Beginner’s Guide to Amazon Vendor Central

Making money by selling products isn’t the only way to make a profit on Amazon.  This guide will cover Amazon Vendors, the difference between Amazon Vendor Central and Amazon Seller Central, vendor benefits, challenges, and more!

What is Amazon Vendor Central?

Amazon Vendor Central is a platform that lets you sell to Amazon as a supplier. Amazon will use you for purchase orders, you send the stock to Amazon, and Amazon sells the items and pays you for the products. Being a vendor is a great way for businesses to sell products without interacting with customers.

Amazon Vendor Central vs. Amazon Seller Central

The Amazon Vendor Central is an invite-only platform that lets you sell products to Amazon for them to sell to customers. Amazon Seller Central is available to anyone and lets you sell products directly to customers.

Amazon Vendor Central Invitation-Only

Registration on Amazon Vendor Central is typically by invitation only.

While anyone can be an Amazon seller, you’ll have to be invited as an Amazon Vendor.

Vendors often start with Seller Central to establish demand before being invited to join Vendor Central.

To be invited as a vendor, you’ll need to already be a seller on Amazon with a high conversion rate selling popular products.

Amazon Vendor Central Bulk Selling

Amazon Vendor Central is a platform that enables you to sell your products in bulk quantities to Amazon, who then handles the selling process to customers. Amazon takes charge of setting prices promoting and distributing these products to customers. As an Amazon Vendor, you can take advantage of their known brand, excellent customer service and efficient logistics network. You can also access various tools and reports to optimize your sales performance and inventory management. The phrase “ships from and sold by Amazon” appears on the product pages for items sold through Vendor Central.

Vendor Central Benefits

There are many benefits of being an Amazon Vendor Central partner, such as:

Consumer Confidence: Products sold through Vendor Central benefit from Amazon’s brand recognition, enhancing customer trust.

Since your products are bought and sold by Amazon, that tells customers that you are endorsed by the company. This increases customer confidence and pushes sales.

Keyword-Targeted Ad Campaigns: Vendors can use Amazon Marketing Services (AMS) to create ad campaigns for driving traffic to product pages.

Keyword-target ad campaigns increase brand discoverability through Headline Search Ads, Product Display Ads, and Sponsored Products. With AMS, Amazon puts your products in front of consumers who are actively trying to buy what you’re selling.

Simplified Business Model

Vendor Central simplifies the process by focusing on order fulfillment, billing, and minimizing chargebacks.

When you’re selling directly to Amazon, you don’t have to worry about shipping problems, packing, and interacting with customers.  You just ship product to and bill Amazon – Amazon does the heavy lifting.

Contrast with Seller Central, where sellers manage multiple aspects like inventory, taxes, and more.

Compared to Seller Central, where sellers manage inventory, deal with returns, shipping, and other aspects of selling products, being an Amazon Vendor is a breeze.

Enhanced Content and Marketing

One perks of the Amazon Vendor Central is the enhanced content and marketing that helps vendors create engaging and informative product pages on Amazon. With this service, vendors can use rich media, such as videos, images, and interactive features, to showcase their products and brand story.

Subscribe & Save and Amazon Vine

You can utilize these programs to provide customers with discounts, free samples or other incentives in exchange for their purchases or honest feedback. By engaging in these programs, you have the opportunity to increase your sales, enhance your ranking and establish trust with buyers.

Challenges of Amazon Vendor Central

Amazon Vendor Central platform also poses some challenges for the vendors, such as:

Price Control: Amazon may adjust retail prices based on internal algorithms, impacting vendor margins.

The biggest downside to Amazon Vendor Central is that you won’t have control over the price of your products.  Amazon can adjust the prices, which could mean less revenue for you. Vendors have to follow Amazon’s rules and policies. They also have to deal with Amazon’s demand forecasting and replenishment system, which may not match their own production capacity or inventory levels.

Logistical Requirements: Vendors must adhere to strict Amazon guidelines for order fulfillment.

Amazon has strict guidelines for vendors.  By quickly fulfilling orders and maintaining the stock demanded by Amazon and its customers, you can avoid chargebacks. 

High fees and chargebacks

Vendors are required to cover expenses, including fees, co-op fees, slotting fees and advertising fees. Additionally, they encounter the possibility of chargebacks. Chargebacks refer to deductions made from their payments due to reasons, like customer returns, damaged products or failure to meet Amazon’s standards.

Increased competition and reduced differentiation

Vendors have to compete with other vendors and sellers on Amazon, who may offer similar or lower-priced products. They also lose the opportunity to build their own brand identity and customer loyalty, as their products are sold under Amazon’s name and logo.

FAQs

Is Amazon a Marketplace vendor?

Amazon can be used as a vendor if you’re invited to Amazon Vendor Central. With the Amazon Vendor Central, you can sell products to Amazon directly.

Can you use Amazon as a vendor?

You can use Amazon as a vendor and sell your products directly to them. Amazon is then responsible for selling and managing the products to customers.

Can you have both Seller Central and Vendor Central?

You can have both Seller Central and Vendor Central accounts, but you cannot sell the same products on both platforms. Amazon has a policy that prohibits listing the product times under different selling models. If you wish to sell your products on both platforms you’ll need to create SKUs, for each one.

Conclusion

Becoming an Amazon Vendor is an option for established sellers selling popular products with a high-conversion rate. Remember that you can’t join Amazon Vendor Central like you can Amazon Seller Central. You will have to be invited by Amazon after establishing your seller account.