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Nov 21, 2024
Amazon Vendor Central VS Seller Central: Ultimate Guide
Are you looking to expand your online reach out by selling your products on Amazon? There is more that you need to do and one of them is choosing between Amazon vendor central vs seller central.
However, the direction you take on this depends on the position of your company in the current market (Amazon Marketing). When you are selling on Amazon you are going to do it either as first-party or a third party.
For a first-party vendor, you are going to use vendor central either as a manufacture or distributor. Here, you are selling items in bulk to Amazon with amazon selling the items to clients under its name.
If you frequent Amazon, then you can easily tell which on amazon are provided by vendor central partners. The main reason for this is always because there is always a blurb in the description. This reads ships from sold by amazon.
If you opt to become a third-party vendor, then you will have to use seller central. If you opt to go for this, you will have the option of choosing to use fulfillment by Amazon. This way, the company will be able to process and ship all your orders.
Let us look at some of the pros and cons of vendor central vs. seller central. Well for clarity and ease of understanding let us look at vendor central vs. seller central in terms of benefits.
Pricing aspect of vendor central vs seller central
Well some of us would like to set the minimum prices for our products. This is one control that most of us would like to make our business successful. If this is the case, you need to consider the seller central.
Amazon has pledged that it will and actually honors all the minimum advertised price requests. However, it is worth noting that vendor central partners are on record making complaints about this. You need to know that Amazon has always promised to match nay sellers’ prices.
If Amazon gets a notification that there is a cheaper product you are selling, they will act. What amazon will do in this case is that they will simply drop the price of your product. In most cases, such incidents cause conflicts and wars and as we know wars are not something good.
In most cases, price wars will hurt you more that’s why you need to avoid such cases at all costs. Getting into wars with amazon will mean that that will not be willing to raise back the prices of your products.
If you are a seller central partner there is some good news for you. The good thing that comes with seller central is that you can be able to get whatever price you need. So, the aspect of price control is such a hit when it comes to seller central partners.
Read more: The Ultimate Guide to Product Marketing in 2020
Seller support in vendor central vs seller central
Amazon vendor central is very ideal if you are looking to partner with somebody in case things get awry. The fact of the matter is that you will not be able to get any support from the company.
In most cases, the prices that you have to pay are always hefty with some running into hundreds of dollars.
However, you can get some support if you opt to use seller central. Amazon if you opt for this, Amazon will offer you support services that respond to inventory problems.
In some extreme analysis, there is nothing really on the amazon vendor central that compares to amazon seller central. When it comes to the amazon vendor vs seller central amazon seller central carries the day overwhelmingly.
Just to add on the benefits of seller central, this option comes with more flexibility. This Flexibility comes from updating the listing on amazon like image titles among many others.
Cost differences in amazon vendor central vs seller central
Unless you are well skilled when it comes to negotiating, you are going to find yourself struggling with vendor central. The main reason for this is because amazon central will do the negotiations for your products. The company does this mainly to get the best profit margins from the sale of the involved products.
On top of that expect the company to ask up to 10% of the cash payout cover. The company will deduct these cash payouts in what is known as slotting costs.
You should also not be surprised is amazon goes ahead to negotiate the price further down. There are so many reasons why the company might do this like when the prices increase in the future.
However, none of these things should be your concern to you if you are using seller central. In this case, you will have to pay a flat fee with a percentage coming from items sold on this platform.
However, if you choose to adopt FBA then you will have to pay a little bit more. However, this comes with its own benefits as well.
The main advantage that central partner sellers get is the third-party seller pay. These pays make it easy to account for marketing costs.
Profit margins
As we have seen before amazon will try to negotiate with the aim of maximizing the profits. The company does this by negotiating for the lowest price possible from vendor central partners. Let us now look at the profit margins of the partners and what you need to know about this.
If you opt to sell on amazon as a vendor central partner well you can expect wholesale margins. Well if you choose to go seller central partner then that means you will have to earn from retail margins.
In this case, you need to ask yourself which one is better in this amazon vendor central vs seller central. If you are not so sure what to do in this regard you can always enquire from your accountant.
