Amazon: The Differences Between Seller Central and Vendor Central
As the global leader in online sales, Amazon is a real machine whose inner workings you need to understand in order to optimize your product catalog and, consequently, your sales. This springboard, which allows brands and merchants to grow their business beyond their own e-commerce store, has two platforms: Amazon Seller Central and Amazon Vendor Central, the first aimed at merchants and the second dedicated to brands or manufacturers. Let’s compare these two services, which offer very specific features.
A Closer Look at How They Work:
Seller Central:
The Amazon Seller Central platform allows you to sell your products directly to consumers through the marketplace. As a seller, you set your prices and are responsible for storage, shipping, any returns, and after-sales service. However, you can opt for the Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) service, through which you send your products to the company’s warehouses and Amazon then handles the entire logistics process: in this case, your product pages display the wording “Sold by ….. and Fulfilled by Amazon”.
On this platform, competition between merchants is fierce when it comes to winning the Buy Box, namely the highly coveted “Add to Cart” button. Sellers registered as brands also have access to its Amazon Brand Analytics (ABA) tool.
Vendor Central:
With this service, as a manufacturer or specialized wholesaler, you sell your products to Amazon, which then becomes their distributor. To do this, Amazon orders the quantities of goods it needs from you. It stores them, sets the prices, manages shipping, returns, and after-sales service. Product pages display the wording “Sold and Fulfilled by Amazon”.
This platform, which gives products sold on it a better chance of obtaining the Buy Box, provides brands, which have become suppliers, with a more advanced data analysis tool than Seller Central: Amazon Brand Analytics. The successor to Amazon Retail Analytics (ARA), it is available in a more comprehensive version than on Seller Central, notably including a sales analysis section.
Strengths:
Seller Central:
As a seller, you retain control over the selling price and the number of products you send to the marketplace (while complying with the criteria defined by Amazon).
You continue to manage your entire stock, which you can distribute through the channels of your choice.
Vendor Central:
As mentioned in the previous section, this platform offers a simplified sales model, which also makes logistics easier since you do not have to process orders individually: when the company places an order, the manufacturer/brand sends its products to Amazon, which takes care of the rest of the sales process. The wording “Fulfilled and sold by Amazon” displayed on these products acts as a guarantee and reassures consumers when they make a purchase.
As suppliers to the platform, you can benefit from better marketing opportunities through Amazon Marketing Services, which allows you to run advertising campaigns within Amazon. The e-commerce giant also offers you a wide range of specific marketing tools, such as Subscribe & Save or the Vine Program (Club des testeurs), at an attractive price.
Weaknesses:
Seller Central:
As a third-party seller, the cost of using Seller Central is often higher than expected (monthly marketplace subscription + commission + advertising and the use of a service company).
The cost of using the FBA service is also higher than on Vendor Central, while the available marketing tools are also more limited. It is also impossible to negotiate with Amazon, whether regarding prices or commissions.
Vendor Central:
Amazon sets the selling price of the products displayed on its website, which may therefore be lower than your own price.
The strict rules imposed by Amazon for order fulfillment require strong logistics capable of rapid replenishment, otherwise financial penalties may apply.
Expansion of Services Across the Platforms
While A+ Content and the Vine Program were previously reserved for Vendor Central, both features are now available through Seller Central. Some programs, such as Vine, are available on both platforms but at different costs, and very often at more favorable rates on Vendor Central.
Until now, Amazon preferred to reserve its most attractive marketing services exclusively for Vendor Central, which was aimed at major brands or large manufacturers, but we can now see that the American marketplace is increasingly offering these services on both platforms. Behind these changes lies a specialization of the platforms: Vendor Central is increasingly aimed at “premium” merchants with significant resources, while Seller Central is intended for the rest of merchants.
Feed Manager’s View
As illustrated by the points we have raised, each platform is therefore aimed at a specific audience and presents significant differences. A manufacturer will most likely turn to Vendor Central to benefit from the services and logistics costs offered by the platform, while a merchant selling different types of products will prefer Seller Central in order to retain control over prices and stock. In any case, the key issue will always remain winning the Buy Box, which remains the only way to generate sales on Amazon.
In this context, the Amazon Marketplace 360 support program, launched in the United States in 2018 and available in Germany since 2019, is presented as a promise of support for Seller Central merchants aimed at increasing their sales. Sellers eligible for this new service are invited by the American giant to benefit from the help of a marketplace expert who guides them in their business development and use of the available tools. The future will tell whether this new program meets their expectations, but on paper, the offer remains very attractive.
