What’s the difference between selling on Amazon Vendor vs Seller Central?

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Deciding to sell on Amazon is always a good thing. Almost all brands that are selling off their website or social media are now taking it to the eCommerce giant.

 

While it is easy to say that you want to take your brand to the next level, signing up and having an Amazon account for selling is a different story. 

 

This is also the reason why you will see many specialists, books dedicated to, and video tutorials on how to start selling with Amazon. If you are an experienced seller, you can look back at your challenges and know that it was never easy. 

 

To start off, there is a massive difference between signing up for a Vendor Central account versus a Seller Central account. Each platform depends on the benefits you desire and how everything works for you and your business. 

 

But don’t worry, we will try to condense all the pros and cons of both dashboards and how they should fit into your goals. 

 

The Vendor Central, Up Close

 

The website Webretailer defines Vendor Central as “an invite-only platform for businesses that want to sell their products to Amazon itself. When you sell to Amazon in this capacity, you are their supplier”

 

To explain the process further, once you get invited to this vendor club, Amazon will buy your products. You will then send Amazon the inventory they ordered. Finally, they cut you a check.

 

Pretty simple right? And possibly, guaranteed pain-free in selling through Amazon. However, without the possibility of being invited, the following benefits are perhaps out of reach:

 

It’s certainly sold by Amazon

 

Of course, there is nothing more convenient than Amazon itself selling your products, right? It’s like asking the boss that pays you to do the work they are paying you for.

 

If that’s not enough that Amazon will be buying your product and resell it with your brand name, you have to also expect that since Amazon bought your product it will earn brand trust and awareness without you spending any money through advertisement.

 

With that said, your only concern is about your back-office work such as inventory, billing, etc., and let Amazon introduce your brand to the world!

 

Pretty sweet, right?

The AMS Marketing tool

 

Aside from being backed by Amazon, you are also given a tool at your disposal called AMS or Amazon Marketing Services. With the AMS Marketing tool, you have a one-stop shop for your ads and what to use depending on your goal in your marketing area. 

 

This requires at least a background knowledge of how it works. Tinkering with AMS might not give you the best results you are aiming for. 

 

There are definitely a bunch of Youtube tutorials on how to understand the AMS marketing tool that you could self-learn through. 

The streamlining of business

You have to understand that when you sign up for a Vendor Central account, your business is definitely the wholesaler/distributor which makes Amazon the retailer. With Amazon directly buying your products, you do not have to worry about logistical options. 

 

And since Amazon is buying your products, traditional payment is definitely in the basket as Amazon pays you directly. No need to wait for customers to pay you or patiently wait for them to check out your products. 

 

Vendor Central, and its limitation

 

But before you think vendor central is the only option, here’s a fairly recent announcement from Jeff Bezos himself about the fact that third-party sellers are kicking Amazon’s butt when it comes to selling.  It seems that Amazon’s CEO transitioning to Executive Chair, Jeff Bezos, is saying that third-party sellers, those that sell through seller central, are beating Amazon at its own game.  Here could be a couple of reasons why.  

You have no control over pricing

Here’s the thing, Amazon does not always give you a competitive price. Of course, they want to give you a price that will benefit them as well but sometimes their main goal is to just direct as many customers as possible into Amazon to buy.  This not only increases traffic but also builds lifelong customers.  

 

It’s true that there are times when Amazon might give you a fair price, but this does not always happen. Remember that you are still selling on their platform. Thus, you can say that you might even lose money if it means being competitive and retaining customers. The thing is, there is no enforced minimum price for your products. 

Strict Requirements in fulfillment

The very specific requirements of Amazon make it particularly difficult for the wholesalers to replenish their inventory. Some vendors might find it challenging to meet the bulk orders that are required of them. 

 

When this happens and they do not meet the requirements, they are very vulnerable to chargebacks which is something that you don’t want to have as a problem.

Seller Central, Choosing Control

 

Here’s the truth about our brands, we like to CONTROL them.

 

When VDM Partners started private label or making our own line of products, we never wanted to take it solely on another company to completely take over the pricing of our products.

 

Thus, we opted to choose a Seller Central plan to sell our products. 

 

There are currently two types of Seller Central plans, the Individual and Professional plans. Of course, the Professional plan has more options such as putting promotions, gifts, and other special offers for your product that an individual plan cannot deliver. You can find more details about the comparison here.

Using FBA to match Vendor Central

 

Although not exactly as Vendor Central, there’s still a chance to insert the name of Amazon through FBA fulfillment. FBA stands for Fulfilled by Amazon.  This is a program where your products sit in an Amazon warehouse and as soon as you sell them on the Amazon platform, Amazon ships the products out.  

