Harbour SupplyHousehold
Recovering organic rank after a six-week stockout
A supply chain failure cost Harbour its top three positions. Recovery took a deliberate plan, not patience.
Engagement: SEO and operations · 11 months
Headline results
+88%
Organic sessions
Trailing 90 days vs pre-recovery
97%
In-stock rate
Core SKUs, trailing 6 months
+52%
Organic share of sales
From 34% to 52%
Illustrative figures. This case study is demonstration content. Replace the brand, quote and every number here with verified, client-approved data before publishing — see src/content/case-studies.ts.
The challenge
What was actually wrong.
A container delay put Harbour's three best-selling SKUs out of stock for six weeks. Organic positions fell from the first page to positions 20 to 40.
Four months after restocking, rank had not recovered. Sales were being held up entirely by advertising at an unsustainable cost.
Background
Amazon's ranking rewards recent sales velocity. An extended stockout removes it, and simply being back in stock does not restore the position.
Harbour also had no forecasting model — reorder decisions were made by eye against a spreadsheet updated monthly.
Strategy
What we decided to do — and in what order.
Treat recovery as a launch
We planned the return to rank as a deliberate velocity push rather than assuming positions would come back on their own.
Verify indexation before spending
Two SKUs had lost indexation on priority terms after a bulk catalogue edit made during the stockout. Spending before fixing that would have been wasted.
Concentrate, then widen
Budget was focused on eight terms rather than spread across eighty, so velocity was concentrated enough to move position.
Fix the cause, not just the symptom
A forecasting model and reorder calendar were built in parallel so the situation would not repeat.
Execution
The work, week by week.
- Re-established indexation on 14 priority terms across the three affected ASINs.
- Ran a focused eight-week velocity campaign on eight head and mid-tail terms.
- Refreshed imagery and bullets during the push to maximise conversion on the incoming traffic.
- Built a SKU-level forecast model incorporating supplier and freight lead times.
- Introduced a weekly cover review with reorder triggers based on true end-to-end lead time.
Before vs after
The movement.
| Metric | Before | After | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average organic position, 8 priority terms | 27 | 6 | Weekly tracked average |
| Organic share of sales | 34% | 52% | Trailing 90-day average |
| In-stock rate, core SKUs | 71% | 97% | Trailing 6 months |
| Weeks of cover at reorder | Ad hoc | Lead time + 4 | Formalised reorder policy |
View the underlying data as a table
| Period | Indexed value |
|---|---|
| M1 | 27 |
| M2 | 21 |
| M3 | 14 |
| M4 | 9 |
| M6 | 6 |
Timeline
How it unfolded.
Weeks 1–2
Indexation audit
Found and fixed lost indexation on 14 priority terms.
Weeks 3–10
Velocity push
Concentrated budget on eight terms with weekly rank tracking.
Months 3–6
Consolidation
Positions held under reduced spend; budget widened to secondary terms.
Months 6–11
Prevention
Forecast model, reorder policy and weekly cover review embedded.
Key learnings
What we'd tell the next brand.
Rank does not return on its own after an extended stockout. Plan the recovery or pay for the position indefinitely.
Check indexation before spending money on rank. A bulk catalogue edit during a stockout is a common and invisible cause of failure.
Concentrated budget on few terms moves position. The same budget spread thinly does not.
We had been waiting for the rankings to come back for four months. They were never going to.
Placeholder attribution. Client names and quotes are published only with written permission.
Services used in this engagement
Amazon SEO
Relevance, indexation and organic rank work that reduces how much of your revenue has to be bought.
ExploreInventory management
Forecasting, replenishment and stock coverage so rank is never lost to an avoidable stockout.
ExploreCustomer service
Buyer messages, returns and review health handled inside Amazon's response windows.
Explore
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