What is a good sell-through rate on Amazon?
Amazon's sell-through rate is units shipped in the last 90 days divided by average inventory over the same period. Above 3.0 is strong (inventory turns 12x/year). 2.0 to 3.0 is healthy. Below 1.0 usually means overordered units and forecasts long-term storage fees within a quarter.
How Amazon calculates it
Sell-through rate = units shipped over 90 days / average units in inventory over 90 days. Amazon reports it in the Inventory Performance dashboard. It updates weekly.
Benchmarks
3.0+: excellent, inventory turning ~12x annually. 2.0-3.0: healthy for most categories. 1.0-2.0: slow but recoverable with a price cut. Below 1.0: overordered, expect long-term storage fees within 90 days.
How to raise it
Cut order quantities on next PO. Run a temporary 10% price drop on the slowest 20% of SKUs. Move aged units to FBM to avoid storage fees while you sell through.
Frequently asked questions
Does sell-through affect IPI?
Yes. It is one of the four IPI inputs, weighted heavily.
Should I chase 5.0+ sell-through?
Only if you can restock reliably. Very high sell-through often means stockouts, which cost more than storage.
How is this different from days of cover?
Sell-through looks backward at how fast inventory sold. Days of cover looks forward at how long current inventory will last.
Does Nova show sell-through per SKU?
Nova shows days of cover and inventory age per SKU, which lets you compute sell-through directly.
See this in Nova
Nova surfaces this metric per SKU in near real time so you can act before your next monthly close catches it.
Try Nova free for 14 daysRelated questions
How is the Amazon IPI score calculated?
Amazon's Inventory Performance Index (IPI) is a rolling score from 0 to 1000 built from four inputs: excess inventory percentage, sell-through rate, stranded inventory percentage, and in-stock rate on FBA. Scores above 400 keep storage limits open; scores below 400 trigger restock limits and higher storage costs.
What is days of cover and how do I calculate it?
Days of cover = current on-hand inventory / average daily units sold. If you have 600 units on hand and sell 20/day, you have 30 days of cover. Most sellers target 45 to 75 days of cover for FBA SKUs: enough to survive a demand spike or a shipping delay, not so much that IPI or storage fees suffer.
How do I avoid FBA storage limits?
FBA storage limits are set by IPI score. Keep IPI above 400 by clearing stranded inventory weekly, running removals or liquidations on units aged 180+ days, and keeping your top 20 SKUs consistently in stock. Restock-limited accounts often gain 30% to 60% more capacity within 30 days after a targeted cleanup.
What triggers Amazon's aged inventory surcharge?
Amazon's aged inventory surcharge applies on top of monthly storage fees for units aged 271+ days in FBA. Rates start around $1.50 per cubic foot and climb sharply at 365 days. The fastest way to avoid it is a removal order or a targeted price cut before day 270.
How do I forecast Amazon demand accurately?
The most accurate simple forecast weights the last 30 days at 60% and the prior 60 days at 40%, then adjusts for seasonality and known promotions. For most private-label SKUs this beats gut-feel and matches what statistical models produce within a 10% margin. Rebuild the forecast every 2 to 4 weeks.