 

Obviously, Amazon fulfills the shipping of your products while you manage the selling of it on their platform. You can still take control of your inventory and especially how far you’ll go with lowering the price. 

 

Furthermore, FBA handles things like storage, shipping, and customer service. Amazon offers the following services to FBA customers:

 

  1. The seller’s inventory is stored at an Amazon warehouse.

 

      2. Each order is expertly packed.

 

       3. Ship orders to retailers in two days using the company’s two-day shipping service.

 

      4. Customers are contacted via the company’s customer service center.

 

      5. Returns are processed on behalf of the seller.

The better analytics wins

 

Seller Central users, on the other hand, have access to comprehensive analytics that can help them boost their bottom line, and they can better control their returns by proactively addressing dissatisfied customers.

 

Furthermore, price control enables them to easily capitalize on high-demand periods or offer sales, which is critical for remaining competitive during the holiday season.

 

So if you are a sucker for numbers that tell a trend or a story, you will find it handy that the Seller Central has more of what you are looking for. 

The pricing is yours to control

 

We cannot put an emphasis on this enough. There is nothing that beats your control on pricing. Especially if you have a brick-and-mortar store or you have resellers who do not go online to sell your products. 

 

It can be damaging to your brand reputation if all customers just buy on Amazon because it has the lowest price and that price is extremely low compared to other store counterparts. With that said, it is only a matter of time before your resellers will stop purchasing from you. 

 

So what happens when Amazon is the only seller of your product? Of course, they could lower your price to the point of you losing money. You could always walk away per your contract. But imagine the losses that you would get before realizing you can fly solo and have more control of your products. 

 

With price control on your side, you can adjust your prices accordingly to boost your profits.

Seller Central, and its limitation

Fulfillment costs can be tricky

 

There’s nothing more frustrating than selling lower-priced items on Amazon. Because of Amazon’s shipping fees and other fees, it’s difficult to sell low-cost items at a profit. Even if you use Amazon’s FBA service, you’ll have to pay for it and it may not be worth it.

 

If you want a clearer picture of profit after you choose FBA, you can always check this Amazon calculator tool here.

 

Competing against Amazon can be tricky

 

The words “Ships from and sold by Amazon” appear next to Amazon Vendor Central products, giving them more clout on the website. Even if Seller goods are sold through FBA, these products sometimes outperform Amazon Seller Central goods.

 

However, time and again, there are many times that FBA Sellers can match the intensity that Vendor products have. Oftentimes, the right PPC advertisements, quality of product, and people you can trust on your team can accelerate a product’s sales. 

 

Here’s where we come in…

 

There are challenges in setting up an Amazon account. And even if you have been learning it for quite some time, it can still be too much for some and not worth their time. 

VDM Partners has helped many FBA sellers through wholesale agreements or consulting with people, tailoring a plan so that your products can get the sales and brand awareness it deserves. 

 

We build great listings for products to rank and build sales, we have a vast knowledge of PPC that is proven to increase keyword sales, and we implement proven strategies that we use on our own brand’s success. 

 

Get your free discovery call with us by emailing info@vdmpartners.com for more information.  

 

Is It Safe To Sell On Amazon?  How You Can Protect Yourself From Bad Competitors

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Life as we know it can be unfair. We gave up trying to make sense of that after some unfortunate things happened to us. That does not mean that bad things happen to us because it just happens. Sometimes, bad things happen because of somebody. 

This can be the case on Amazon. 

Like crabs trying to pull you down if they think you are above them, some competitors won’t stop until you’re pulled down the food chain. This means getting your account suspended at all costs. If you don’t believe that this could happen to you, simply go to the amazon forum and you’ll read some stories of accounts suspended. No matter how strong their brand is. 

Of course, this does not mean that you cannot fight back or appeal. But with thousands of support tickets created daily, what are your chances?

Maybe there’s a resolution in trying to spam Amazon on all of their social media channels and raising your questions. Or you can use the often mentioned method of emailing Jeff himself.  Again, what are the chances?

Knowing the blackhat tactics that your competitors do will help you see danger ahead of time before it even starts. Who wants all that hardship that it takes to build a valuable Amazon brand only to have it burned to the ground? No one.

So keep your defenses up, these are the bad tactics your competitors might do to take you out of the competition:

The flooding of positive reviews

Amazon’s war on reviews is longstanding. When people with ill intentions try to flood a product with numerous negative reviews, Amazon’s justice is quick to take effect.

But the war does not stop there. When unscrupulous competitors are determined more than ever to dominate sales, they had to improvise. This time, flooding a product with positive reviews that are not even related to the product. 

