How to Improve Your Amazon IPI Score Fast — Practical Steps for FBA Sellers in 2025

What Is the Amazon IPI Score and How Is It Calculated

The Inventory Performance Index (IPI) is a score between 0 and 1000 that Amazon uses to measure how efficiently you manage your FBA inventory. Amazon recalculates it weekly and uses it to determine your FBA storage limits.

Amazon calculates your IPI score based on four main factors:

• Excess inventory percentage — How much of your FBA inventory is classified as "excess" (more than 90 days of supply) relative to total inventory. This has the highest weight in the score
• Sell-through rate — The ratio of units sold and shipped over the past 90 days compared to the average units on hand during that period
• Stranded inventory percentage — Inventory sitting in FBA with no active listing — cannot be sold and is accumulating storage fees
• In-stock rate — How often your popular ASINs are in stock versus out of stock during their selling season

IPI Score Levels and Their Impact on Your Account

The consequences of falling below 400 are severe for an active FBA seller. Reduced storage capacity means you cannot replenish fast-moving products, which leads to stockouts, loss of the Buy Box, and a drop in BSR that can take weeks to recover from even after your IPI improves.

What Hurts Your IPI Score Most

Based on working with FBA sellers across multiple categories and marketplaces, these are the most common root causes of low IPI scores:

1. Too Much Slow-Moving Inventory (Most Common)

This is the cause of low IPI in the majority of cases. If you have ASINs that have been sitting in FBA for 90 days or more with very low sell-through rates, Amazon classifies them as excess inventory. Even a small number of slow-moving ASINs can drag your entire IPI score down significantly.

2. Stranded Inventory

Inventory in FBA with no active listing cannot be sold and counts against your IPI. Common causes include: listings suppressed for policy violations, listings that were manually deleted, or inventory that was sent to FBA before the listing was created. Stranded inventory needs to be resolved immediately — either by fixing the listing or submitting a removal order.

3. Over-Stocking of Seasonal Products

Ordering too much stock for a seasonal product and having it remain in FBA after the season ends is a classic IPI issue. A product that sold 500 units/month during peak season but is now selling 10 units/month has 90+ days of supply almost immediately after the season ends.

4. Poor Inventory Planning for New Launches

Sending 6 months of inventory into FBA for a product launch that doesn’t sell as expected creates an instant excess inventory problem. New product launches should use conservative initial sends with rapid replenishment rather than large upfront inventory.

How to Improve Your IPI Score Step by Step

Step 1: Pull Your Inventory Age Report

Go to Seller Central → Reports → Fulfillment → Inventory Age. This report shows you which ASINs have inventory that is 90, 180, 270, and 365+ days old. ASINs with inventory older than 90 days are almost certainly hurting your IPI score significantly.

Step 2: Identify and Resolve Stranded Inventory

Go to Manage Inventory → Inventory → Fix Stranded Inventory. Work through every stranded ASIN. For each one, either fix the listing issue or create a removal order. Stranded inventory affects your score every week it sits there.

Step 3: Deal with Slow-Moving ASINs Aggressively

For every ASIN with 90+ days of supply in FBA, you have three options, in order of speed of score improvement:

• Price reduction — A significant price cut (20–40%) often clears slow-moving stock faster than anything else. Use Amazon’s automated pricing tool to create a time-limited markdown. The faster units move, the faster your IPI improves
• Promotions and coupons — Amazon coupons and lightning deals increase visibility and can clear stock quickly, especially for products that are already reasonably priced
• Removal order — If the product cannot be sold profitably at any price, submit a removal order to get inventory returned to you or disposed of. While this costs money, it is often cheaper than the ongoing storage fees and the IPI penalty

Step 4: Reduce Future Excess Before It Happens

Once your current excess inventory is cleared, prevent it from building up again by using more accurate replenishment planning. Amazon’s Restock Inventory tool provides demand forecasts — use these as a starting point but adjust for your own knowledge of seasonal patterns and upcoming promotions.

Step 5: Monitor Weekly Without Fail

IPI is recalculated weekly. Once you have taken corrective action, check your score every week. If it is not improving within 2–3 weeks of clearing excess inventory, look for stranded inventory or listing issues you may have missed.

How to Keep Your IPI Above 550 Long-Term

Maintaining a healthy IPI score is easier than recovering from a low one. These practices will keep your score consistently above 550:

• Never send more than 60–90 days of supply at once — especially for products where demand may fluctuate. Frequent smaller shipments are safer than infrequent large ones
• Review your Inventory Age Report monthly — Catch slow-moving stock at 60 days before it becomes 90-day excess inventory
• Resolve stranded inventory within 24 hours — Set a Seller Central notification for new stranded inventory alerts
• Plan seasonal products with exit strategies — Before ordering seasonal inventory, decide in advance what you will do with any leftover stock and at what point you will mark it down or remove it
• Keep your top-20 ASINs in stock — Amazon rewards in-stock rates for your best-performing ASINs. Stockouts on top sellers hurt your IPI and your revenue simultaneously

FAQ — Amazon IPI Score