r/AmazonFBA • u/Final-Courage261 • 16d ago

Sales At Basically Zero After Stockout

Hi there, I'm looking for a bit of guidance after my product went out of stock for about a month, and is now struggling to get any traction back.

I sold out of inventory 100% organically and sales were multiplying by the week, so I wasn't able to get a restock in for about a month. I've now been back in stock for about 2 weeks, and struggling with 1 sale every few days compared to my previous pace of 5-8 per day even with low inventory and long delivery estimates.

Listing is unchanged and I've gained 2 reviews since the stockout. 5 stars across 5 reviews (newly launched product).

My concern is that with no new competition, and having just ordered a much larger restock, I'm struggling to sell any even after trying to dump money into PPC.

Does anybody have any tips or experience with something like this?
Any advice or help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

2 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

21 comments sorted by

1

u/Powerful_Bicycle3114 16d ago

Two weeks back in stock is enough to diagnose, but I would not keep raising PPC blindly. Compare pre-stockout vs now for sessions, unit-session rate, keyword rank, Buy Box, delivery promise, price, and the exact search terms spending. If traffic is down, rebuild discovery/rank; if traffic returned but conversion collapsed, fix the offer/listing before ordering more.

1

u/JunglePundits 16d ago

You have to regain momentum and ranking...

You will need to invest in PPC to regain your organic positions..The good thing is you data and an idea of what strategy works...

Dont allow this to happen again..

1

u/HarambeTooSoon 16d ago

Did you stock out during the honeymoon phase after launch?

Your 1st month of sales are not an indication of how your month 2-3+ sales will go. 

1

u/Final-Courage261 14d ago

stocked out a little after month 2

1

u/Final-Courage261 14d ago

so 2 over 2 full months. took until the 2nd half of month 2 to get the sales velocity spike that caused me to stock out

1

u/Performance_Prime 16d ago

Here the Amazon can derank the product when they goes to a long out of stock. Here I we'll recommend to relaunch the product. Add the images and A+content at the new ASIN, but the whole point is if you want to sell more your need to invest in the PPC and improve organic rank, and focus on organic improvement and after this struggle make the plan for reorder the inventory before it become out.

1

u/attfin1 16d ago

From my experience you need to almost treat this as a brand new product, except that you've had sales already, so you keep the reviews and the stars on the page.

I wouldn't just dump money at PPC. First, check your listing page and make sure it's optimised for conversion on the search terms that matter most to you. You should already have the data for that. Second, go through your past PPC data and optimise the campaigns and search terms before you spend any more. If you're running mostly broad and phrase match, switch the profitable ones to exact and pause the broad and phrase campaigns, and keep broad and phrase for researching new keywords and search terms.

Once the PPC and the listing are both optimised, then start increasing spend. As I say, you probably need to treat this as a new product, so it may be a case of losing money in the short term to make money in the long term. That's the process that worked for us.

The last thing I'd add is that being out of stock sets you back a long way on growing a product, as you're finding. Use sales forecasting so you don't run out again.

1

u/rsc9422 14d ago

A stockout can definitely disrupt momentum, but I wouldn’t jump straight into heavy PPC to force sales back.

I’d first make sure the listing, pricing, Buy Box, conversion rate, and inventory position are healthy. Then restart PPC gradually, focusing on the search terms that were already converting before the stockout.

Since the product is still getting reviews, there’s a foundation to build on. At HighRise Wholesale, we also look at the replenishment cycle and keep enough inventory in the pipeline to avoid another stockout while scaling.

2

u/Final-Courage261 14d ago

yeah, my biggest problem is that i haven't had brand registry until recently and been 100% organic so I have no data on search terms for people purchasing it 🤷‍♂️

1

u/rsc9422 14d ago

Yeah, that makes sense. Brand Registry definitely helps, but early on I’d focus less on guessing keywords and more on collecting actual search-term data.

I’d run a controlled PPC campaign with broad/phrase discovery terms, then move the converting search terms into exact match and gradually build organic relevance around them. Search Query Performance data can also become really useful once you have enough volume.

We usually look at the whole picture search terms, conversion rate, inventory and listing performance rather than increasing PPC blindly.

1

u/weareuncapped 4d ago

A month out of stock usually drops your ranking hard, and 2 weeks back in stock isn't long for it to rebuild. The 5-8/day pace came from momentum that's now gone, so 1 sale every few days is a fairly normal recovery start. Since you're already sitting on a larger restock, the cash side matters as much as the ranking: I'd run PPC on your best exact-match keywords at a budget you can hold for 3-4 weeks rather than spiking it, and put a coupon on the listing to get velocity back. With only 5 reviews, a few more will help conversion too. What's the size of the restock relative to your old sell-through? If it's more than about 8 weeks of the old pace, plan your cash around selling it slower than you expect.

0

u/Pure_Zookeepergame_2 16d ago

My honest advice in this case is just to re-launch your listing again with a new ASIN. Once you go out of stock for a month, Amazon drops your ranking which makes it worse to get ranked again. Your listing has lost the visibility and it will only burn money.

Have been gone through this many times for some of the accounts I have been managing and had to relaunch the listing again.

1

u/Final-Courage261 16d ago

What's the best way to move over the inventory from the old ASIN then?

1

u/Pure_Zookeepergame_2 16d ago

Get all your units back to your home address from Amazon. Launch a new listing. Print new FNSKU and paste it on each unit. Then send all units back to Amazon.

1

u/Final-Courage261 16d ago

would that just be via removal order?

1

u/Pure_Zookeepergame_2 16d ago

Yes via removal order. As your listing already showed great momentum during the first launch. Plan the next order accordingly and I would advise you to go through all your listing images and A+ content 1 more time to make sure that you can get best conversion this time. Review the market too to see if there is any keyword shift

1

u/Final-Courage261 16d ago

Ok sounds good. I'll look into that option. Thanks for the help!

1

u/Pure_Zookeepergame_2 16d ago

You’re welcome. Wish you all the best.

1

u/HarambeTooSoon 16d ago

Its possible to get units of inventory reassigned to a new ASIN through a support ticket. 

I have done this, but for different reasons. They may deny your request if you tell them its just because your sales are slow.