This is still seen as a manipulation of reviews. That’s why if you recount the story of Zac Plansky who ran a multi-million dollar company on Amazon, you will know that it is a pretty serious deal. 

There is no clear line of defense on this but to report an entire listing to amazon’s support. They will then take a look at the reviews in question and see if they could be removed. You just have to be quick in taking action on your suspicions if you get flooded with these positive reviews.

Evil competitors buying tons of your products

Clearly, at this point, there is no stopping these competitors from trying to smear your brand. Another way that they could launch an attack on your brand is to buy tons of your products over and over again. 

Once they do this, they will eventually report your product as defective or counterfeit. This is a painful jab and the only defense you have is to provide Amazon with supplier invoices. The verification process of the invoices you sent will be a long and painful process but it is the best defense. 

Cloning your entire products

If buying products was not enough, how about copying your products intentionally? With not even the shame of trying to improvise something on your product, counterfeiters have challenged the system by creating fake products.

Of course, these knock-offs can be quite cheap, and since there really is no major difference, sales are now siphoned to these counterfeiters. 

How do you take care of this situation? The best method to defend this is to create a strong brand that is trademarked and then getting your product on the brand registry.  You can also do a test buy from these stores trying to put you out of business. Once you confirm that these products are indeed a copy-cat, send them to Amazon to confirm the legitimacy. Be warned though that like other decision-making, Amazon might take time to suspend the fake account. 

In the meantime, it means that you must wait and a few negative reviews may come your way. At least, it is not suspending your account!

Compromising your Amazon account

Persistent bad actors also have skills, in fact without persistence, how long can they try and do the above-mentioned tactics?

This is why some of them have resorted to hacking your account. It is pretty hard to take down Amazon’s login defenses considering there are many things to consider. A complex password can always help with that. 

Once this hack has been executed, they will try and change your listing and post some unflattering photos just to scare the buyers. On the other hand, if they are capable, they can just completely take over. 

However, it might be the panic of your life once your money has been drained and the hacker’s bank is still in your account!

When this happens, it might be time to lawyer up as many have been successful in recouping account hacks when brought upon by legal teams. 

The claims that your product is hazardous

You know what rings the Amazon ‘action bell’ more than anything? Safety risks! This method of bad actors trying to grind you down is quite similar to buying tons of products for bad counterfeit claims. 

The only difference with buying a product with this bad tactic is that the bad actors stage a fire hazard from your product. It seems like all of these people took a photography course for the kind of fire they can capture.

While it is both laughable and unbelievable, this can happen and has happened to many sellers. This happens to sellers who are selling electronics as it’s quite a believable story to say because of short-circuiting.

In Retrospect:

Amazon’s press releases are always the same: there is a team of both internal and external teams reviewing and enforcing suspensions and manipulation of the system. While there are success stories of getting Amazon to take action, some are still trying. 

Things like this call for an experienced seller that can guide you in the right direction.  Navigating the Amazon mayhem alone is your choice but doing it alone can have consequences that might lead to miserable experiences. 

If you do not have any idea, researching will do you some good. If you want to focus your time on something important, try getting some help. 

VDM Partners has been helping several brands to take care of their Seller Central account and helping them grow their business. Schedule a call and we will be happy to discuss how you can avoid these attacks on your brand. 

 

What is MAP and How Can It Protect My Brand On Amazon?

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As a brand owner selling on Amazon one of the most important tactics of brand protection is implementing a MAP policy for your branded products.  Unfortunately, very few brands know about this tactic and fewer actually use it.  To give this topic formal clarity, MAP or Minimum Advertised Pricing is the lowest price a brand owner can allow its retailers to sell a product. 

 

If you have been dealing with third-party sellers on Amazon, you will know that enforcing a MAP policy is not as easy as simply telling them. Execution is always hard. Among the top reasons why it is challenging is you have to monitor these sellers when they try to dip the prices of your products in an effort to win the buy box and be the top seller of the product. 

 

And who has the time?

 

If you are a brand owner, monitoring other sellers can be a big inconvenience. There is only so much you can do to police these sellers. The hardest part is, Amazon will never help you monitor MAP violators. 

 

As you discover that Amazon doesn’t much care, you will scratch your head to know that you can either pay somebody to monitor MAP violators or add another expense to get software to alert you. 

 

Now, do you just simply quit enforcing MAP policy because it is too hard? 

 

Well, you might need to rethink that after you realize that not enforcing MAP will only cost you much more than braving the obstacles that come your way by executing it. 

 

So what are the terrible consequences of not enforcing MAP to your Amazon sellers:

 

  1. Your retail partners who have brick-and-mortar stores will slowly notice the decline of buyers. Simply put, why will people buy from these physical stores that ask customers to walk or travel more if they can get the same exact product from Amazon, delivered and at a lower price?

