There has been a lot of buzz lately about Amazon dumping suppliers, who are forced to become merchants using SellerCentral instead of VendorCentral if they want to sell their company’s products on the marketplace.
Some people are wondering why Amazon suppliers have suddenly stopped taking orders. Also, it is said that many people have been told to become self-service third-party merchants instead of first-party suppliers. Is Amazon really dumping suppliers?
They absolutely don’t care whether they have a supplier relationship with Amazon as a retailer or whether they can provide a large number of goods to customers. It doesn’t matter to Amazon whether the product is a retail item or a third-party product. What Amazon cares about is convenience and selection at a price. As long as it is in stock and as long as the price is competitive. Then make Amazon a better place for customers to buy, not only from suppliers but also from third-party sales. Especially on Prime Day, Amazon will win with its partners as suppliers and sellers.
Obviously, Amazon’s third-party business is growing faster than its first-party business. Merchant sales are growing faster than Amazon suppliers. However, the growth of the retail industry as a whole means that Amazon as a retailer does not have enough resources to keep itself. So smaller suppliers are migrating to become merchants. Amazon will still have supplier relationships, just likely larger ones.