Restock reminders, in depth

You sell the Blue Blend blender, B0EXAMPLE1. You bought it once: 200 units at $8 each, so $1,600 in all. You sold 180. 20 are left, still at $8 each, so $160 is still in stock. The units that are gone cost $1,600 − $160 = $1,440. This run of the blender is 40 days old, and it was in stock every day. It sold 90 in the last 30 days, so it sells 3 a day. Amazon holds 12 ready to sell, 3 getting ready, and 5 on the way. That is 20 left. Every line below is this blender.

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The settings card

Open Account, then Features. Under Alerts, Restock reminders is the first card. It shows only in your own account, with a store. A team member does not see it. Under the title, a line says what the card is doing: “At 10% left · Profitable only · Alerts page, Phone”. The switch starts on. The card starts closed, so press its header or the arrow to open it. While the switch is off, the card stays closed and the line says Off. Each change saves for your account, for every store. The choices you make for one product, like its own lead time or Don’t remind me, stay with that one store.

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Which products

PRODUCTS comes first. Profitable products only starts checked. Right under it is ROI at least, with “5” in a box, then %. ROI is the profit on the units that are gone, divided by what those units cost. It is the same ROI the product’s row shows in Capital Recovery. Here the gone units cost $1,440. Say Capital Recovery shows “$2,016” Recovered for the blender, and it has no ad cost. Profit is $2,016 − $1,440 = $576. ROI is $576 ÷ $1,440 × 100 = 40%. The reminder shows “40%”. Recovered starts with what Amazon paid for the sales, after refunds. It adds reimbursements and takes off Amazon’s inbound, placement, storage, and removal fees. It also adds what you made on orders you shipped yourself, and any store refund. Ad cost comes off the profit after that. The value of a sellable return is not in Recovered, so it is not in this ROI. The check uses the exact ROI. 40 is at least 5, so the blender passes. A product right at the floor passes too, and one under it does not. A spot that shows whole percents can show 4.6% as “5%”, but 4.6 is still under a floor of 5, so that product gets no reminder. If a unit you sold has no cost yet, the product has no ROI. With Profitable products only checked, it gets no reminder. A product with nothing put in has no ROI either. Uncheck the box and every product can get a reminder. The ROI box then fades and stops taking typing, and the line under the title reads like “At 10% left · All products · Alerts page, Phone”. The ? beside Profitable products only says products that sell fewer than 3 a month never get a reminder. The check counts sales in the pace window (see below), not a calendar month. The blender’s 90 passes. A count of 2 does not. Each number box saves when you click away or press Enter. A blank, a number with a decimal, or a number out of range turns the box red, then snaps back to the saved number. No error line shows. ROI takes 0 to 1000. Lead time takes 1 to 180. Extra days take 0 to 60. Percent takes 1 to 99.

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When to remind you

WHEN comes next. My usual lead time is “21” days. Its ? says lead time is how long a new order takes to go on sale at Amazon: buying it, getting it to you, prepping it, and Amazon checking it in. It also says you can change it for one product from its Reorder badge. There are two choices. The first one is picked: “When 10% of the units I bought are left”. The second is faded, and its box does not take typing: “When stock left lasts fewer days than lead time + 7 days”. Its ? says it is good for products you buy in very big or very small batches. With the percent choice at 10, the example says “Example: you bought 200 and 20 are left. That’s 10%, so you get a reminder now.” The 20 is 200 times your percent, rounded down. With the days choice, the example always sells 3 a day and has 70 left. 70 ÷ 3 is about 23.3, shown as “about 23 days”. Your lead time plus extra days is 21 + 7 = 28. 23.3 is under 28, so it says “Example: you sell 3 a day and have 70 left, so they last about 23 days. With a 21-day lead time + 7 days, you get a reminder now.” If your total were 23 or less, it would say you get a reminder once they last fewer than that many days.

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Where it goes

SEND TO is last. Alerts page has a lock, so it is always on. Email starts off. Phone notification starts on. If Email is on but Optional emails is off, the card says Your optional emails are off, so no reminder emails go out. That switch is on Account, Profile, under EMAIL. Turning it off puts your address on the do-not-email list. If that switch cannot load, Profile says We could not load this setting. Please refresh the page. A failed save there says Your email setting did not save. If Phone notification is on, but no phone has phone alerts on, or Recovery phone alerts are off on the Alerts page, the card says Turn on phone alerts on the Alerts page first. Switch the card off and it closes. Your numbers stay saved. No product gets a reminder, so there is no badge, no Alerts row, no email, and no phone notice. The Reorder soon chip shows only if that list is already open, and then the list is empty. If the card cannot load, you see Could not load this setting. and Retry. If a change does not save, it goes back, and a pop-up says That setting did not save.

