Vendor Central vs Seller Central: which should a UK brand choose?

“Vendor or Seller?” is usually asked as if a brand has to pick a side. It doesn’t. Vendor Central and Seller Central are two different ways of doing business with Amazon, and the right one can differ from one product to the next in the same catalogue. This guide sets out what each route means, what Amazon does and does not publish about them, and how to decide with your own numbers. If you already sell through Vendor Central, or have been invited, our guide to Vendor Central UK explains how it works in detail: purchase orders, the terms you negotiate and the chargebacks to watch.

What Vendor Central and Seller Central are

Seller Central is the third-party (3P) route. You list products in the Amazon store, set the price, and pay Amazon a referral fee on each sale, plus fulfilment fees if you use Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA). Any business can register¹; our guide to selling on Amazon UK covers this route for an established brand.

Vendor Central is the first-party (1P) route. Amazon describes it as “by invitation only” and a relationship in which, “instead of selling directly to customers, vendors sell in bulk (wholesale) to Amazon"¹. Amazon receives your stock against purchase orders, owns it, and sells it as the retailer. To trade through Vendor Central you accept Amazon’s vendor agreements¹²; the commercial terms inside them, such as cost prices, allowances and payment terms, are negotiated with Amazon and not published.

That last point matters for everything below. On the seller side, almost every fee is on a public help page. On the vendor side, the most important numbers live in your own agreement.

The decision framework, side by side

Why “Vendor is a trap” and “always go hybrid” are both wrong

Our own older posts said both, so it is worth being clear. Vendor Central is not a trap: for the right products it is a simpler, lower-effort revenue line, and Amazon carries the retail risk. Hybrid is not automatically right either: running both routes adds work, and if a product earns more on one route, splitting it just adds cost.

What is true is narrower and more useful: the answer is a per-product calculation, and it can come out differently for different products in the same brand. In the catalogues we manage, it most often favours Vendor for low-price, bulky or very high-velocity lines, and Seller for premium, brand-led products and anything sold across several channels at a controlled price. The worked example below shows why.

Some products belong on Vendor, some on Seller. It is decided product by product on the unit economics, not by picking a side.

Compare the margin product by product

To compare fairly, work out what each route leaves you per unit after every cost, including the advertising you would fund on either route. The fee rules below are Amazon’s published UK rules²; the cost price, allowances, fulfilment fees, cost of goods and advertising are illustrative, so replace them with your own.

Product B is not close: Seller Central keeps more than twice as much per unit. Product A is close, and that is the useful lesson. Vendor is only ahead by 13p a unit before chargebacks and shortages, so a few pence of deductions per unit would wipe out the advantage. Before choosing Vendor for a product like this, you need to know your actual deduction rate from your own reports, not a figure from a forum.

Check the fee band as well. Since January 2026, several UK referral categories charge a lower rate on cheaper items: for example 8% on Home Products up to £20, and 5% on Vitamins, Minerals and Supplements up to £10². If Product A sat in an 8% band, its seller margin would rise to about £1.90 and Seller would win comfortably. The old rule of thumb that “cheap products belong on Vendor because referral fees eat the margin” needs rechecking against the current fee schedule.

The Profit X-Ray works out profit after fees and advertising for your Seller Central products, which gives you the seller side of this comparison in minutes. For the principles behind the advertising line, see our guide to break-even ACoS.

Cash flow, payment terms and deductions

Seller Central. Amazon’s standard reserve policy for UK sellers is “DD+7”: funds from an order become available for disbursement seven days after delivery⁵. You can then be paid on your automatic settlement cycle or request a disbursement once every 24 hours⁶. Amazon can apply longer reserves to some accounts.

Vendor Central. You are paid on the terms in your vendor agreement, and the payment is what remains after deductions. Amazon does not publish standard vendor payment terms, so we do not quote a figure; you will see “typical” terms quoted online, but the only number that counts is in your contract. Model the gap between shipping stock and receiving cash, and what it costs you to finance it.

Chargebacks and shortages are the vendor deductions that most often decide the comparison. Chargebacks are penalties for shipments that break Amazon’s supply-chain requirements, such as late or inaccurate deliveries or incorrect labelling and preparation. Shortage claims arise when Amazon records receiving fewer units than you invoiced. Both are deducted from payments, and both can be disputed if you have the evidence.

Amazon does not publish average chargeback or shortage rates, and we have not found a reliable independent figure, so treat any percentage you see quoted with caution. Pull your own numbers from the operational and payment reports inside Vendor Central for the last 12 months, per product if you can, and put them into the comparison above. In the accounts we have audited, deductions that nobody reconciles each week are the single most common reason a vendor account earns less than its owners think.

