Amazon Vendor Central & Seller Central in 2024: The Difference

Vendor Central

Seller Central

Registration

You receive an invitation from an Amazon Vendor Manager to join the Vendor platform. Your brand must meet certain criteria in terms of turnover, market penetration and the quota of new accounts they have for your specific category at that moment in time.

You can register as an independent seller, sole trader or business at any time.

Customers

You supply products to Amazon in bulk and they sell them on to their customers. Amazon owns and warehouses the stock they purchase from you, and products show as ‘Sold by Amazon’ on the marketplace.

You create an offer against an existing or new product listing on Amazon. When customers purchase that product from you, you are responsible for processing the order in a timely fashion and ensuring the customer receives a satisfactory level of customer service.

Cost

You supply to Amazon on a wholesale basis, providing them with enough margin to sell your products at a competitive retail price (usually 10%-50%, depending on your product category).

N/A

Price

Amazon controls the selling price. Whilst they will factor in the retail price you have specified when setting up the product, they will reduce the price where necessary to win the Buy Box against other third-party offers, if their profit margin permits. They will also scrape other retail websites to see if their pricing is competitive and reduce accordingly.

You set and have control over pricing, but are still competing for the Buy Box against other third party sellers (and potentially Amazon if they are stocking the product). You can deactivate your offer at any time.

Fulfilment

Amazon fulfils orders automatically from its warehouses (unless the Vendor is fulfilling orders on Amazon’s behalf, via ‘Direct Fulfilment’).

You fulfil the order from your own warehouse or 3PL, or if you are utilising Amazon’s FBA (Fulfilment by Amazon) service, Amazon warehouses your stock and fulfils orders automatically.

Prime

Prime delivery by default.

If you are utilising FBA (or ‘Seller Fulfilled Prime’) then your offer will have Prime delivery. Otherwise, you can specify the delivery charge and lead time for orders you are fulfilling, but should expect less search visibility and conversion rates.

Customer Service

Amazon handles all customer service requests.

You are responsible for responding to customer service requests, unless they are fulfilment related and you are utilising FBA. In this case, Amazon will respond to enquiries.

Payment

You agree payment terms when signing up to Vendor Central. This is typically 60 days but can range from 30-120 days.

Amazon accumulates a balance in your account based on orders received. This is disbursed automatically every fortnight. Some Sellers are allowed to withdraw funds more frequently once an account history has been established.

Commission

You agree a specific rebate when signing up to Vendor Central, known as ‘Co-op’ or ‘Terms’. This is typically 10%-15% initially, but is subject to increases and renegotiations on an annual basis. Amazon applies this rebate to any invoices you raise to them.

Each product category has a specific commission structure, which is deducted from any orders received. This is usually 15% and rarely increases or changes.

Stock

When Amazon’s algorithm sees that a product is in demand, they will raise a Purchase Order for that product. POs are typically raised on Mondays, but also Wednesdays and Fridays on high volume accounts.

Amazon will typically build an 8-12 week stockholding on products that are selling well, which can often mitigate the 60+ day payment terms.

You are solely responsible for telling Amazon what you have in stock when you are fulfilling products yourself (known as FBM or Fulfilled by Merchant). 

If you are using FBA (Fulfilment by Amazon) then you are solely responsible for deciding how much stock to send in to Amazon and when to replenish it. Stock that languishes in Amazon’s warehouses due to weak sell-through will typically incur ‘long term storage fees’ after 6 or 12 months.

Returns

You agree with Amazon how returns will be handled when signing up to Vendor Central.

In some cases, they will send returns back to you and charge you for them, or agree a fixed rebate (for example 3%) to factor in returns and replacements.

If you are fulfilling orders yourself, you must deal with returns requests from customers and decide whether they need to return a product to you before you raise a refund.

If the order was sent by FBA, the customer can raise a return automatically. The return will be processed in an Amazon fulfilment centre, with that product either being placed back on sale or placed into ‘unfulfillable inventory’ due to some defect.

Advertising

Advertising campaigns are set up and managed through the Amazon Advertising console.

Advertising campaigns are set up and managed through the Amazon Advertising console.

Marketing

Larger Vendors are often given preference when participating in deal ‘events’, such as Black Friday.

Vendors can create marketing campaigns such as vouchers, deals and other placements, but they must be funded by the Vendor. Amazon will bill for these separately.

You can create vouchers and deals within the relevant section in Seller Central. Any discounts will be automatically deducted from remittances.

Account Support

Support tickets are filed through the support console within Vendor Central. They are typically responded to quicker and given more attention than those filed through Seller Central.

Support tickets are filed through the support console within Seller Central.

Account Management

New Vendor accounts are generally supported by a Vendor Manager for the first 6-12 months. After that you are on your own, unless willing to pay for a ‘SVS’ (Strategic Vendor Services) Manager at a cost ranging from $75K - $150K per year, or a chunky additional rebate on invoices.

Non-existent for Sellers.

Brand Registry

Brand registration and infringement filings are made via the separate Brand Registry account.

This can be ‘linked’ to the Vendor/Seller account when it’s necessary to show to Support you are the authority over that brand, and need to push through a specific listing update.

Brand registration and infringement filings are made via the separate Brand Registry account.

This can be ‘linked’ to the Vendor/Seller account when it’s necessary to show to Support you are the authority over that brand, and need to push through a specific listing update.

Data

Large selection of reports available in dashboard and download views. More brand-focused data available if you are brand-registered and have ‘Brand Analytics’ enabled.

Very limited number of third-party tools due to limited historic API support.

Many challenging measures and metrics to understand and comprehend.

Large selection of reports available in dashboard and download views. More brand- focused data available if you are brand-registered and have ‘Brand Analytics’ enabled.

Significant number of third party tools connected to Amazon’s API.