Moving From Amazon Vendor Central To Amazon Seller Central
More and more Amazon vendors “retailers” or “1p” are looking to move to seller central “3p” due to operational and financial constraints from Amazons retail model, this is fine to do and yes Amazon DOES allow businesses to have both amazon vendor accounts and amazon seller accounts, it is known as the “hybrid” model. It can be a powerful play in your ecommerce business, in this post I am going to explain more about running a hybrid model and why some vendors go over to seller central.
Why move from Amazon vendor central to Amazon seller central
Increasingly, the lack of having an Amazon vendor manager which means lack of control or not being able to set pricing in line with inflation, surcharges, and lack of POs (Purchase orders) have driven retailers away from Amazons vendor retail model, we regularly get requests from Amazon vendors looking to move onto the seller model.
What does Amazon seller central give me over Amazon vendor central
Vendors are telling us that they are getting issues with trying to control increases with their prices and Amazon are rejecting those. Also, like other retailers Amazon are only allowing price changes to come into play 60 days from announcing those price increases causing further ripples to these seller accounts.
Amazon seller central gives business complete control over their MSRP pricing as well as stock handled by Amazon – either from their own fulfilment or through Amazon FBA (Fulfilment by Amazon) where Amazon handle the stock on your behalf.
What advantages are there staying on vendor central?
This question falls down to how much input and support you are getting from Amazon right now and the answer purely depends on the terms you are getting from your account and weighing up those advantages versus disadvantages.
Amazon vendor may still give you strategic options in terms of deals and exposure to new Amazon tools, but most brand related “advantages” are now given to both sellers and vendors.
Some key points
Should I keep my Amazon Vendor account?
Yes, keeping your vendor account could be key as its likely you already have brand registry connected to it. Amazon has a hierarchy in terms of who “controls the brand”, if you have Amazon brand registry connected to both your seller and vendor accounts, any existing products in Amazon vendor will take priority in terms of “ownership”, in other words if you try and modify any content in your Amazon seller central account and that same listing is on Amazon vendor, its highly likely Amazon will only change the listing if those changes are made on Vendor Central.
You may also still have profitable purchase orders that come from vendor it would make sense to keep them available as they are now but remember not to create your own seller fulfilled lines if the item is selling well on vendor or else you will be competing with yourself.