Advertising, data and Brand Registry

Advertising is open to both routes. Sponsored Brands is available to vendors and to professional sellers enrolled in Brand Registry⁷. One difference distorts comparisons: Amazon credits vendor ad sales over a 14-day window and includes other products from the same brand (a “brand halo”), while seller ad sales are credited over 7 days, for the advertised seller’s own products, on a last-click basis⁸. The same campaign can therefore show a better ACoS under Vendor than under Seller without performing any better. Compare the two routes on profit, not on reported ACoS.

Brand Registry works with either account. Amazon’s UK page says brands need a registered or pending trademark from an eligible office, and that you use your Seller Central or Vendor Central login to create the Brand Registry account⁴. If you are a vendor today, enrol now: it is the foundation for A+ Content, Brand Stores and brand protection whichever route you use.

Data. On the seller side, Amazon’s Brand Analytics, including the Search Query Performance dashboard that shows how shoppers search for your brand, is available to sellers with a brand representative role in Brand Registry⁹. As a seller you also see your own orders, prices and inventory in real time, which makes experiments on price, content and promotions much easier to read.

Operational burden: who does the work

Vendor Central is not “hands off”. Someone has to confirm purchase orders, book deliveries, meet Amazon’s routing, labelling and preparation standards, and dispute deductions every week. In return, Amazon handles pricing, customer service and fulfilment to the shopper.

Seller Central moves more of the retail work to you: pricing, listings, customer questions, inventory planning and account health. FBA takes on storage, picking, packing, delivery and customer service for the products you send in³, but you still own the forecasting and the fees. Our guide to what Amazon FBA is explains how it works.

Neither is lighter overall. They load different teams. A manufacturer with a strong logistics and EDI function often finds Vendor easier; a brand with a strong marketing and ecommerce team usually does better as a seller. If you are weighing up outside help, our guide to what an Amazon agency should cost sets out what to expect.

When hybrid makes sense

Running both routes is worth the extra work when three things are true:

1. The per-product comparison genuinely splits. Some products come out ahead on Vendor after deductions and others on Seller, by enough to cover the extra admin.
2. You can keep one route per product. Having Amazon and your own seller account offering the same product invites price conflict and confusing data. Assign each product to one route and keep a written list.
3. You protect your pricing elsewhere. Amazon sets its own retail prices on 1P products. If a product is also sold through your own site, TikTok Shop or other retailers at a controlled price, keep it on Seller Central, where the price is yours.

A common pattern in the accounts we manage: high-volume, low-price or bulky lines stay on Vendor, while new launches, premium products and anything that needs controlled promotion move to Seller. Review the split at least once a year, because fees, cost prices and Amazon’s ordering all move.

If Amazon ends your vendor relationship

Vendor terms are Amazon’s to change. In February 2023 CNBC reported that Amazon was ending wholesale sourcing from many European distributors, saying it would focus on “sourcing certain products for our European stores directly from brand owners” while distributors could keep selling as third-party sellers¹⁰. In October 2024 Retail Brew reported notices telling some US vendors that Amazon would “stop sourcing products from your company” from 9 November, with an Amazon spokesperson saying the company regularly reviews its product offerings¹¹. Neither report gives a count of UK vendors affected, and Amazon has not published one.

If you receive a notice, this is the 30-day plan we follow:

1. Days 1 to 3. Read the notice and your agreement for dates, open purchase orders and returns terms. Download your sales, traffic, inventory and deduction reports while you still have access.
2. Days 3 to 10. Open or reactivate Seller Central, confirm Brand Registry, and check who controls your product detail pages.
3. Days 10 to 20. Model seller margin for every product using the method above. Rank them, and plan to move the top sellers first; some low-margin lines may not be worth moving at all.
4. Days 20 to 30. Send the first FBA shipments for the priority products, set prices, and rebuild advertising campaigns in your own account. As a matter of practice we hold extra stock through the changeover so the best-sellers do not go out of stock.

Expect other sellers to appear on your listings once Amazon stops selling them, so check your distribution agreements and brand protection before the switch, not after.

A checklist before you decide

• List your products with the route each is on today and the route the numbers favour.
• For each product, calculate what is left per unit on both routes, including advertising and, for Vendor, your actual deductions.
• Check the product’s referral fee band in the current UK fee schedule.
• Decide which products need price control because they sell on other channels.
• Enrol in Brand Registry and keep a working Seller Central account whatever you choose.
• Put a date in the diary to review the split every year.

If you are also deciding where to sell beyond Amazon, our comparison of TikTok Shop and Amazon as a first channel applies the same product-by-product logic.