If you opt for amazon vendor account amazon will always try to negotiate for lower prices. If you find this such a hard thing to comply with, amazon will opt for another supplier.
When this happens, your profit margins will reduce significantly going up to. However, this is only possible with amazon sales.
Seller central pricing
For a central amazon retail seller on Amazon, you have the liberty of setting any prices for your products. However, given that there is no competition, if you are not so careful you might find yourself out of the market. You might be wondering how this is possible, well you might find yourself setting wrong prices.
It is very important for you to come up with prices that will offer you that competitive edge. Other than that, you need to consider the aspect of pricing seriously. You need to set a price that will give you the best profits while sustaining you in business.
As always one of the main benefits in this regard is the ability to dictate your own margins. This means that you can easily monitor your profits and other things in this regard as well.
Marketing as an amazon seller
When it comes to Amazon, there are more benefits to seller central partners compared to vendor central. However, what we need to insist on here is that there also some other benefits that come with vendor sellers.
I’m sure by now you must be asking yourself whether there are some benefits that come with vendor seller. Well, that primarily why we brought up this debate of amazon vendor central vs seller central.
We are trying to look at the benefits of these two and the disadvantages as well. We are doing this with the aim of helping you make the right choice in this regard.
Vendor central benefits
For instance, one of the benefits that come with amazon vendor is the aspect of marketing. There are more advantages that come with those people who choose to sell their products through amazon.
For instance, those people who opt to sell through vendor central vendors can have brands of their own. If not that, they can also have a store page and vendor powered coupons and headline ads.
However, this does not mean that there are no benefits when it comes to seller central partners. This one too can create the pricing promotions. However, this does not mean that creating awareness for these promotions is an easy thing.
This is one of the challenges you will have to contend with when it comes to marketing with seller central. You have to come up with a proper way of creating awareness for your promotions to be successful. Currently, Amazon offers three places for ads like the home page, login page, and the publication page.
So, if you are into vendor amazon central there is a catch for you. In this contest of amazon vendor central vs seller central, there is a catch for you. Once you opt for this option you stand to gain from Amazon Marketing efforts.
Staying stocked
As we have said, there is so much that you stand to gain from Amazon vendor central. However, when you opt for amazon vendor central there are some things you need to expect. For instance, one of the most common occurrences you will encounter is the issue of stock.
Once in a while, you will find amazon running out of stock your products. This in fact happens more frequently and is one thing that you need to expect. Amazon is known for letting this happening without any low inventory notice.
It is also important you know that amazon trims down parts of its inventory of some specific products over time. When this happens, it means there is more risk that your stock could run out.
If you opt to go for seller central over amazon vendor central that means you will have control over inventory. This means that if you are using FBA you can store it in the Amazon fulfillment center. However, you need to know that with amazon fulfillment you will have to pay depending on the space you use.
Given this possibility, you need to be more careful with the way you manage your inventory space. Given this, it is vital for you to make sure you manage your space perfectly to avoid additional payments.
Still, on amazon vendor central vs seller central, it looks like the benefit is with seller central. Considering the above information, we can clearly see that seller central partners have higher control over inventory.
Payments in amazon vendor central vs seller central
Well if you are an Amazon vendor central, we have somewhat some bad news for you. Amazon is on record for its reluctance to paying vendor central partners. In fact, if you are a starter this could cause you some cash flow problems.
If you are not prepared to deal with these headaches, then you should not be considering using vendor central. On the other hand, if you opt for seller central you will receive payments every 7 to 14 days. However, these payments do not come with any sales commission or applicable fees.
However, it is worth noting that seller payments come in pretty quickly. For this reason, this is an option you need to consider.
Customer service
When it comes to customer service in amazon vendor central vs seller central amazon vendor carries the day. The main reason for this is simply because amazon handles all the aspects of customer service. These aspects go all the way to issues related to fraud among other things.
Conclusion
As we have seen in the text above, there is so much to amazon vendor central vs seller central. The points listed above are only to make it easy for you to make the right choice in this regard.
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Mashum Mollah is an entrepreneur, founder and CEO at Viacon, a digital marketing agency that drive visibility, engagement, and proven results. He blogs at BloggerOutreach.io.
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