Just a quick question about amazon sales
Hi there, sorry we are quite new to amazon but we’ve noticed sometimes we have sold more than what we put in stock, e.g. I just put 3 Gorrila Adhesives in stock for sale but now have 4 purchases
We now need to cancel one order and wonder will this affect our seller feedback or profile?
This happened last week too with another product, just wondering how this happens my best guess is that when someone purchases the item and its processing the other stock remains for sale for a very short period of time?
Thanks so much for your help
32 replies
Seller_qZO3ZCjoBXEeL
No, the only way this happens is if you put more stock available than you have to ship.
Are you increasing stock sometimes finding it to be less than you expect, or are you managing stock with any 3rd party software?
You should be aware that on Amazon, pending orders can be outstanding for days or even weeks - making it appear that you have less stock than you expect.
Example, you have 5 widgets:
- You list 5 widgets.
- Someone begins purchase of a widget, but for some reason their payment hasn’t cleared. This is now a pending order with stock reserved.
- You come along, notice that your Amazon inventory says you only have 4 widgets, you think that is odd because you know you have 5 and put it back up to 5 (or your inventory management software does)
- Subsequently the pending order clears, making the sale visible. (Unrealised by you you still have 5 widgets in stock on Amazon because the sold unit was from reserved stock)
- You then go on to sell 5 further widgets, finding yourself 1 short and scratching your head.
I assume you are selling FBM (shipping orders yourself?)
Seller_Iti0OkAyMPN7I
I have had this recently as well but never a problem because I never list all available stock as I try to keep a minimum stock level on most items until it comes to a point where I won’t or can’t re-stock and I use that last box or two as a trigger to re-order.
Seller_lJfjQBSxAdvgt
This can happen, we had it last week, sold 2 of the same product in quick succession to two different customers, only ever had 1 in stock. Luckily I was able to source another. It’s not a perfect system and like everything, it’s not 100% bullet-proof. It happened to others also. Glitch
Seller_9fzSt0eZtLzmV
Same here, have also had it on items that have had a 0 stock level items too. With such huge amounts of data in continuously action glitches do happen.
Seller_lljyzgTxr5fgI
A useful tip for you, especially if you sell lots of the same item (like some of the items we sell). Always keep 2 or 3 back from sale. I know it is tempting to sell everything you have, and why not? However, because of the various issues surrounding pending orders etc that PeterB has explained, if you have 2 or 3 in reserve then you won’t get caught out, regardless of the settings and you won’t have to cancel orders.
Once all of the items you have listed are sold and nothing is pending, an hour or so later you can add the remaining 2 or 3 you have kept in reserve. By using this method you will never encounter the problems you describe again which will certainly help your metrics.
Seller_ot1yoI6xVSF8j
This also happens to us. If a line is very popular there is a lag between our 3rd party stock updates with pending orders. so you quickly sell out and orders are in pending then your 3rd party stock controller pushes the stock back in and you sell the same stock twice. We now use Sudo stock in our system. We actually have 500 hundred pieces but push 450 only to Amazon on popular items.
Scott
Seller_zDUw7ekrB6OEy
Also be aware that if you cancel an order Amazon will put that product back into stock.
Seller_4jeZD40ha7u4o
ALWAYS ALWAYS put 2 units less or so just in case of pending orders!
Seller_8pclACDlgBDcI
When stock checking always allow for pending orders. They’ve been deducted on Amazon but you’ll still have them sat on the shelf.
Caught me out a few times in the early days too.
Seller_dftSw83WgFW74
Sometimes it could be something simple as updating quantity but not realising that there is some of that product still in pending transactions.
