Not long after the start of Prime Day 2026, some sellers began to encounter a "happy trouble".

Orders exceeded expectations, ad performance is getting better and better, keyword rankings continue to rise...

But at the same time, the inventory numbers in the background are falling rapidly.

Some sellers found that the inventory that was originally expected to sell for two weeks was sold out in half in two or three days; some sellers just rushed to the top of the category, only to find that the FBA inventory was running out.

During Prime Day, stockouts seem to be due to good sales, but for Amazon operation, stockouts are never something to celebrate.

Because the traffic is coming, you can't catch it.

Why is there a higher risk of stockouts during Prime Day?

Compared to usual, the traffic during Prime Day has obvious explosiveness.

Products that sell 20 units a day usually may suddenly increase to 100 or even 200 units during the event.

This growth is not linear, but concentrated in a few days.

Many sellers often refer to the sales volume of the past 30 days when preparing inventory.

As a result, they find that the data during Prime Day is completely invalid.

Especially the following types of products:

• Household items

• Consumer electronics

• Sports and outdoor

• Pet supplies

• Seasonal goods

Often show sales growth far beyond expectations.

If the inventory is not fully prepared, it is easy to sell out in advance.

The loss of stockout is not just orders

Many sellers think:

"Sell out and then replenish the goods."

But in fact, Amazon's operation logic is far from this simple.

When a product is out of stock, the first thing affected is the keyword ranking.

During Prime Day, it is not easy to push up the ranking through advertising and activities. Once out of stock, the ranking will drop rapidly.

Followed by advertising weight.

Amazon's advertising system will continuously optimize traffic allocation based on conversion rate.

Stockout means interruption of conversion.

After sales resume, the advertising system often needs to relearn.

More importantly, natural traffic.

Many consumers will add products to their shopping cart or favorites after browsing during Prime Day.

If they find that the product is out of stock when they come back to buy, they are likely to turn directly to competitors.

Therefore, the losses caused by stockouts are often much greater than the few orders less sold at present.

When inventory is insufficient, don't rush to replenish

Many sellers find that after the inventory is insufficient, the first reaction is to ship urgently.

But during Prime Day, blindly replenishing may not be the best choice.

Because even if you send air freight immediately, it is difficult to complete in a short time:

Transportation
→Warehousing
→Listing

The whole process.

At this time, it is more important to control the inventory consumption speed.

For example:

Guarantee the sales of core SKUs first;

Pause underperforming advertising campaigns;

Reduce exposure of low-profit products;

Concentrate resources on maintaining hot-selling products.

This is often more effective than blindly replenishing.

A real case

During last year's Prime Day, a home furnishing seller signed up for the Prime exclusive discount event.

After the event started, the product entered the top ten of the sub-category continuously.

Order volume reached 6 times the usual.

However, due to overly conservative stocking, the inventory was in short supply on the third day.

In order to continue to obtain traffic, he chose to maintain all advertising activities.

As a result, it was completely out of stock on the fourth day.

Although the sales volume during Prime Day reached a record high, the keyword ranking dropped sharply after the event.

It took nearly two months to return to the original traffic level after the inventory was restored.

From the final profit, the actual income was not as high as expected.

What should be focused on in the second half of Prime Day?

If the current inventory has begun to tighten, it is recommended to focus on monitoring the following indicators:

Inventory available for sale days

Don't just look at the remaining inventory quantity.

More importantly, how long can it support according to the current sales speed.

Advertising consumption speed

Appropriately control some low-conversion advertisements.

Concentrate resources on high-conversion keywords.

SKU sales structure

Guarantee that the products with the highest profit are out of stock first.

Replenishment progress

Monitor the status of inventory in transit in real time.

Prepare for subsequent connection in advance.

Write at the end

Every year after Prime Day, there will always be two types of sellers who feel regret.

One is the seller who didn't get the traffic.

The other is the seller who got the traffic but withdrew from the competition in advance due to insufficient inventory.

For Amazon operation, stockout is never a proof of good sales, but a signal of insufficient supply chain preparation.

At the end of Prime Day, it is not only a competition of advertising ability and operation ability, but also a competition of inventory management ability.

When traffic erupts, those who can supply stably can truly turn opportunities into profits.