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What has to be true first

The checks run in this order. The first one that fails stops the rest.

1. Reminders are on.
2. You did not turn this product off.
3. It is the product’s current run. A new run starts when you buy the product again after it sold out. Older runs never get a reminder.
4. Its count of sales in the pace window is known.
5. The run is at least 7 days old. Age is whole days since the run’s first purchase. The blender’s 40 passes.
6. It sold at least 3 in the pace window. The blender’s 90 passes.
7. Its ROI passes, while Profitable products only is checked.
8. Its stock is known. Until Amazon’s count and your purchases load, there is no reminder.

The pace window is the last 30 days the product was in stock, looking back no more than 90 days. Each sale counts on the day the buyer ordered it. A day counts as out of stock only when SourceDock saved Amazon’s stock for that day and the product had none ready, none moving between warehouses, and none being processed. A day with no saved count counts as in stock. The blender was in stock every day and is older than 30 days, so its pace is the 90 it sold. That is 90 ÷ 30 = 3 a day. A run younger than 30 days divides its sales by its age in days, then multiplies by 30. The “at least 3” check still uses the plain count.

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How many are left

Units left are ready to sell, plus getting ready, plus on the way, plus not sent yet. Getting ready is reserved, preparing, and receiving. On the way is in transit. Not sent yet is on order plus on hand. Units Amazon sent back to you are added too, unless you marked them returned or thrown away, or you shipped them to buyers yourself. The blender has 12 + 3 + 5 = 20. The badge window writes “15 at Amazon + 5 on the way = 20”. At Amazon is the 12 ready plus the 3 getting ready. Units left leave out units Amazon is looking for, units not matched yet, units missing from Amazon’s records, and units on an open move between warehouses. Units bought counts the purchases in the run’s money. A purchase SourceDock made from Amazon’s records with no cost is left out when another purchase in the run has a cost. The blender is one purchase with a cost, so units bought is 200.

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When it fires

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The percent choice

The blender uses this choice. SourceDock compares units left × 100 with your percent × units bought. 20 × 100 = 2,000, and 10 × 200 = 2,000. Equal counts, so the blender gets a reminder. With 21 left, 21 × 100 = 2,100, which is over the line. That product has enough stock, and its pace is not even read. If no units bought are counted, this choice never fires, except when the product is out of stock.

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The days choice

If you pick the days choice instead, the percent line is not used. Days left are units left ÷ the daily pace. For the blender, 20 ÷ 3 = 6.666666667. The line is lead time + extra days, 21 + 7 = 28. 6.666666667 is under 28, so it would get a reminder. Exactly 28 would not.

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Out of stock

With 0 left, a product gets a reminder in either choice, once it passes the checks above and has a pace above 0. With 0 left and no pace, there is no reminder and no chip. A product with a reminder and 0 left gets the chip Out of stock.

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The order-by day

The order-by day works the same in both choices. Take days left, subtract the lead time, and round down. For the blender, 6.666666667 − 21 = −14.33, which rounds down to −15. Zero or less means order today, and the date is never before today. So the blender’s chip says Reorder today. If the result were 4, the chip would say “In 4 days”. On Capital Recovery and the Alerts page, “today” is your browser’s day. The daily email and phone job uses the time zone saved when you first turned on phone alerts, or Eastern time if none is saved. The math uses 6.666666667, not a rounded 7. The badge window rounds it to “about 7 days”. A lead time you save for this product replaces the 21. The extra days always come from the card.

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The suggested order

The suggested order covers about 30 days of sales after the order arrives, minus what will still be on the shelf then. It rounds up to a step of 5, and it is never less than 5. Sales for 30 days: 3 × 30 = 90. Still on the shelf when it arrives: 20 − (3 × 21) = 20 − 63, which is below 0, so nothing comes off. 90 is already a step of 5. If the math gave 87, it would round up to 90. The badge window shows “about 90”, with Enough for about 30 days of sales after it arrives.

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Alerts and the Desk

On Alerts, the store you are viewing gets one row for all its products to reorder. It reads Reorder soon, with “1 winner running low” under it, and a Review button. With All products, the line says “1 product running low”. Review opens the Reorder soon list on Capital Recovery. That link opens Capital Recovery’s Advanced view for that visit. There, products sort out of stock first, then today, then later. Ties go by fewest days left, then by ASIN. The X on the row (its hover says Hide for 7 days) hides it. It comes back sooner if the daily job finds a new product to remind you about. To stop one product, use Don’t remind me in its badge window on Capital Recovery. If Alerts cannot load, you see Could not load alerts. Open Purchases or Capital Recovery and try again. On the Desk, Needs you can show Reorder soon, with “1 winner running low” when you hover. That row opens Alerts on this row. Needs you shows only the top 3 rows, and a reminder for a later day ranks below one for today or out of stock. If Health on the Desk is on, it takes the place of Needs you.

