If you’re an online retailer looking to increase sales, you might be interested in selling your products on Amazon. After all, the website is one of the most visited websites globally, with over 300 million people visiting it on a monthly basis. Because selling products on Amazon comes with multiple fulfillment options, you might be asking yourself now whether you should choose Vendor Central or Seller Central.
For you to make an informed decision that aligns with your set objectives, we have created a blog, outlining the advantages of both options. Let’s dig in!
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Vendor Central vs. Seller Central – what’s the difference?
The main difference between Amazon Vendor Central and Amazon Seller Central is the person who handles your product sales. If you select Vendor Central, Amazon will buy your products from you and resell them to their customers. On the other hand, Seller Central allows you to sell your products directly to customers through the Amazon marketplace.
Without further ado, let’s start with both the fulfillment options one by one-
What is Amazon Seller Central?
With Amazon Seller Central, sellers can act as third-party sellers for customers. The key component of this feature is that you directly sell your products to the consumers, with no hindrance of Amazon in it.
A seller who is registered under this program gets two fulfillment options–
- Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA): the company takes care of all the deliverables and saves all the hassle of taking care of yourself.
- Fulfillment by Merchant: You will be taking care of fulfilling all orders from packaging to sending out to the delivery. At the same time, many courier services are available and can be utilized, such as DHL, Bluedart, and many more.
What Benefits Does Amazon Seller Central Offer?
1. Easy Product Management/ FBA Service
As a seller central, you get direct control over your products as you can easily monitor product-related activities such as listing, inventory, and return management.
Using Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), you can provide adequate customer service. Customers are delivered products quickly (within one or two days), regardless of where they live. Your products will be handled by Amazon when you ship them to their facilities.
Orders submitted by you to Seller Central will reach your customers’ doorsteps on time. If it does not happen, in that case, the marketplace is liable for all failed and late deliverables.
2. Controlled Product Messaging
Thanks to Amazon’s Seller Central since there will be no product messaging, you can only sell what you should. More frequently, sellers contact a variety of other sellers that deal with similar products and sell the previous version of the product that they are selling.
Since the Seller Central account has been registered, Amazon’s brand registry program has placed restrictions on unauthorized listings.
3. Get complete control over product pricing
Sellers registered with Amazon Seller Central are entirely in control of their product prices. Due to the fact that you sell products to Amazon, you can easily tweak your product price based on your competitors’ prices for an edge in the marketplace.
Amazon Seller Central allows you to customize product costs based on your needs and preferences. In other words, this feature is beneficial when it comes to creating markets for newly launched products. Moreover, you can begin selling them at a reduced price. By adjusting prices according to demand, you can boost conversions.
4. Easy access to analytics
Amazon provides its sellers with consumer data that they can analyze to determine what products are in demand, how their products are performing, and can also monitor the grey areas for further improvement in strategies. This data is also accessible to Amazon sellers who are registered with Seller Central.
Using the above data, sellers can clearly see the product demand and anticipate upcoming demands much more quickly. With price control available, access to data can be a decisive advantage for Amazon sellers to stay competitive, especially during the event/sales days.
5. Access to Subscribe & Save feature
This feature of FBA lets buyers purchase eligible items at a discounted price via a subscription model. The Subscribe & Save feature allows Amazon customers to receive regular shipments of products they frequently use. Subscribers will receive discounts and maybe free delivery on their Subscribe & Save orders, as determined by the individual merchants.
It eventually lets brands develop a greater level of loyalty with their customers.
What is Amazon Vendor Central?
Amazon Seller Central is open to everyone, but Amazon Vendor Central is an invitation-only club. As part of this service, Amazon distributes a brand’s or manufacturer’s products on a continuous basis.
Vendor Central is considered a “first party” rather than a “third party” like Amazon Seller Central. The idea is that you sell your goods to Amazon in bulk (wholesale) instead of directly to customers, and they will take care of selling them to customers.
By selling directly on Amazon Seller Central, you’re basically a B2C company (business-to-consumer). Amazon Vendor Central allows you to run your business as a B2B (business-to-business) vendor selling to Amazon.
What is the mechanism behind this?
Once you’ve been invited to the club, you wait for Amazon to need your goods. A purchase order is then sent to you. All you have to do is fulfill the order. It’s not your job to sell those items to Amazon’s customers.
What benefits does Vendor Central Offer?
1. A “Sold By Amazon” label appears
As mentioned above, Vendor Central is only accessible to Amazon sellers who are invited by Amazon corporate. When they join, their products will appear on the site as “sold by Amazon” – likely increasing shoppers’ confidence and trust.
Example of ‘Sold by Amazon’-
2. Expanded Opportunities for Advertising
Sellers can also take advantage of additional marketing opportunities provided by AMS (Amazon Marketing Services); while both sellers and vendors have access to it, Vendor Central, in particular, has more options for running Ad campaigns.
In this, you can have your own brand or store page, vendor-powered coupons, and more.
By utilizing AMS, vendors can differentiate themselves from their competitors and drive traffic to product pages. Although not every click results in a purchase, as vendors are well aware, targeting individual product detail pages with different ad campaigns allows sellers to direct consumers’ attention directly to their product as they near the final stage of the conversion process.
Additionally, you will have access to A+ content that will allow you to create a product details page that is packed with helpful information. This has numerous benefits in and of itself, including a more compelling shopping experience, increased sales, and increased brand awareness.
3. Reduce or eliminate fees
Amazon seller fees, such as referrals, fulfillment, and even just having an Amazon account, are not required for vendors to participate in this program. Instead, they pay a one-time fee to become “pro,” which entitles them to the ability to sell an unlimited number of products per month. It also includes options for Amazon fulfillment as well as gift-wrapping services.
4. Hassle-free customer service
You don’t have to deal with customer counterfeits and more directly since Amazon would be the one taking care of all of it from handling returns to exchanges.
Decision Time!
The decision to become a vendor or a seller is primarily determined by the type of business you run. Because of the fact that the two centrals were intended initially for different business models, it is not easy to compare them.
The Amazon Seller Central interface caters more to brands and online merchants who want their products listed quickly, whereas Amazon Vendor Central is designed for brands and manufacturers who want to sell wholesale with a more hands-off approach.
Regardless of the model, you decide to choose; Our eCommerce experts can help you, from listing your products, creating ad campaigns, to brainstorming business strategies to help you succeed. Reach out to us at info@paxcom.net and let us streamline your eCommerce process.
