Upload your inventory file

To upload the file, follow these steps:

1. Under Inventory on Seller Central, go to Add Products via Upload.
2. Click Upload your inventory file tab. In Upload file box, drag and drop the inventory file (you could click Browse files instead). When file has been selected, the status bar will load from 0 to 100%, validating the file.
   Note: Validation completed status does not finish upload process.

   Once file validation is complete, File type will be auto-detected for most cases, except for inventory loader and non-Amazon files. If the File type is not auto-selected, use the drop-down to select your file type.

   If you are using a product file to create new pages in the Amazon catalogue, you will usually choose the first option for “Inventory files for non-BMVD categories”.

   Note: For BMVD product files and inventory loader files, the upload box will contain additional options for shipping settings. For more information about using these options, see Ship BMVD products.
3. If required, see below for information about the “Purge and replace” option.
4. Once you’ve confirmed all the information on the page, click Upload file at the bottom of the page.

Uploading your inventory file is not enough to ensure success, however. After uploading your inventory file, follow the link to review your results. For more information on understanding the results of your upload, please see Review my inventory results.

If you want to remove your entire inventory and replace it with only what is in the file that you are uploading, click Purge and replace your inventory in the top right-hand corner of the Upload file box.

We recommend that you run an active listing report before using the Purge and replace option. This report provides information about all of the product listings in your seller account, including SKUs with no quantity (0) available. The active listings report provides a good basis for reviewing your existing inventory records and can also serve as a backup file in case there is an error in the file that you send when you perform a purge and replace.

You will normally add or modify listings by submitting your inventory file with the Add option selected for the SKU that you are adding or changing. This is also the default option, so if you don’t specify a different option, we will assume that you are adding or modifying your inventory data as described in the record. (The add option and the purge and replace operation does not apply to price & quantity files, which are modify-only).

Instead of using the Purge and replace option to remove items that are out of stock, set the quantity to zero (0) in your inventory file or use a price & quantity file for quick updates. Using purge and replace will permanently delete your SKU along with associated product data contributions. If you want to sell the product again, you will need to resubmit all of your product data using a category-specific inventory file. .

If you are making a very substantial change to your listings, involving many adds and deletes, you might only choose to submit the products that you are adding or modifying, and select the Purge and replace option. However, as this will cause any listings which are not in the inventory file to be deleted, if the file that you use for the Purge and replace option does not contain all of your available inventory, you may then need to submit another file with the Add option to reload any listings that you still want to make available for sale on Amazon. For more information, see Use purge and replace

Also, while it can be convenient to remove all your listings and start from scratch, especially if you have lost track of the inventory that you have listed on Amazon, you should be aware that selecting Purge and Replace can slow down the overall processing of your inventory file.

Using the Remove existing listings option when sending a file will not remove any listings that you’ve created and managed exclusively using the Add a product tool. You cannot remove these listings using the Purge and replace option. If necessary, you will need to delete these manually through your Manage inventory page. Optionally, you can use an inventory loader file with the ‘x’ option to remove these listings. You may want to use an active listings report and convert it into an inventory loader file for this purpose.