What is Amazon Seller Central?
A way to sell your product directly to consumers through the Amazon platform. This is much different than Amazon Vendor Central. You are considered a 3rd party or marketplace seller. You can either be an individual seller or a pro seller. Individual sellers are charged extra per order and get access to less features.
Here is a basic Amazon Seller Amazon FAQ.
* Intended to be used and must be used for informational purposes only. Fees may be changed by Amazon at any time.
Amazon Fulfillment Options:
- (FBM) Fulfilled by Merchant FBM - Ships from and sold by (3rd party name).
- (FBA) Fulfillment by Amazon FBA - Sold by (3rd party name) and fulfilled by Amazon. Multi-channel fulfillment – Great program if you sell on other platforms like eBay or buy.com or your own website. Allows you to ship your orders quickly using FBA.
- Seller fulfilled prime – If you have a good track record of fulfilling products yourself, you are invited by Amazon to have more benefits like the prime logo.
What is Amazon Vendor Central?
You sell to Amazon and Amazon sells to the consumer. You are a 1st party seller or vendor. This is only available to manufacturers and distributors. This is an invite-only program. All products are fulfilled by Amazon. It says “Ships from and Sold by Amazon”. You also get access to vendor only programs and tools like AMS (Amazon market services, Vine, subscribe & save, and A+ content.)
Pricing with Amazon Vendor Central
Amazon sets the prices. You can tell Amazon the MSRP price that you would like. Amazon will then set their price for the item. The catch: If Amazon cannot sell the merchandise they bought, it is possible they will sell under MSRP. Therefore, you will not get the full MSRP price that you originally requested.
Pros of Amazon Vendor Central
- Consumer Trust – People trust Amazon’s Reputation & Prime Logo
- Enhanced A+ Content – Eligible to add HTML Content, photos with callouts, comparison charts, bullet points, videos. A+ content is a paid service. Ability to have more control over your page without going through customer service
- Subscribe & Save – Consumers have household staples sent directly to your home at a discount.
- Amazon Vine – Top rated Amazon consumers receive your product in exchange for unbiased reviews. There are alternatives like snagshout.com to get reviews.
- Amazon Marketing Services – ability to create rich content ads. Paid service.
- Vendor Premium Services – Amazon can merge listings if there are duplicates, variation listing set up, write content for you
Cons of Amazon Vendor Central
- Limited analytics and reporting – may be left guessing how your sales are doing
- Amazon approves All Changes – If you want to change 1 spelling mistake, it will be a long process
- Amazon requests inventory – No control on how much inventory will go into Amazon. Requests come from Amazon on Monday and you have a few days to ship no matter how large the order.
- Turn Around Time – Purchase orders, shipping window, agreements, etc.
- Amazon sets prices and promotions – If a product is not selling well, they can discount the item and the cost gets passed to you as the seller
- Non-Compliance Fees – Fees for late shipments, improper shipments, etc.
- Fees assessed immediately
- Slow Payment – Sellers have to submit invoices to Amazon to get paid.
What is Amazon Seller Central?
Amazon Seller Central is the web interface used by brands and merchants to market and sells their products directly to Amazon's customers. If you have a Seller Central account, you're considered a marketplace or third-party seller.
Amazon Seller Central Pros
- Available to anyone – Just need a bank account and address
- More control over listings
- Brand registry – Authority for full control over listings. If you’re not registered, any seller can contribute and possibly change your listing to come up with the best listing
- Rich analytics – Great data to make important business decisions as a seller
- Seller creates shipments – You decide how much product you want to send in
- Fast Payments (Bi-weekly)
- Seller Community – forums, Facebook, Reddit, podcasts, webinars, etc.
- Retail Profit Margins – Set your prices
Amazon Seller Central Cons
- Limited listing details
- No access to vendor programs (Vine, AMS, subscribe & save, etc.)
- Only simple PPC Ads
