Amazon Seller Central is the interface that is used by merchants to sell their products directly to customers. This can be accomplished by listing and selling existing products on Amazon’s marketplace or adding your own products directly to Amazon’s catalog.
An Amazon Seller Central account is considered a marketplace or third-party Amazon seller. This means that Amazon does not hold any inventory for you, but rather assists you in selling your products directly to customers. This allows you to maintain more control over your product than if you were selling through a wholesale distribution system.
The Amazon seller is responsible for setting up and maintaining their seller account, including:
Shipping the product themselves (fulfilled by merchant)
Using Amazon’s warehouse and shipping services (fulfilled by Amazon)
Amazon offers both individual and professional seller accounts. The professional seller accounts require a monthly subscription, but offer additional features including access to marketing tools, better analytics, and more FBA options.
Most businesses will opt for the professional seller accounts as it offers these additional features required to scale an eCommerce business on Amazon. As a third-party Amazon seller there are two options for fulfilling orders: You can handle all of the tasks of shipping, customer service, and returns for the orders yourself through Amazon Fulfilled by Merchant program or you can opt for amazon FBA program where Amazon handles most.
Benefits of Amazon Seller Central
It’s hard to find a company that can be as flexible and as helpful as Amazon. If you’re selling through their marketplace, you have access to a wide array of tools and features that make it easy to sell your products on the site.
Amazon Seller Central (ASI) is the preferred seller channel for most sellers, but there are several other seller channels such as Marketplace, Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), Vendor Central (Vendor Central), and Selling on Amazon (Sell on Amazon).
Amazon Vendor Central is an invitation-only program available to direct manufacturers and distributors.
Amazon Vendor Central (AVC) is Amazon’s wholesale department. It’s where wholesalers, distributors, and manufacturers list their products for purchase by Amazon.
If you sell through Vendor Central you are considered a first-party seller, or first-party vendor, because you are selling your products directly to Amazon in bulk.
Vendor Central is the primary interface for suppliers on Amazon who are selling their products directly to Amazon.
The main difference between Seller Central and Vendor Central is that with Seller Central you are acting as a third party seller, selling your products on Amazon’s platform for a fee, whereas with Vendor Central you are acting as the supplier to amazon, selling your products directly to Amazon in bulk.
Registration on Vendor Central is strictly by invitation only, so sellers start with Seller Central and generate demand for their products to entice Amazon to buy their product in bulk through the Vendor Central program.
If a company is selling through Vendor Central the phrase “ships from and sold by Amazon” appears on the order page.