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The badge

On Advanced Capital Recovery, the blender’s row shows an orange Reorder badge. Hover shows Reorder today. Today and out of stock are filled orange. A later day is an orange outline. The row also gets an orange corner. Default shows no badge and no Reorder soon chip, but Alerts and the Desk still show the reminder. The Review link opens Advanced for that visit. Press the badge to open its window. The title is “Reorder Blue Blend blender today”, then the ASIN, then these lines: For a product that is out of stock, the title says “Blue Blend blender is out of stock”. Left says “None left”, and there is no Lasts line. Change opens a box with Save. Save stays off until the lead time is a whole number from 1 to 180. That lead time is for this product on this store. Once a product has its own, you also see “Use my usual (21 days)”. Record purchase opens the record sheet. It starts with the product’s Vault entry if you have one, or opens empty. Don’t remind me turns off reminders for this product on this store. A pop-up says “No more reminders for Blue Blend blender.” with Undo, which turns them back on. Change when reminders come opens Account > Features. Back on the card, under PRODUCTS, a turned-off product adds Products you turned off and “1 product won’t get reminders.” Show lists each one’s picture, name, ASIN, and Remind me again. Hide closes the list. The list is for the store you are viewing. A turned-off product gets no badge, no card line, no email, and no phone notice.

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The email and the phone

The badge and the Alerts row are worked out each time you open the page. The email and phone notice come from a daily job. It checks every 2 minutes and reads each store once a day, from 6 AM in the time zone named above. It uses saved numbers only. If Amazon’s saved stock count is more than 2 days old, or a number it needs did not load, the store waits. The job tries again an hour later, and gives up for the day after 4 tries. The first time the job reads a store, it stays quiet. Every product on the list counts as already told, so no email and no phone notice go out. The badge and the Alerts row still show. After that, a product is told once while it stays on the list. The next day the Alerts row can still show it, but the email and phone do not repeat. If a daily read finds the product still off the list 7 or more days after it left, it can be told again when it comes back. You get at most one email a day, and only on a day a product is newly due. It waits until every store has been read, or until 9 AM, then goes with the stores read by then. Email must be on. With no email address, or an address on the do-not-email list, no email goes. The subject is “1 product to reorder”. The email covers only stores with a newly due product that day. It counts every product still due in those stores, not just the new ones. With two or more stores, it reads like “5 products to reorder in 2 stores”, and each store’s name heads its list. The greeting is “Hi there,” or “Hi” with your first name. Then comes “These make money and are down to 10% of what you bought:” The label at the top is Reorder soon. New products come first, and their names end with ”- New”. The blender reads:

• “Blue Blend blender (B0EXAMPLE1) - New”
• “Reorder today”
• “Sells about 3 a day. 20 left, lasts about 7 days. Suggested order: about 90.”

Each store lists up to 10 products, then a line like “and 3 more in SourceDock”. The button is See them in Capital Recovery. Then: You get this email at most once a day, only when a product needs a reminder. Change it in Account > Features. The footer says You are receiving this because restock reminders are on for your SourceDock account. The phone notice goes out only on a day a product is newly told. Phone notification must be on, a phone must have phone alerts on, and Recovery phone alerts must be on. Nothing from before your first phone was added is sent. The title is SourceDock, and the line is “Recovery: 1 product to reorder.” If claims are ready in the same notice, they come first on that line. The phone counts only the newly told products. The card counts every product still due.

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The reorder list

On Advanced Capital Recovery, the chip reads “Reorder soon · 1”. While the count is still working, it reads Reorder soon and you cannot press it, unless the list is already open. The status ? ends with “Reorder soon shows products with ROI at least 5% that are down to 10% of what the seller bought.” If every number loaded and nothing qualifies, the list says No recovery data and Nothing to reorder right now. If a number failed to load, it says SourceDock couldn’t load the products to reorder. Refresh the page to try again. While numbers are still loading, you see a wait, not the empty line.

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Plans

Pro includes Capital Recovery, so it includes restock reminders. Flagship does too, for sellers already on it. New sellers pick Premier or Pro. Premier has reminders only while its trial runs, even a trial set to end, until the end date. Without Capital Recovery, the card shows a lock and says “Restock reminders come with Capital Recovery, included on Pro.” The daily job sends no email or phone notice for that account.