Amazon profit leak scorecard: 14 questions, 7 leaks, 3 minutes
The Missing Piece™ Profit Leak Scorecard is a free self-assessment for brands selling on Amazon.com. You answer 14 questions about stock, fees, returns, listings and catalog decisions. It rates your risk in each of the seven leak types LIVELE's diagnostic uses: revenue, margin, operational, customer, digital, marketplace and strategic. It takes about 3 minutes, needs no email and does not estimate dollar amounts.
- No email needed to see your result.
The scorecard
Answer for your Amazon business as it runs today. "Yes" is always the healthy answer. If you would have to ask someone, answer "Not sure".
Low overall leak risk
Your answers point to routines that catch most profit leaks early. Look first at the categories where you answered Partly or Not sure. Run the scorecard again next quarter.
Medium overall leak risk
Some leaks are watched and others are not. Start with the categories in the high band: a leak costs money every month it stays open, and the cost does not appear on any single report.
High overall leak risk
Several categories have no routine watching them, so leaks are likely in more than one place and their size is unknown. The useful next step is to measure them, not to fix everything at once.
Your result by leak
Revenue leakage
Your top ASINs stay in stock and someone watches the Featured Offer. Revenue leakage is unlikely to be your biggest leak.
Next step: Recheck after peak season, when a stockout costs the most.
There is a gap in stock coverage or in Featured Offer monitoring. A best-selling ASIN that is out of stock loses average daily units × average price for every day it is out.
Next step: List the stockout days of your top 10 ASINs over the last 90 days and price them with that formula.
Neither stock coverage nor Featured Offer share is watched closely. Lost sales never appear as a cost line, so this leak stays invisible until someone counts it.
Next step: Start with a 90-day stockout and Featured Offer review of your top 10 ASINs. Revenue leakage is one of the seven areas The Missing Piece reviews.
Margin leakage
You know unit profit after fees and you keep landed cost current. Pricing and ad decisions rest on real numbers.
Next step: Run the FBA fee impact estimator once a quarter to see what the 2026 changes add at your volume.
Part of your cost stack is estimated. Amazon changed US FBA fees on January 15, 2026 and added a fuel and logistics surcharge on April 17, 2026, so a 2025 cost sheet is out of date.
Next step: Rebuild unit economics for your top 20 ASINs with current fees, then size the surcharge with the estimator.
Profit per unit is not known with confidence. Prices, promotions and ad budgets are then set against revenue, which hides the ASINs that lose money.
Next step: Build a SKU-level P&L before you change prices or ad budgets. Margin leakage is one of the seven areas The Missing Piece reviews.
Operational leakage
Replenishment follows a forecast and inventory is reconciled. Operational leakage is likely contained.
Next step: Keep the reconciliation monthly. Discrepancies are easier to document while shipments are recent.
One of the two routines is missing. Without a forecast you pay for excess stock or lose sales to stockouts. Without reconciliation, lost and damaged units go unnoticed.
Next step: Give the missing routine an owner and a fixed monthly date.
Inventory is bought and tracked by habit. That usually shows up as excess stock in some SKUs, stockouts in others and units that drop out of the count.
Next step: Write down the replenishment and reconciliation steps, who does them and how often. Operational leakage is one of the seven areas The Missing Piece reviews.
Customer leakage
Return reasons and customer signals are reviewed and acted on.
Next step: Share the monthly return themes with product and sourcing, not only with the Amazon team.
Returns are visible but not worked through consistently. Each return costs the fulfillment fee you already paid and often the unit itself.
Next step: Rank your top ASINs by return rate and read the last 50 return comments for the worst one.
Returns and customer feedback are not tracked by ASIN. A product or listing problem that causes returns then repeats with every new batch.
Next step: Start a monthly returns review by ASIN. Customer leakage is one of the seven areas The Missing Piece reviews.
Digital leakage
Conversion is measured and product pages are reviewed. Digital leakage is likely small.
Next step: Change one element at a time on a top ASIN so you can tell what moved conversion.
Either conversion is not measured or pages are not reviewed. Traffic you already pay for, through ads or ranking work, converts at a rate nobody watches.
Next step: Pull 6 months of Unit Session Percentage for your top 10 ASINs and look for drops.
Conversion is not tracked and pages have not been reviewed recently. Ad spend and ranking work then send shoppers to pages that may be losing the sale.
Next step: Review your top 5 product pages on a phone against the listings that outrank them. Digital leakage is one of the seven areas The Missing Piece reviews.
Marketplace leakage
Listing problems are caught early and documents are on file. Marketplace leakage is likely under control.
Next step: Check document dates each quarter: registrations renew, and test reports go stale when a formula or supplier changes.
Listing problems or document gaps can sit unnoticed. A deactivated best-seller loses average daily units × average price for every day it is offline.
Next step: Build a per-ASIN document tracker and a weekly listing-health check.
Listing problems are not checked routinely and documents would take days to find. A document request then turns into days of lost sales.
Next step: This is the work Compliance Management covers: document custody by category, listing compliance and case ownership.
