Vendor Central is invite-only, runs on purchase orders and EDI, and deducts money for every mistake. Direct Import lets Amazon buy straight from your factory. Here's how both work, why vendors lose margin, and everything our team manages on Amazon every day.
To sell to Amazon as a vendor: get the Vendor Central invitation (or make the case for one); negotiate terms you can live with; set up every item with complete content and A+ pages; acknowledge every PO on time, ship to Amazon's routing and labeling rules, and send the ASN before the truck arrives; keep your fill rate and lead times inside Amazon's targets; reconcile every remittance for chargebacks, shortage claims and allowance deductions and dispute the wrong ones; and, if you manufacture overseas, use Direct Import so Amazon buys at the factory. Or hand all of it to a team that does it every day.
One factory we worked with had never done business with Amazon. We got Amazon to fly out and visit the factory. Amazon's first purchase order was $1.2 million. The next year, Amazon ordered $8 million through its Direct Import program. That's what a vendor relationship looks like when the setup, the content and the compliance are handled right from the first PO.
The invitation. The vendor terms — payment terms, freight allowance, damage allowance, co-op, the AVS conversation. Vendor Central. EDI over AS2 — 850, 855, 856, 810, 846 — with the ASN due hours before the shipment arrives and SSCC labels that must match it exactly. The routing guide, carrier appointments, carton and pallet prep. Chargebacks in six flavors: PO, ASN, prep, packaging, transportation, receive. Shortage claims and price claims on the remittance. Fill-rate and on-time targets that move every year. A+ content, Brand Store, Vine. And on Direct Import: booking windows, ship-window-open dates, import documents due days after departure, and chargebacks for missing any of them.
Every one of those is a place to lose margin or lose the next PO. Our team runs all of them for home furnishing suppliers, inside your Vendor Central account. You keep the account and the relationship; we do the work.
Vendor Central is Amazon's first-party (1P) wholesale channel. You're invited. Amazon buys your products at a negotiated cost, owns the inventory, sets the retail price, sells and ships it. You receive purchase orders, ship to Amazon's fulfillment centers to Amazon's rules, invoice, and get paid on terms — minus whatever Amazon deducts. Almost everything runs on EDI. Direct Import is Vendor Central for overseas manufacturers: Amazon buys at your factory (FOB), books the freight and imports the goods itself, so the factory sells direct without a US importer in the middle. It has its own booking windows, document deadlines and chargebacks.
Three things decide whether the POs keep coming: whether you ship complete and on time every time, whether your listings convert once Amazon has your product, and whether you catch and dispute the deductions before they eat the margin.
Chargebacks go unchallenged. Six categories, all automated, each with a dispute window. Nobody reconciles the remittance, so they stand.
Shortage claims eat the invoice. Amazon says fewer units arrived than you shipped; without the ASN and proof of delivery in order, you can't win it.
Late 855s and missing 856s. The acknowledgment and the ship notice are where most compliance failures start.
Thin listings don't convert. Amazon owns the price, but the content is yours — and incomplete listings sit.
Fill-rate misses stop the POs. Amazon forecasts from your performance; miss the targets and the orders shrink.
Direct Import deadlines. Booking windows and document deadlines are strict, and every miss is a chargeback.
Vendor Central is invitation-only; Amazon's vendor managers invite brands based on category fit, catalog and sales history. The invitation arrives at your business email. We position lines for invitation and handle the setup once it comes.
As a vendor, Amazon buys your product wholesale, owns the inventory, sets the price and handles the customer. You manage purchase orders, shipments, content and deductions. It's a wholesale relationship, and it's the one we manage.
A Vendor Central program for overseas manufacturers where Amazon buys at your factory (FOB), books the freight and imports the goods itself — so a factory sells direct to Amazon without a US importer or distributor. It carries its own booking and document deadlines.
Automated deductions for not following Amazon's rules on purchase orders, ship notices, prep, packaging, transportation and receiving. Each has a dispute process and a window; the ones you don't dispute, you pay.
Enhanced product-page content — image modules, comparison charts, brand story — that Amazon lets vendors add below the standard listing. It lifts conversion and we build it for every item that earns it.
Yes. We audit the catalog and the last year of remittances, fix and complete the listings, take over PO and shipment compliance, and dispute what's been wrongly deducted.
Book a call. We'll tell you what Amazon needs from your line, or audit the account you already have.