention
  • Evaluate new products: are any of your current ASINs losing steam? Start testing replacements now
  • Review returns data — any ASIN with > 5% return rate needs investigation (listing issue, quality, expectations)
5

Pre-Q4 (August — don't wait)

The difference between a great Q4 and a panic Q4.

  • Forecast Q4 demand = Last year's Q4 velocity × growth rate × 1.2 safety buffer
  • Place Q4 POs in August — suppliers get slammed in September, lead times explode
  • Check Amazon's Q4 restock limits — do you have enough IPI headroom?
  • Pre-label and pre-pack buffer inventory so you can ship fast during peak
  • Set calendar reminders for Amazon's holiday deadlines (cutoffs shift every year)
  • Build a "Q4 priority list" — your top 20 ASINs that MUST stay in stock at all costs

Red Flags to Watch For

  • •Sales velocity dropped > 30% week-over-week and you don't know why
  • •Rank drops are happening but your inbound shipment is still 3 weeks out
  • •FC Transfer quantity is high (> 25% of available) — Amazon is moving your stock and it's not sellable yet
  • •Your IPI dipped below 400 — restock limits incoming
  • •A competitor matched or undercut your price on your top 5 ASINs
  • •Your supplier's lead time just increased by 2+ weeks — you need to reorder earlier

The Formulas I Actually Use

Reorder Point
(Daily velocity × Lead time in days) + Safety stock
Example: (10 units/day × 30 days) + 50 units = 350 units → when you hit 350, reorder
Safety Stock
Daily velocity × Safety days (I use 14 days as default)
Example: 10 units/day × 14 days = 140 units buffer
Order Quantity
(Target days of cover × Daily velocity) − (On-hand + Inbound)
Example: (60 days × 10 u/day) − (80 on-hand + 200 inbound) = 320 units to order
True Profit Per Unit
Sell price − COGS − FBA fee − Referral fee − (Storage fee ÷ velocity) − Returns allowance
Example: $25 − $8 − $4.50 − $3.75 − $0.30 − $0.50 = $7.95 per unit (32% margin)

Want this to run automatically?

ReplenFlow does the weekly restock math, flags at-risk ASINs, and surfaces dead stock — so the checklist runs itself.

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