Strategic leakage
You know where profit comes from and you act on it.
Next step: Repeat the 80/20 review each quarter. Fee and cost changes move ASINs across the line.
You know part of the picture, or you know it and have not acted yet. Low earners still take inventory cash, ad budget and team time.
Next step: Rank ASINs by contribution margin, not revenue, and decide what happens to the bottom 20%.
Decisions are made on revenue, not profit. Low earners keep receiving the same cash, ad budget and attention as the ASINs that pay for them.
Next step: Start with an 80/20 contribution-margin analysis. Strategic leakage is one of the seven areas The Missing Piece reviews.
This is a self-assessment of your routines, not an audit, and it does not estimate dollar amounts. It is not financial or legal advice. LIVELE is not affiliated with Amazon.
Score it by hand
- Answer the 14 questions. Each "Yes" is the healthy answer.
- Give each answer points: Yes = 0, Partly = 1, No = 2, Not sure = 2.
- Add the two answers in each category (0–4). 0–1 is low leak risk, 2 is medium, 3–4 is high.
- Add all seven categories (0–28). 0–7 is low overall risk if no category is high; 8–15 is medium; 16–28 is high. Any category scored 3–4 makes the overall result at least medium.
- For each category, read the explanation and next step for its band below.
"Not sure" scores like "No" because a leak nobody measures behaves like an open one.
Overall result
- 0–7 points · Low overall leak risk
- Your answers point to routines that catch most profit leaks early. Look first at the categories where you answered Partly or Not sure. Run the scorecard again next quarter.
- 8–15 points · Medium overall leak risk
- Some leaks are watched and others are not. Start with the categories in the high band: a leak costs money every month it stays open, and the cost does not appear on any single report.
- 16–28 points · High overall leak risk
- Several categories have no routine watching them, so leaks are likely in more than one place and their size is unknown. The useful next step is to measure them, not to fix everything at once.
Each leak, by band
Revenue leakage
- 0–1 points · Low leak risk
Your top ASINs stay in stock and someone watches the Featured Offer. Revenue leakage is unlikely to be your biggest leak.
Next step: Recheck after peak season, when a stockout costs the most.
- 2 points · Medium leak risk
There is a gap in stock coverage or in Featured Offer monitoring. A best-selling ASIN that is out of stock loses average daily units × average price for every day it is out.
Next step: List the stockout days of your top 10 ASINs over the last 90 days and price them with that formula.
- 3–4 points · High leak risk
Neither stock coverage nor Featured Offer share is watched closely. Lost sales never appear as a cost line, so this leak stays invisible until someone counts it.
Next step: Start with a 90-day stockout and Featured Offer review of your top 10 ASINs. Revenue leakage is one of the seven areas The Missing Piece reviews.
Margin leakage
- 0–1 points · Low leak risk
You know unit profit after fees and you keep landed cost current. Pricing and ad decisions rest on real numbers.
Next step: Run the FBA fee impact estimator once a quarter to see what the 2026 changes add at your volume.
- 2 points · Medium leak risk
Part of your cost stack is estimated. Amazon changed US FBA fees on January 15, 2026 and added a fuel and logistics surcharge on April 17, 2026, so a 2025 cost sheet is out of date.
Next step: Rebuild unit economics for your top 20 ASINs with current fees, then size the surcharge with the estimator.
- 3–4 points · High leak risk
Profit per unit is not known with confidence. Prices, promotions and ad budgets are then set against revenue, which hides the ASINs that lose money.
Next step: Build a SKU-level P&L before you change prices or ad budgets. Margin leakage is one of the seven areas The Missing Piece reviews.
Operational leakage
- 0–1 points · Low leak risk
Replenishment follows a forecast and inventory is reconciled. Operational leakage is likely contained.
Next step: Keep the reconciliation monthly. Discrepancies are easier to document while shipments are recent.
- 2 points · Medium leak risk
One of the two routines is missing. Without a forecast you pay for excess stock or lose sales to stockouts. Without reconciliation, lost and damaged units go unnoticed.
Next step: Give the missing routine an owner and a fixed monthly date.
- 3–4 points · High leak risk
Inventory is bought and tracked by habit. That usually shows up as excess stock in some SKUs, stockouts in others and units that drop out of the count.
Next step: Write down the replenishment and reconciliation steps, who does them and how often. Operational leakage is one of the seven areas The Missing Piece reviews.
Customer leakage
- 0–1 points · Low leak risk
Return reasons and customer signals are reviewed and acted on.
Next step: Share the monthly return themes with product and sourcing, not only with the Amazon team.
- 2 points · Medium leak risk
Returns are visible but not worked through consistently. Each return costs the fulfillment fee you already paid and often the unit itself.
Next step: Rank your top ASINs by return rate and read the last 50 return comments for the worst one.
- 3–4 points · High leak risk
Returns and customer feedback are not tracked by ASIN. A product or listing problem that causes returns then repeats with every new batch.
Next step: Start a monthly returns review by ASIN. Customer leakage is one of the seven areas The Missing Piece reviews.
