Seller versus Vendor:

A Seller sells through the Amazon Seller Central Portal to Amazon’s marketplace. The Seller can either ship products personally or Amazon can ship them.

A vendor sells through the Vendor Portal. As a vendor you first sell to Amazon itself, and Amazon then owns your product.

Seller:

This is also called an Amazon Seller, 3P, or Marketplace Seller.

This role is the easiest when you start on Amazon.

As a Seller you sell through the Seller Central Portal to Amazon’s marketplace.

Product fulfillment options ( “fulfilment’ is what happens after the customer pays ):

• You sell, Amazon delivers
• You sell, You deliver

(these options are explained below)

Amazon Seller Central:

This is the web interface for selling products to Amazon’s customers via a Seller account that you created.

It is for Sellers (not Vendors).

As a Seller you own the products until customers receive them.

For “Order Fulfillment” (getting products to the purchaser), as a Seller you have two options:

• Seller option 1: You sell, Amazon delivers – this is called Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) 
• Seller option 2: You sell, You deliver – this is called Fulfilled by Merchant (FBM), where you are the Merchant.

Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA):

• You send inventory to an Amazon Fulfillment Center (FC) and they manage shipping and returns from customers
• You own the inventory and control how much inventory to send to Amazon Fulfillment Centers
• You pay storage fees for the product
• You pay Amazon a fulfillment fee for every unit sold to customers
• Amazon manages customer service and returns for your FBA products.
• Use this when: This is a good option for off-the-shelf products with fast fulfillment to customers
• The FBA program can make your products Prime Eligible, which is beneficial to you:
  • Your products are eligible for Free Two-Day shipping for Prime customers or Free Standard Shipping for Non-Prime customers.
  • Prime customers spend 2-3 times more than non-Prime customers.
  • Many customers use the Prime Only filter when searching for products.
  • Nearly 50% US households have Prime Membership.

  NOTE: If you do not use FBA, you are personally responsible for your product storage, fulfillment, customer service, and returns.

Fulfilled by Merchant (FBM), where you are the Merchant:

• You fulfill directly to customers
• You manage shipping and returns
• You manage customer service
• Use this when: This is a good option for made-to-order products (that take more time) or for products that otherwise require a longer lead time for processing

Vendor:

As an Amazon Vendor, you sell direct wholesale to Amazon and they then own the product once they receive it.
There are two Vendor options:

• Vendor Express, which is open to anyone, or
• Vendor Central, an invite-only program.

Benefits of being a Vendor:

• Access to dedicated vendor programs and self-service promotions
• Marketing placements on category pages, corporate emails, etc.
• Access to additional category initiatives such as Gift Guides, Holiday Collections, etc.
• Less chance of your account being suspended for unknown reasons

Disadvantages of being a Vendor:

• This is a more expensive model
• This model has has slower payment terms
• Less direct control over pricing
• Less direct control over complex fulfillment
• More reliance on Amazon personnel

Account Suspensions and Listing Removals

Amazon wants you to sell on its marketplace, but it needs to maintain its perceived standards.

It is therefore uncompromising on anything that detracts from the customer experience, including

• Poor seller performance metrics (yes, your performance as a Seller is tracked)
• Failure to meet the Amazon Terms Of Service (TOS)

If you slip up, Amazon can warn you, suspend you, or block your seller account.