 

      2. Once your brick-and-mortar partners slowly notice that the Amazon sellers are stealing their customers, they will begin to remove your products from their shelves. At this point, there’s no sense in storing your products.

 

      3. Without brick and mortar stores to get your products, the only channel to distribute your products will be online or on Amazon. 

 

     4. You are now simply an online wholesaler and you will start to notice that many third-party sellers are wanting to sell your products on the same platform.

 

     5. Granting more third-party sellers on Amazon without them following a set of guidelines will never lead to more sales, it will only lead to the same amount of sales divided into all these sellers.  Eventually, the interest in sellers selling your product will wane.  

 

    6. Over time, the value of the brand will be devalued and concentrated to only one or two platforms, which further inhibits the brand’s recognition and potential.  

 

Now what? Do you avoid third-party sellers entirely?

 

Not exactly. There is wealth in having a limited amount of trusted third-party sellers to distribute your products. And if you select the right sellers, all of you will grow to prosper. 

 

Here’s how to get your MAP policy enforced and followed by your sellers:

 

Create and Write MAP Policy Rules in Black and White

 

A written agreement on MAP policy that is justified for both parties, the seller and the brand owner, is the very first step. You see, nothing beats anything that is in writing before bringing in your third-party sellers. 

 

The creation of MAP policies can be as simple or as complicated as a brand owner would like to make it.  Much of this depends on the size and reach of the brand.  However, the basic necessities of a MAP policy are the following:  Effective date.  To whom it applies.  The definition of the MAP.  To which retail platforms it applies.  Who monitors and makes the decisions about MAP.  And the consequences if MAP is broken.  

 

With writing MAP policy rules, you also need to be clear about what kind of consequences await those who violate these rules. It does very little good to have these policies but then never enforce them.  

 

Make it Serious, Enforce the MAP Policy, and Show no Exceptions

 

As mentioned earlier in this article, Map Policy execution is not easy for busy brand owners. However, the importance of it can not be understated.   

 

For one, if you find a violator who did not take you seriously, make an example and give the appropriate consequence of their action. Make it known to your other sellers that you take your MAP policy seriously and there will be consequences to anyone who violates it. 

Serial Numbers might be Your Best Friend

 

Serial numbers can be your best friend and for a very good reason. You see serial numbers track everything and give you clarity on where the leak is coming from. This is true especially when an unauthorized seller pops out of nowhere. 

 

Give yourself a chance to do a test buy through an unauthorized seller. Once you get the product, track the serial number from where it is shipped off. This helps you better understand exactly who the unauthorized sellers are.  

 

Offer Manufacturer Warranty on Products Sold by Authorized Sellers

 

‘Material Difference’ in legal terms is an infringement on the brand owner’s original product. An example of a good material difference that can be defended, even by Amazon, is the manufacturer’s warranty. 

 

You see the manufacturer’s warranty on products sold by authorized sellers over products with no warranty through unauthorized sellers is heavily encouraged by trademark lawyers. You are best to follow this advice and list your authorized sellers on your website. If anyone violates, you can definitely send them a cease and desist letter and everything that follows after that. 

 

Brand-gating could be an option

 

There are a whole lot of steps to follow if you want your product to be gated on Amazon. The four important steps are:

 

  1. Getting your brand registered as a trademark in a country where you want to sell your product.

 

       2. Enrolling in the Amazon brand registry.

 

       3. Contact Amazon and submit a list of your most important and/or most counterfeited ASINs (Amazon Standard            Identification Number) to Amazon

 

      4. Inform Amazon of the resellers you authorized to sell your brand.

 

Another layer of protection that Amazon has recently released is the Transparency Program.  This is another item-level tracing service that places a unique transparency label on each of the products.  This allows only the correct products to be sold by authorized retailers and it protects the brand’s exposure to counterfeits.  This is a service that Amazon offers only for brand registered products.   

 

Get One of Your Resellers to Monitor MAP and Report it to You.

 

As you build relationships with your resellers and retain a strong foundation of doing business, you can ask a trusted reseller to monitor MAP for you. Regardless, some of your sellers would even do it for you without asking because it is not only good for the brand, it is good for the resellers also.  

 

VDM Partners has always been committed to brands that we sell.  Having our own brand that we monitor ourselves, we understand the importance of brand protection.  And we not only commit to improving the Amazon listing and the rank of your products, but we also can be your MAP police in order to enforce MAP for other sellers. Our goal is not only to have our partners get as many sales as possible but also to help in building a world-class brand that is respected across all selling platforms.  Aiding in implementing a MAP policy and policing that is just one level of service we can offer your brand today.