Detailed explanation of Amazon In-Stock Head Start function: a solution to increase sales of out-of-stock products

Amazon’s In-Stock Head Start function, known in Chinese as “Start in stock”, is designed to help sellers still allow buyers to browse and purchase products when products are temporarily out of stock. This function is embodied as a pre-sale system, allowing sellers to see and place orders for even unlisted goods during the transportation process.

Features

The core of In-Stock Head Start is that it can predict the arrival date of products based on relevant information from the operation center, thereby displaying these products to buyers in advance. The specific functions are as follows:

Eligibility requirements:

• Sellers need to use the Amazon Carrier Center, Partnered Carrier Program, or Amazon Global Logistics to send out-of-stock items to the fulfillment center to be eligible to participate in this feature.

Main advantages:

1. Discoverability: Products in transit can be displayed in search results, increasing buyers’ choices and thus increasing traffic to the product page.
2. Sales Opportunities: Allowing buyers to place orders when items are out of stock can help increase sales.
3. Inventory efficiency: Receiving orders during the transportation of goods shortens the time between product delivery and sales, and improves the efficiency of inventory use.

How to use

Sellers can manage the In-Stock Head Start feature by following these steps:

• Enable the function: Visit the link: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gc/fulfillment-by-amazon/instock-head-start and click to activate now.
• Turn off functionality: To pause, click the appropriate option.

Summary

In-Stock Head Start is not only an effective measure for Amazon to solve the problem of delayed goods or out-of-stock situations, but also helps sellers present products to potential customers in a short time. In order to maintain good sales status, sellers also need to replenish inventory in a timely manner based on actual sales data to avoid long-term out-of-stock situations.