Question 1

What does an Amazon Vendor Central consultant do?

Accepted Answer

An Amazon Vendor Central consultant runs the first party relationship with Amazon on a brand's behalf: reviewing and confirming purchase orders, tracking shipments to Amazon's terms, reconciling payments against invoices, disputing chargebacks and shortages, keeping the catalogue and its content accurate, reading Vendor Central's reports and managing advertising from the vendor account. The aim is that more of what Amazon buys turns into money the brand keeps.

Question 2

What is Vendor Central?

Accepted Answer

Vendor Central is Amazon's portal for first party vendors. Amazon describes it as by invitation only: a vendor sells in bulk, at wholesale, to Amazon, and Amazon then sells to the customer. A vendor's orders arrive as purchase orders from Amazon, and its account is where it confirms them, submits product content, reads reports and is paid.

Question 3

What is the difference between Vendor Central and Seller Central?

Accepted Answer

On Vendor Central you sell to Amazon, at wholesale, and Amazon sells to the customer. On Seller Central you sell to the customer yourself as a third party seller, set your own price, hold or place your own stock and keep the margin and the risk. Vendor Central is by invitation from Amazon; Seller Central is open to any business that signs up.

Question 4

How do I get invited to Vendor Central?

Accepted Answer

Amazon issues Vendor Central invitations itself and does not publish the criteria, so no agency can arrange one. If you have been invited, we can help you decide whether to accept and set the account up well. If you have not, Seller Central is the route that is open, and the work we do there is described on our Amazon page.

Question 5

Can a brand be on Vendor Central and Seller Central at the same time?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Many brands sell some items to Amazon as a vendor and sell others, or the same brand's other channels, as a third party seller. It works when it is managed deliberately: each item is placed where it earns most, and the two accounts are kept from feeding conflicting content to the same detail page.

Question 6

What is a purchase order in Vendor Central?

Accepted Answer

A purchase order is Amazon's order to a vendor, sent electronically, for a quantity of each item at the agreed cost price. Once the vendor accepts it, the vendor is obliged to deliver the accepted quantity by the dates on the order to the Amazon locations named on it.

Question 7

What happens if we accept a purchase order we cannot fill?

Accepted Answer

Accepting an order commits the account to delivering it, so an order accepted without the stock or the production time behind it tends to arrive late or short, and late or short deliveries are what Amazon's operational chargebacks are for. It also teaches Amazon's forecasting the wrong thing. That is why we check every order against stock and lead time before it is confirmed.

Question 8

What are Vendor Central chargebacks?

Accepted Answer

Chargebacks are deductions Amazon takes from what it pays a vendor when a delivery or its paperwork does not meet Amazon's requirements, for example deliveries that are late or incomplete, or labelling and shipment information errors. Each one is a cost, and each one points at a step in the supply chain worth fixing.

Question 9

What is a shortage claim?

Accepted Answer

A shortage is the difference between what a vendor invoiced and what Amazon records as received, and Amazon pays for what it recorded. Some shortages are real, from units lost or miscounted before the dock. Others are receiving errors on Amazon's side, and those are recovered only by disputing them with proof of delivery inside the window Amazon allows.

Question 10

Can chargebacks and shortages be disputed?

Accepted Answer

Yes, when they are wrong and the evidence exists: proof of delivery, the shipment's paperwork, carrier records and the invoice. Disputes have to be filed within the window Amazon sets, which is why reconciliation has to be weekly rather than occasional. Deductions that are right cannot be disputed away; the value there is in fixing the cause.

Question 11

How much do chargebacks and shortages cost a vendor?

Accepted Answer

It varies too much by account to put a number on honestly, and Amazon does not publish an average. What we can say is that deductions are rarely visible without a full reconciliation of payments against invoices, which is the first thing our audit does, so the first figure you see from us is yours rather than an industry estimate.

Question 12

Who sets the retail price on Vendor Central?

Accepted Answer

Amazon does. As a vendor you sell to Amazon at a cost price, and Amazon, as the retailer, decides what it charges customers. What you negotiate is the cost price and the terms around it; what you influence is the demand, through content and advertising, that makes Amazon order more.

Question 13

Can vendors advertise on Amazon?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Amazon Ads treats anyone who manages products in Vendor Central or Advantage Central as a vendor, and vendors register for advertising with that account. Vendors can run Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands and build a Store. A vendor that qualifies can also pay for advertising by deduction from what Amazon owes it, an option Amazon does not offer to accounts with no retail activity in the last six months.

Question 14

How do you decide what to advertise as a vendor?

Accepted Answer

Against the order picture. Advertising an item Amazon is out of stock on wastes money, and an item Amazon has just ordered deep on needs the demand to sell through, or the next order will be smaller. So vendor advertising is planned with the open purchase orders and the stock position in view, not only last month's sales.

Question 15

Do you manage product content and A+ content in Vendor Central?

