IPI score calculation change

pinned globally #4


May I suggest that seasonal items be weighted differently?

Some goods are very seasonal that they only sell for about two weeks in a year. For example: it would sell 40-100 items a day in that two weeks period while in other times of the year it would sell only a few items/month. ( I can give the ASINs privately if needed.)

Please take that into account. My IPI is dragged down heavily because of such goods.



This is likely great news for those on the edge of 400 (the next eval for storage limits is the week of Feb 10, with the final eval for 2nd qtr the week of Mar 23) due to seasonal issues. I would, like to point out that there is barely 30 days before consequences of the new calcs, and once again we get the forum notice on the day the policy changed. I guess we should be glad it isn’t more restrictive.

I would really like to voice my complaint about the general timing of these announcements, and the lack of reasoning/overall direction given. Is Amazon is so worried about sellers gaming their system they can’t give us timely basic information necessary to plan? Was this part of a deliberate head fake to give the earlier change more impact during the holidays, or part of a larger overall plan, or maybe just a decision made suddenly to mitigate the last sudden change in the opposite direction? (raising min to 400)

This disruption and uncertainty costs sellers money, whether in fees, constantly redoing inventory plans, emergency sends/pulls, restrictions, or just plain lost opportunity for those who factor risk and need a safety margin proportional to the unpredictable changes. Moving the goal posts is not efficient for anyone, doing so frequently with such little notice seems careless at best. My extra 30 IPI points doesn’t pay any bills, but a little extra inventory would have.

Happy New Year (grumble, grumble)


In this case, I’m willing to give Amazon some charitable doubt. As this change should only help sellers, I would think it good if they get it in place ASAP after deciding to do it, even if that means there is no advance notice. Imagine the complaining you would see if they instead posted a notice 'Hey, we’re going to make changes to make things easier for you, but not until summer".

This seems like it will help those with large seasonal fluctuations, but as normal, we are lacking in any meaningful details, so it may still not be enough. I suspect that the IPI will continue to encourage, or sometimes force, people to make bad business decisions (such as not sending in extra inventory for Xmas).


I was wondering what happened, my score jumped 23 points.


94 points in the last 7 days

(that’s what it says…actually in the last 12 hours or so…)


Yes we jumped 73 points today. We do try to manage this. We understand that these are not warehouses for storage. They are distributed, distribution centers.

We are participating in the program that allows, sending units, without storage charges and with free recalls for a limited time on each item. I have been wondering if Amazon takes that into account on this score, since our number has been crashing the more we send. @Chris_Amazon

@TinySeller We too now have some seasonal items. Amazon wanted us to send 100’s after the season was over, we knew better, but we sent a handful, so some were in stock if needed. And they have been needed. But not like when they are in season. It would be nice if the AI (Artificial intelligence) understood this. Emphasis on Artificial.


Seasonal items kill our IPI score badly. Thanks for the support!


That’s why we ignore IPI.


Thanks for clearing this up. I was wondering what happened. Our IPI score jumped from 908 to 912.


How long is the long term performance ?


That IPI is nothing but a joke!!!


have 25 items that 1 or 2 will sell a week it wants me to send in 40 more what a joke


@Slave2Kids Read this article:


The problem is how you define “seasonal item”…are school supply seasonal ?
Text books ? Tv’s before big sport event ? coats ?.. so many items can be seen as seasonal…
By prolonging each seller long term performance, amazon may have each seller pattern of sales based on his products, and eliminating the need to categorize each ASIN as seasonal and when is the season.


This whole thing was a farce by Amazon to preserve or gain warehouse space for their own products during the holidays… PERIOD… IMHO


How do you message here in private?


112 jump. thank you amazon for listening, as a seasonal seller that IPI score was killing me.


Looking at my inventory dashboard, there is an area to 'Manage Excess Inventory"… It looks like it would offer some tools or guidance (recommendations) however, my item which I need to address, is not showing up here…

I’m not sure of what else I can do.


This is not related to your IPI.

This is from some algorithm that predicts how much you might sell in the next 90 days and suggests that you send in what I assume is the maximum so you won’t run out. These suggestions are from the selling coach program and barely if ever worth looking at. They are roughly as accurate as your horoscope.

The IPI, for all its flaws, has a function, is based on actual data, and can impact your business if it gets too low.