A fee line that is bigger every quarter
The storage fee lines in your settlement include a surcharge for stock that has sat in fulfilment centres too long. Each time it appears, someone looks at the inventory age report, finds the usual suspects, a colour variant that never sold, an overstocked seasonal item, a bundle nobody wanted, and decides to deal with it next month.
Next month the same units are older, the surcharge is higher and the decision is harder, because discounting now eats more of the margin that was never there.
Why slow stock gets old before anyone acts
Aged stock is usually visible well in advance. The problem is that the decision needs several pieces of information together: how many units, how fast they sell, when they cross the next age band, what the surcharge would be, and what options exist. The inventory age report gives you part of it. The rest is in other reports and in your head.
- Age bands are crossed by individual units, not whole SKUs, so the timing is uneven.
- Sell-through rates change, so a projection made once goes stale.
- Options such as a deal, a coupon or a removal all have their own costs and lead times.
- Amazon's surcharge rules and bands change, so last year's rule of thumb may be wrong.
- Nobody owns slow stock in the way someone owns bestsellers.
The cost of waiting
The surcharge itself is the visible part. Behind it are capacity limits, where slow stock takes space you need for products that sell, and low sell-through that can count against you in Amazon's inventory measures. Every month of delay also narrows your options: a price cut that might have cleared stock early has to be deeper later.
And the removal cost, if it comes to that, is the same whether you remove early or late, so waiting only adds fees on top.
There is a people cost as well. Slow stock decisions tend to land with the owner, because they involve margin and brand judgement. When the information arrives in pieces, each decision takes an evening of spreadsheet work, so it keeps being postponed.
The ageing plan we build
- A monthly, or more frequent, pull of inventory age data, sales and inbound quantities per SKU through the Selling Partner API.
- A projection of each SKU's units into Amazon's age bands at the next surcharge dates, using current sell-through, with the band thresholds and surcharge rates held as settings.
- An estimated surcharge per SKU if nothing changes, sorted so the largest are at the top.
- For each SKU, the options with their rough effect: a price change, a coupon or deal, pausing inbound, moving units to another channel you sell on, or removal. Your landed cost and fees are used to show what each option leaves you.
- A decision field for each SKU where your team records what they chose and by when.
- A follow-up after the next surcharge date comparing what was projected with what happened, so the projections improve.
| Situation | Typical options to consider |
|---|---|
| Selling, but too slowly | Price change, coupon, pause further inbound |
| Seasonal, season just ended | Hold if surcharge is small, otherwise clear |
| Sells well on another channel | Remove to your warehouse and sell there |
| Not selling at any price | Removal or disposal decision |
| New listing, still building | Watch, with a review date |
The plan does not decide for you. Pricing and removal choices depend on things only you know, such as how the product fits your range and your brand.
A month with the plan in place
Before each surcharge date, the plan shows which SKUs are heading into a band and what it will cost if nothing changes. Your team goes through the top of the list, chooses an action for each and records it. Small cases are left alone deliberately.
Inbound planning benefits too. When a SKU is on the ageing list, the shipment planner can hold further units back instead of sending more stock to join the old ones.
Over time, the decisions logged give you a view of which products end up aged and why, which feeds straight into buying. Products that repeatedly end on the list are ordered in smaller quantities or not at all.
Is slow stock costing you?
- Aged inventory surcharges appear in most of your settlements.
- The same SKUs are on the inventory age report month after month.
- Decisions about slow stock are postponed until the fee arrives.
- Nobody knows which units will cross the next age band and when.
- More stock is sent to FBA for SKUs that are already ageing.