Amazon Seller Central vs Amazon Vendor Central
Amazon sellers are typically surrounded by a variety of queries, ranging from broad ones like “what is the difference between Amazon Seller Central and Amazon Vendor Central?” to more specific niche questions like “what does Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) mean?”. While both programs are designed to help businesses sell on Amazon, they have different features, benefits, and requirements. In this blog, we will deep dive into both Seller & Vendor Central platforms and try to answer all your queries.
What is Amazon Seller Central?
It is a platform often used by brands & merchants to establish a brand connection with customers on Amazon. As a third-party (3P) seller, you can sell, manage, ship, and optimize client orders on your own by signing up for an account on Amazon Seller Central.
How to become an Amazon Seller?
Amazon Seller Central offers Individual Plans & Professional Plans under its umbrella. With the individual plan, there is a starting price of $0.99 for each item sold, while for the professional plan, there is a monthly minimum of $39.99.
Learn more about the features offered under the plans,
When it comes to fulfilling customer orders, sellers can either manually handle all the shipments, customer service, and returns-related tasks or leverage a third-party logistics (3PL) provider. The latter is commonly referred to as Fulfilled by Merchant (FBM). As a 3P seller, Amazon also provides you with the option to give all fulfillment-related tasks to Amazon. Your orders will then be taken care of by Amazon, and customers will see the tag: “Sold by Seller (Brand) XYZ and Fulfilled by Amazon’ on the product detail page. This type of partnership falls under the Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) program and the entire logistics-related aspects are taken care of by Amazon.
The Amazon Fulfillment Fees vary for different products based on their Size Range, Dimension, and Per Unit Weight. For example, the fulfillment fee for a T-shirt in the “Large Standard Size” tier with measurements of 14″x10″x0.76″ and a unit weight of 12.32 oz is $5.32.
You can find out more about the estimate for your FBA fees here.
Benefits of Amazon Seller Central
Amazon Seller Central is best suited for businesses that want to manage their own inventory, set their own prices, and have control over their marketing and order management.
What is Amazon Vendor Central?
Contrary to Amazon Seller Central, it is most commonly used by distributors and manufacturers. Sellers registered under Amazon Vendor Central are referred to as First-party (1P) sellers. You can operate as a supplier and sell your goods in bulk to Amazon as a 1P seller, but you can only sign up for the Amazon Vendor Central platform by invitation. The Amazon Vendor team contacts any potential vendors they think would be a good fit for the Vendor Central Platform.
The customers will see your product tagged as ‘Sold and Fulfilled by Amazon’ on the order detail page.
How to become an Amazon Vendor?
Not everyone can access Amazon Vendor Central, seller’s eligibility is determined using certain selection criteria and algorithms. Consistently high traffic and your brand’s strong sales volume are some of those selection criteria. Amazon will only deem you fit as a potential seller if they notice that your brand is well-known, has a good conversion rate, and generates a lot of purchase orders. Seller Central might be the best platform for new Amazon sellers to start, while Vendor Central can be used when they have established themselves as a viable option in the market. The process of becoming a vendor typically begins with an email from Amazon, saying that they are interested in selling your products. After accepting the initial email they will explain how Vendor Central works and provide you with their terms & conditions for becoming a vendor.
Benefits of Amazon Vendor Central
Amazon Vendor Central is best suited for manufacturers and distributors who want to sell their products in bulk to Amazon and have Amazon manage the orders, pricing, and marketing.
Difference between Amazon Seller Central & Amazon Vendor Central
The main distinction between both programs can be made using the following points:
E-commerce fulfillment Models used by Amazon?
As an e-commerce giant, Amazon uses these models in order to manage and deliver customer orders properly and timely.
These four types of ecommerce fulfillment models are available in the marketplace:
How can DataChannel help you with Amazon Seller & Vendor Central data?
Merchants should use DataChannel to access their Amazon Seller/ Vendor Central data as it provides a secure, reliable, and efficient way to manage and transfer their data into a single source of truth. The multiple advantages of having your Amazon Seller or Vendor data in a centralized data warehouse are:
Overall, DataChannel provides a powerful solution for all types of enterprises looking to access and manage their Amazon Seller and Vendor Central data. Also, DataChannel can help provide sellers a more flexible and customizable solution that ensures data quality & scalability when it comes to managing and analyzing data. If you have any questions regarding our integration with Amazon Seller/ Vendor Central API, reach out to us here or schedule a demo call today.