Moving from Vendor Central to Seller Central on Amazon
There are specific considerations and timing that has to take place when considering moving your sales on Amazon from Vendor Central to Seller Central to make sure that you do not jeopardize your relationship with Amazon during the transition. If you think you may need to move to Seller Central in the future, there are also steps you can take to make sure you can quickly transition if your items were to no longer be carried on Vendor Central.
In this episode, Peter Kearns of 180ccomerce shares from his experience moving brands from Vendor Central to Seller Central. We also cover some of the specific considerations you need to consider as you consider moving your Amazon sales from a 1P to a 3P relationship on Amazon.
Identify the ASINs that you are ready to move to Seller Central
Before transitioning to Seller Central and sending in items into Amazon’s warehouses with the Fulfillment by Amazon program, it’s essential to review your catalog at an ASIN level. This will allow you to identify ahead of time which products make sense to migrate to Seller Central and which don’t.
While in many cases moving to Seller Central can increase the profitability of the items being sold, for bulky or low average selling price items it can be difficult to maintain the same margins from Vendor Central to Seller Central.
The first steps to identifying which products you would want to move to Seller Central are:
- Is this item profitable- You can use the FBA Revenue Calculator to see potentially profitability of an item when utilizing the FBA program.
- Is this item still being carried on Vendor Central- It is not recommended that you compete with an offer that you have active on Vendor Central as this can jeopardize your relationship with Amazon. When looking at bringing over SKUs from Vendor Central to Seller Central we recommend that you start with SKUs that Amazon is no longer ordering on Vendor Central.
Don’t Wait To Create your Seller Central Account
If you think you might want to utilize Seller Central for your products on Amazon, Peter recommends getting your account opened sooner rather than later.
Remember, opening an account with Amazon and getting any necessary permission to sell on Amazon can take time, so it’s better to do it when you are not pressured to sell. In addition to opening your account, you might also need to get approval to sell in a restricted category or even to gain brand approval for your own brand.
Having your account set up and loaded with your products allows you to be more agile if your relationship with Amazon on Vendor Central is terminated or the terms are no longer profitable for your business.
Controlling Distribution Protects Your Status On Vendor Central
Whether you plan to continue to sell on Vendor Central or eventually move to Seller Central, controlling your distribution will be vital to your success and profitability on Amazon. Controlling distribution is the number one thing you need to be doing right now to get prepared if or when you migrate from VC to SC.
If you have a large number of 3P sellers with offers it will hurt your metrics on Vendor Central. When you move to Seller Central a large number of unauthorized sellers can prohibit your ability to advertise and cause instability in the pricing of your items on Amazon.
Make sure you have clear policies that are consistently enforced with who is allowed to sell on Amazon. We recommend that you limit the number of authorized sellers of your products to those 3P sellers that are actively contributing to your marketing strategy or are also a brick and mortar location.
Help Selling on Amazon
Robyn has years of experience helping with Amazon Account Management, Amazon PPC management, and Amazon Listing Management. For more information, contact Marketplace Blueprint today!
