How to control & automate your product content on Amazon Vendor Central

What is Amazon Vendor Central?

Amazon Vendor Central is an invite-only program where you become a supplier of Amazon. Vendors supply products in large quantities to the marketplace; then Amazon sells the individual units to consumers, handling pricing, and customer service responsibilities on your behalf. This type of relationship with Amazon is also known as a 1P selling model.

The importance of presenting your brand accurately on Vendor Central 

As a vendor, you must provide high-quality product information to have a correct representation of your products on Amazon’s PDPs (Product Detail Pages). However, managing your product information on Vendor Central is quite challenging. The time-consuming manual work and struggle to solve errors in your catalog can seriously hinder operations and compromise product content quality. 

ChannelEngine enables you to automate and control product content across all global Amazon channels from a single intuitive platform. With this set up, you’ll save considerable time, while maintaining a strong brand image. And that’s just the beginning. Imagine having a centralized hub to manage all relevant details for your listings across every major marketplace you want to sell on.

6 Common problems of managing product information on Amazon Vendor

Without the automation capabilities of a solution like ChannelEngine, adding and maintaining your product content in the catalog of Amazon Vendor Central can be challenging:

• Connecting back-end systems: You can't easily connect your back-end systems, such as an ERP, ecommerce system, or PIM, to load your product content into Amazon's catalog. 
• Manual data entry: Getting product information into the catalog requires lots of manual effort by filling in different Excel/CSV templates. This process can be time-consuming and prone to errors, especially when dealing with many products.
• Content synchronization: Updating product information in Vendor Central and ensuring that changes are reflected accurately on the product detail pages requires careful attention and constant monitoring.
• Complex product variations: Managing complex product variations, such as different sizes, colors, or configurations, can be overwhelming. It often involves navigating through multiple fields and options in Vendor Central, increasing the likelihood of inconsistencies and errors.
• Limited visibility into errors: Resolving error codes in product listings without further explanation may leave you struggling to troubleshoot and fix issues.
• Lack of control: Missing product information could lead to a lack of control over product content displayed on PDPs of your products. Amazon may include product information that is uploaded by third-party sellers on Seller Central. 

Gain full control over your product content across Amazon

With the direct integration between ChannelEngine and Vendor Central, it’s now possible to manage product content and other relevant information from an intuitive platform. Any changes are automatically synced with Vendor Central and reflected in the catalog, providing several benefits for vendors: 

• Centralized catalog management: Effortlessly manage your product content using a user-friendly interface. All changes to your product information are automatically synced with Vendor Central. Create optimized listings for improved search visibility and optimal representation. 
• Accurate representation across Amazon: Tailor your product attributes, including product name, description, features, images, and pricing, to have a correct representation of your brand on the Product Display Page (PDP). Content published on Vendor Central holds more “authority” and generally overrides content added by third-party sellers on Amazon’s Seller Central. Maintain brand integrity and enhance the customer experience. 
• Time and resource efficiency: By automating manual processes and providing seamless integration with backend systems, such as a PIM, ERP, or ecommerce system,  ChannelEngine reduces your workload, freeing up valuable time and resources. Focus on your core business while trusting that your product content is in capable hands.
• Insights on listings and errors: Our system informs you if the product content is published successfully. In case you receive an error code, the system will guide you on how to fix it.  
• Faster go to market: When doing a new product introduction, our platform provides the required speed and effectiveness to get your product listed as soon as possible with all the correct info. This enables Amazon to purchase your new product(s) early on.  

Explore a hybrid selling strategy to maximize sales

Our platform offers much more than controlling your product information on Vendor Central. It opens the door to developing a hybrid selling model, helping your business to increase its agility and maximize sales results in different scenarios. This strategic approach allows brands to capitalize on the best of both worlds, combining the control and advantages of first-party (1P) selling with the flexibility and risk mitigation offered by third-party (3P) selling.

Hybrid selling is on the rise. According to a survey amongst 1000 brands and private labels from Feedvisor, 78% were adopting a hybrid selling model on Amazon in 2023, up from 61% in 2022. This trend underscores the growing recognition among sellers that a hybrid approach provides a robust and adaptable solution in the evolving landscape of ecommerce.

Say, for instance, you’re selling three-quarters of your stock through Vendor Central (1P), but Amazon has no interest in that final quarter. Rather than the remaining inventory sitting in a warehouse, a hybrid model allows you to sell it through Amazon Seller Central (3P) and make sales you otherwise might not have. ChannelEngine lets you switch between the two Amazon channels within minutes, maximizing your flexibility and the number of incoming orders. 

With our extensive marketplace offering you can even explore a 3P or direct-to-consumer (D2C) approach that goes beyond Amazon. Access hundreds of marketplaces and online sales channels by integrating into a single platform where you can manage and automate your product content, pricing, orders, and inventory. We’re happy to assist in discovering the right hybrid selling set up for your ecommerce business.