Amazon inventory management, measured in margin.

An Amazon inventory management service earns its fee in the two places most sellers lose money without noticing: stock that runs out while the listing is ranking, and stock that sits in a fulfilment centre long enough to be charged for the privilege. Empowers Zone runs inventory for clients in Pakistan, the UK and the US as part of Amazon account management, and for brands that only want this piece managed.

Restock planning that uses your real lead times

Every SKU has a reorder point: the stock level at which an order must be placed so that the new units arrive before the current ones sell out. It depends on three numbers we track weekly: units sold per day over a recent window, the supplier’s production lead time and the freight transit from factory to fulfilment centre. For a Pakistan- or China-sourced product shipped by sea, the last two together can run to several months, which is why a restock decision has to be made while the shelf still looks full.

We hold a reorder calendar per SKU and send you the recommendation, the quantity and the reasoning before anything is ordered. Quantity is capped by what sells in the period the stock will sit in Amazon’s warehouse, because every extra month of cover is a month of storage fees. Where the product comes through our sourcing and prep and shipping services, the lead times in the plan are the ones we have actually measured on your shipments.

Storage fees, Q4 and aged inventory

Amazon charges monthly storage by the cubic volume your stock occupies, and the rate steps up for the last quarter of the year. In the UK, Amazon’s published rate for standard-size non-dangerous goods is £0.76 per cubic foot from January to September and £1.51 per cubic foot from October to December. US rates follow the same seasonal pattern and rise sharply in Q4; check the current US rate card in Seller Central for the exact figures for your size tier.

Slow-moving stock also attracts an aged-inventory surcharge, which applies after roughly six months in the warehouse at the time of writing and increases the longer units stay. The two charges compound: a product over-ordered in August pays peak storage through Q4 and then starts paying the surcharge in the new year. Our plan sets a Q4 stock target per SKU from last year’s seasonality and this year’s run rate, and we review it in September before the rate changes, not in November when the fee appears.

• Cubic volume per SKU multiplied by the current month’s rate, reported monthly
• Units approaching the surcharge age flagged six to eight weeks ahead
• A per-SKU recommendation: run a promotion, increase advertising, bundle, create a removal order or dispose
• Inventory performance checked against the storage limits Amazon applies to your account

FBA reimbursement: lost, damaged and unreturned units

FBA inventory reimbursement is the part of inventory management sellers most often skip, because it is tedious. Units go missing in a fulfilment centre, are damaged while in Amazon’s care, are counted short at receiving, or are refunded to a customer who never sends the item back. Amazon reimburses many of these automatically; others only when a seller opens a case with the evidence, and each claim type has its own eligibility window.

Our process is reconciliation first, claims second. Each month we match the inventory adjustments report, the reimbursements report, the returns report and the received-quantity record for each shipment, and list the discrepancies Amazon has not already resolved. For each one we open a case in Seller Central with the shipment or order reference, the quantity and the report lines that support it, within the current window for that claim type, and track it to a decision. Where a claim is declined we review the reason and resubmit if the evidence supports it.

We do not promise a recovery figure. What we can say is that reimbursements are listed as a separate line in your monthly profit report, so you can see exactly what was claimed, what was paid and what is still open.

Stranded, unfulfillable and suppressed stock

Inventory that cannot be sold is inventory paying storage for nothing. Stranded units sit in a fulfilment centre with no active offer, usually because of a listing error or a policy flag; unfulfillable units are those Amazon has graded as damaged, defective or expired. We review both lists weekly, fix the listing or create the removal or disposal order, and trace the cause. Where the fix is on the catalogue side, it goes to our catalogue management team.

Monthly profit reporting

Sales reports tell you what you sold. The profit report tells you what you kept. Once a month we net referral fees, FBA fulfilment fees, storage, advertising spend, reimbursements received and the landed cost from your purchase and freight invoices against revenue, per SKU and for the account. Every figure is traceable to a Seller Central report or an invoice you hold, so you can verify it without us. It is the document that decides which SKUs get reordered and which get run down.

What we need from you

Seller Central access through user permissions, with the inventory, reports and case-management rights needed to read the reports and open claims; your supplier lead times and purchase and freight invoices for the landed cost; and a short call each month to go through the report. The engagement starts with a free consultation and a written scope; contact us and we will begin with a review of your current stock position and open reimbursement opportunities.