I've watched three different brands hand themselves a stockout this year. Not on
By Brandon Fishman · May 28, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog
I've watched three different brands hand themselves a stockout this year. Not one of them ran out of inventory.
One client shipped product to Amazon with the wrong expiration date printed on the package. Amazon wouldn't accept the inbound. They had to pull it all back, get it relabeled, and by the time it returned to the FC, they were out of stock.
Another client mislabeled the actual packaging. Amazon's receiving system couldn't process it. Same result: out of stock.
The third one is the obvious one. They miscalculated demand and ran out the old-fashioned way.
All three lost the same things: BSR, organic ranking, Subscribe & Save subscribers. It takes weeks to claw any of that back once it goes.
Most founders treat stockouts as an inventory problem. The brands I work with run out of stock because of operational mistakes Amazon caught upstream.
If you're auditing your Amazon ops this quarter, don't start with the demand forecast. Start with what happens between your manufacturer and the FC. That's where most stockouts actually begin.