Digital leakage
- 0–1 points · Low leak risk
Conversion is measured and product pages are reviewed. Digital leakage is likely small.
Next step: Change one element at a time on a top ASIN so you can tell what moved conversion.
- 2 points · Medium leak risk
Either conversion is not measured or pages are not reviewed. Traffic you already pay for, through ads or ranking work, converts at a rate nobody watches.
Next step: Pull 6 months of Unit Session Percentage for your top 10 ASINs and look for drops.
- 3–4 points · High leak risk
Conversion is not tracked and pages have not been reviewed recently. Ad spend and ranking work then send shoppers to pages that may be losing the sale.
Next step: Review your top 5 product pages on a phone against the listings that outrank them. Digital leakage is one of the seven areas The Missing Piece reviews.
Marketplace leakage
- 0–1 points · Low leak risk
Listing problems are caught early and documents are on file. Marketplace leakage is likely under control.
Next step: Check document dates each quarter: registrations renew, and test reports go stale when a formula or supplier changes.
- 2 points · Medium leak risk
Listing problems or document gaps can sit unnoticed. A deactivated best-seller loses average daily units × average price for every day it is offline.
Next step: Build a per-ASIN document tracker and a weekly listing-health check.
- 3–4 points · High leak risk
Listing problems are not checked routinely and documents would take days to find. A document request then turns into days of lost sales.
Next step: This is the work Compliance Management covers: document custody by category, listing compliance and case ownership.
Strategic leakage
- 0–1 points · Low leak risk
You know where profit comes from and you act on it.
Next step: Repeat the 80/20 review each quarter. Fee and cost changes move ASINs across the line.
- 2 points · Medium leak risk
You know part of the picture, or you know it and have not acted yet. Low earners still take inventory cash, ad budget and team time.
Next step: Rank ASINs by contribution margin, not revenue, and decide what happens to the bottom 20%.
- 3–4 points · High leak risk
Decisions are made on revenue, not profit. Low earners keep receiving the same cash, ad budget and attention as the ASINs that pay for them.
Next step: Start with an 80/20 contribution-margin analysis. Strategic leakage is one of the seven areas The Missing Piece reviews.
This is a self-assessment of your routines, not an audit, and it does not estimate dollar amounts. It is not financial or legal advice. LIVELE is not affiliated with Amazon.
Want the leaks measured, not only scored?
The Missing Piece is LIVELE's fixed-fee profit-leak diagnostic. It works from your Seller Central and cost data and ends in a prioritized recovery roadmap: leak, financial or operational impact, root cause, recommended action, owner, investment, priority and timeline. The fee is quoted on request.
How to use the scorecard
Step 1
Answer for the last 90 days
Think about your top ASINs and your current routines, not your plans. The person who runs Seller Central day to day usually answers fastest.
Step 2
Read your result by leak
Each of the seven leaks gets a low, medium or high rating with a one-line explanation and a next step. The overall rating sits on top.
Step 3
Start with the highest band
Fix routines in the high-risk leaks first. Run the scorecard again in a quarter to see whether the ratings moved.
How the score works
Every question asks whether a routine that catches a leak exists. Each answer adds leak-risk points:
| Answer | Points |
|---|---|
| Yes | 0 |
| Partly | 1 |
| No | 2 |
| Not sure | 2 |
Each leak has two questions, so it scores 0–4: 0–1 is low risk, 2 is medium and 3–4 is high. The seven leaks add up to 0–28. The overall rating is low at 0–7 when no single leak is high, medium at 8–15 and high at 16–28. One leak in the high band makes the overall rating at least medium.
"Not sure" scores the same as "No". A leak that nobody measures behaves like an open one, and the fix usually starts with giving a report an owner.
What the scorecard does not do
The scorecard checks routines. It does not read your account, estimate dollar amounts or compare you with other sellers. A low score means the routines exist, not that nothing is leaking.
It is a self-assessment for planning, not financial or legal advice. LIVELE is not affiliated with Amazon.
Questions about the scorecard
Does the scorecard tell me how much money I am losing?
No. It tells you where a leak is likely because no routine is watching it. Sizing a leak needs your Seller Central reports and cost data, which is what The Missing Piece diagnostic does.
Why does "Not sure" count the same as "No"?
Because the effect is the same. If no one on the team can answer, no one is checking, and the leak runs until someone looks.
What are the seven leak types?
Revenue (lost sales, stockouts, Featured Offer loss), margin (fees, surcharges, landed cost, ad spend), operational (forecasting, excess stock, reconciliation), customer (returns, refunds, feedback), digital (product-page conversion), marketplace (suppressed listings, stranded inventory, compliance holds) and strategic (cash and effort tied up in ASINs or channels that earn too little).
Do I need to give my email to see the result?
No. The result appears on the page. You can send it to us with a request if you want a written breakdown or a call.
What happens if I send my result?
Your seven scores are attached to your request, so the discovery call starts from your answers instead of a questionnaire. Sending them does not sign you up for anything.
Email me the breakdown and book a review
Optional. Your seven scores travel with your request, and you can book a call to go through them.