Accepted Answer

Yes. A vendor's titles, bullets, descriptions, images and A+ content are submitted from the Vendor Central account. We write and submit them, keep item data such as case packs and dimensions accurate, and settle the conflicts that appear when a vendor account and a seller account both feed the same detail page.

Question 16

What data does Vendor Central give a vendor?

Accepted Answer

Vendor Central carries reports on a vendor's sales, traffic, inventory and orders, and purchase order and catalogue data can also be read through Amazon's vendor APIs. Used weekly, it shows what Amazon is likely to order, where stock is running thin and which items are losing traffic, which is what a production plan and a cost conversation both need.

Question 17

Do you negotiate our terms and cost prices with Amazon?

Accepted Answer

We prepare the case and support you through it: item level margins after deductions, sales and traffic trends, and the evidence for what you are asking. The negotiation is your company's, because the commercial relationship is yours, and you should never hand an agency authority to agree terms on your behalf.

Question 18

Should we move from Vendor Central to Seller Central?

Accepted Answer

Sometimes, for part of the range. A vendor gives up price and stock control for Amazon's volume and operations; a third party seller keeps both and takes the fees and the work. We compare them item by item, with real deductions on one side and real fees on the other, and many brands end up using both rather than choosing.

Question 19

What if Amazon stops sending us purchase orders?

Accepted Answer

Amazon's ordering is its own decision, made from its forecasts, so a drop in orders is a signal to read rather than a switch to flip. We look at what changed: traffic, conversion, stock, cost price, a catalogue problem or a change in Amazon's assortment. Where the range still has demand, Seller Central is the route that keeps it on sale.

Question 20

Do you handle direct fulfilment orders as well?

Accepted Answer

Where a vendor ships some orders directly to Amazon's customers rather than in bulk to Amazon's buildings, that is part of the same operation and we manage it with the rest: order confirmation, shipping on time and the paperwork that goes with it.

Question 21

Do you need access to our Vendor Central account?

Accepted Answer

Yes, as a user under permissions you grant and can remove at any time. The account stays in your company's name, everything we create in it is yours, and you can end the arrangement and keep all of it.

Question 22

How long before we see results?

Accepted Answer

Recovered deductions show first, usually within the first weeks, because the reconciliation finds disputes that are still inside Amazon's window. Process fixes take longer to show, because they reduce future chargebacks rather than past ones. Content and advertising changes show in traffic and sales over the following weeks, and in Amazon's ordering after that.

Question 23

What do you need from us to start?

Accepted Answer

Access to Vendor Central, your current cost prices and terms, your stock and production lead times, and a contact in your warehouse or logistics team. With those we can run the audit and give you a written view of the account and the first things we would change.

Question 24

How do you report on a Vendor Central account?

Accepted Answer

Weekly, a short note of what was done: orders reviewed and confirmed, disputes filed, content submitted, advertising changes. Monthly, the numbers: what Amazon ordered, shipped and paid, what it deducted and what we recovered, how traffic and advertising moved, and what changes next month.

Question 25

Is Vendor Central right for a smaller brand?

Accepted Answer

Amazon decides who is invited, and being invited is not the same as being suited. Selling to Amazon suits a brand that can supply at wholesale volumes, absorb Amazon's terms and deductions, and live without setting the retail price. A smaller brand that values price control and margin per unit often does better as a third party seller, and some keep a few items with Amazon and sell the rest themselves.

Question 26

Can you take over from our current agency or in-house team?

Accepted Answer

Yes. We start with the same audit, which shows what was being done and what was not, then agree a handover: open purchase orders, disputes in progress, content waiting on approval and live advertising, so nothing in flight is dropped. Your team or the previous agency keeps whatever access you choose until the handover is done.

Question 27

What happens in the first month?

Accepted Answer

Access is set up in the first days, and the audit follows: purchase orders, payments against invoices, deductions, the catalogue, content and advertising. Deductions still inside Amazon's dispute window are filed as soon as they are found, the weekly purchase order review starts straight away, and the plan for the rest is agreed with you before anything else changes.

Question 28

What does Vendor Central management cost?

Accepted Answer

Our management fee starts at $1,500 a month (see Pricing). The audit confirms scope: the size of the range and the work it needs. Ask for the free audit and you get the reconciliation and our view of the account before any fee is agreed.

Amazon Vendor Central management for brands that sell to Amazon

What’s included in Amazon Vendor Central

Purchase order management

Chargebacks, shortages and deduction disputes

Catalogue and content in Vendor Central

Retail data, forecasting and inventory

Advertising for vendors

Terms, cost price and the first party or third party decision

How it works

Audit

Plan

Run

Report and adjust

How the fee works

Frequently asked questions

Amazon Renewed

Retail Growth Partnership

BPO Services

Guides on Amazon Vendor Central

Vendor Central and Seller Central, and Which One You Are In

Amazon Purchase Orders Down or Stopped? What Vendor Central's Own Numbers Show

Want this run properly on Amazon Vendor Central?