Tips to Navigate a 3P Selling Platform

After Amazon announced that they would terminate a multitude of 1P (first-party) vendors by November 9, 2024, plenty of low- to mid-size brands have been racing to move their operations to Amazon Seller Central (3P). Time is ticking by as sellers prepare for Q4 and Black Friday, and some brands may still need to dive deep into what makes Seller Central different from Vendor Central. Check out this list of the perks and challenges you’ll discover on this 3P Amazon selling system, and review our advice on the best ways to navigate and prepare.??

PERKS OF AMAZON SELLER CENTRAL

• Greater Control Over Operations: As a 3P seller, you’ll have greater control over pricing, inventory, fulfillment, and marketing strategies for your business. If you’re unfamiliar with managing all these aspects of your selling operations, you can enlist the support of a 3P logistics company that can help manage the product catalog.?
• Valuable Customer Insights: Direct access to customer data and sales analytics can help inform business decisions and marketing efforts. The expanded range of audience data factors available in Seller Central will help to refine ad campaign strategies so you can target your top-selling products toward your most accessible audience demographics.?
• Flexible Fulfillment Options: Choose between Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) or your own shipping arrangements to fit your business needs. You also have more control and ownership over products, making them easier to launch.?
• Access to a Massive Customer Base: Brands will still reach millions of potential customers on the largest e-commerce platform.?
• Higher Profit Potential: Without Amazon acting as a middleman, brands can enjoy higher profit margins and better returns on ad spend without having Vendor Central set the price for each product. They can also boost profits by prioritizing “hero ASINs” and controlling the amount of inventory sent out at once.?

CHALLENGES OF AMAZON SELLER CENTRAL

• Fee Differences and Profit Margins: Seller Central fees vary from Vendor Central. Though they don’t include VC terms and negotiations, you can expect up-front costs like FBA fees and the typical retail consignment costs. There are also increased storage limitations with FBA, which can hinder the amount of product that can be fulfilled at one time.?
• Operational and Accounting Adjustments: You’ll switch from invoice-based wholesale to retail consignment, which can affect accounting processes and require recalculations in areas like TACOS (Total Advertisement Cost on Sale).?
• Longer Product Check-in Times: Prepare for extended check-in times at fulfillment centers, especially before major events.?
• Longer Registration Times: Seller Central could have a registration backlog, so the verification process may take longer. Consider FBM (Fulfillment by Merchant) or 3PL (Third-Party Logistics) options to move products faster.
• User Interface Learning Curve: The Seller Central interface differs from Vendor Central, requiring time to adjust to managing listings and customer inquiries and tracking performance. The function names are different on reports too. For example, what is labeled as Ordered Revenue in Vendor Central is called Ordered Product Sales in Seller Central.?
• Account Health Management: Seller Central requires you to take a more active role in your account health to manage customer orders, respond to inquiries, or handle listing flags or content concerns.?

SOME OF THE BEST WAYS TO START IN SELLER CENTRAL

Don’t Move Total Inventory into Seller Central Right Away: Prioritize a handful of “hero ASINs” that you know are high-selling products to get a better foothold in the Seller Central system. As your profits stabilize, you can slowly introduce new products one at a time to ensure they get the same care and treatment as your top sellers, especially with the amount of work each product ASIN requires in Seller Central. You’ll also have longer check-in times to get your products into FCs before tentpole events, like Prime Day, so account for this.?

Check Your Listings in Real Time: The best way to stay on top of your account health is to manage ad campaigns and product listings in real time to quickly act on trends or respond to any concerns. If you’re enlisting any agency help, it helps to find an agency like Buy Box Experts that has proprietary software and processes to enable daily alerts for listing notifications, ensuring nothing is missed.?

Dive into Your New Listing and Customer Insights: Explore detailed insights into your new listings and customer behavior through Amazon’s reporting tools or any additional reporting tools an agency provides. Monitor key metrics like sales, Buy Box performance, and conversion rates while gaining a deeper understanding of your audience through data dashboards. Buy Box Experts has access to multiple levels of reporting to optimize your strategies on a granular level.

If you’re looking for third-party agency help with this monumental Amazon change, working with a tech-enabled, proactive agency team can make all the difference. Buy Box Experts incorporates the latest tools and innovations to stay ahead of the curve, ensuring swift and effective solutions. With an action-oriented mindset, they don’t just react to challenges—they anticipate them, developing a long-term game plan to keep your business thriving through sustainable success. Our full-funnel approach ensures that each stage of your Amazon sales process is optimized from awareness to conversion. This end-to-end service provides seamless integration across all aspects of your marketing, delivering comprehensive support to boost both engagement and revenue.

Reach out to our vice president of growth, Brad Saksons, at [email protected] to discuss how we can help you with a Seller Central transfer strategy.

If you want to connect in person, the Buy Box Experts team will be attending the 2024 Amazon Accelerate conference in Seattle, Washington, from September 17–19. Watch for our summary post after the conference to find all the great takeaways for Amazon account growth covered this year!?