Which is better fit for you?
What is Amazon Vendor Central? – Amazon’s Vendor Central (VC) is the web interface used by manufacturers and distributors. The best way to describe VC is by first understanding the primary differences when comparing to Amazon Seller Central(SC). The main difference of course is that when you are selling on VC, you are no longer selling directly to the customer, but instead to Amazon. This means Amazon is now becoming your distributor.
A quick way to determine whether a product listing is being sold on VC is whether the listed includes “Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.”Unfortunately, VC is invite only, which means you’re product listing has tohave good sales volume and standing in order to catch the attention of Amazon.
Here are some of the other differences between VC and SC:
The Bad – Nothing is perfect and even with the advantages of VC, it does have some negative aspects.
- Wholesale pricing. You are effectively selling wholesale to Amazon and your sale price will have to be reduced to reflect this, cutting into your per product margins.
- No pricing control. Amazon does not allow you to set your own pricing in any form, Amazon will determine its own pricing for your product and that can compete with your other sales channels. It can also lead to price wars if the product you are selling is listed lower on another market place.
- No customer information. You no longer receive the customer’s direction information. Although Amazon does not allow you to remarket to their customers, having this type of sales information can be useful for internal analytic decisions.
- Content protection changes. You now have to rely on Amazon to protect your product and brand from infringing listings, such as sellers who bundle your products for differentiation.
- Vine club reviews. On top of A+ content, you also have the option to participate in Amazon’s Vine Review Club. Participating in the Vine review program means customers trusted reviews are able to opt to receive your product for free in return for a review, potentially boosting your products ratings. The negative and positive attributes of Vine reviews will be discussed in a future article.
- Lower shipping costs. Since you are now bulk shipping your products to Amazon without the need for per order FBA costs, your overall shipping costs will be much lower.
In conclusion, Amazon Vendor Central is a very powerful interface that gives sellers many exclusive and advanced tools that can provide a boost in sales. Regardless of the tools, it is critical your marketing strategy for your products is specific to Amazon. Having access to VC is difficult to come by due to the invite only nature of the system, however, if invited and with the tools properly utilized, this can make your Amazon business much more efficient.
This article was written by the Professor of Amazon who has been writing about Amazon since 2009.This is an alias used to protect the author from any unwanted complaints or inquiries. Please be aware that much of the existing and future information can be construed by many in the industry as an attack on their business models. As such, the Professor of Amazon has chosen to protect himself from any action.
