All-In Fulfillment Services

As Amazon’s first-party retail platform, Vendor Central acts much like an account with a traditional brick-and-mortar retail outlet. Wholesalers are provided with regular purchase orders that vendors fill by bulk shipping to one or more Amazon distribution centers. Amazon retains control over pricing in order to compete with third-party sellers, manage the inventory, and fulfill consumer orders.

1P or 3P? Weighing The Options

In the past, Vendor Central sellers had access to a number of exclusive marketing offers and promotions such as Amazon’s “Subscribe and Save” program, which offered incentives to do business on a wholesale basis. Recent changes to Amazon’s business strategy have shifted the focus away from 1P vendor relationships toward self-directed 3P sales on the Seller Central platform — and opened up access to Amazon Advertising Services that were previously available to only wholesalers. Industry watchers attribute this shift to the high cost of managing wholesale accounts and an overall trend toward self-directed e-commerce sales using existing platforms such as Amazon. At the same time, Amazon continues to maintain and develop lucrative wholesale relationships with a number of high-profile, high-volume brands with a heavy focus on a brand’s top-selling products.