Amazon 1P means you sell your products to Amazon at wholesale and Amazon resells them; Amazon 3P means you sell through Amazon directly to the shopper and Amazon takes a commission. 1P is run from Vendor Central, 3P from Seller Central. The practical difference comes down to one question: after the handoff, who sets the retail price, owns the stock, and answers the customer? In 1P the answer is Amazon on all three. In 3P it is you.
Amazon’s own advertising documentation draws the line in one sentence: “Vendors sell their items directly to Amazon, who then sells them to customers. If you manage your products in Vendor Central or Advantage Central, you’re a vendor.” (Amazon Ads, vendor guide, checked 2026-07-29.)
One thing to note up front, because most articles on this topic blur it: Amazon publishes very little about the 1P side. Seller Central’s plans, fees, and program rules sit on open pages; Vendor Central’s terms live behind a login, inside a negotiated agreement. Rows in the table below are marked so you can see which facts come from Amazon’s published pages and which are vendor-reported practice.
Quick Definitions: 1P, 3P, and the Portals They Live In
| Term | What it means | Portal | Amazon’s role |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1P (first-party) | You sell inventory wholesale to Amazon Retail on a purchase order. Amazon takes ownership and resells it. | Vendor Central | Amazon is the retailer |
| 3P (third-party) | You list on the marketplace and sell directly to the shopper. Amazon provides the storefront and, optionally, fulfillment. | Seller Central | Amazon is the marketplace |
| Hybrid | Some ASINs on 1P, some on 3P — often a legacy 1P catalog plus a 3P account for new SKUs. | Both | Both, per ASIN |
The fastest way to tell which model a listing runs on: an item sold by Amazon.com is 1P; an item sold by [brand or company name], whether or not it says “Fulfilled by Amazon,” is 3P.
Amazon 1P vs 3P: The Comparison Table
Rows marked † are not documented on Amazon’s public pages — they reflect widely reported vendor practice and vary by the agreement you negotiate. Treat them as directional, not as terms you can quote back at anyone.
| 1P — Vendor Central | 3P — Seller Central | |
|---|---|---|
| Who sets the retail price | Amazon. You propose a wholesale cost; the price shoppers see is Amazon’s call, and it will be moved to match competing offers. | You. You set and change your own price at any time. |
| Who owns the inventory | Amazon, from the moment it accepts your shipment against a purchase order. | You, until the unit sells — including while it sits in an Amazon fulfillment center under FBA. |
| Who carries the stock risk | Amazon carries unsold-unit risk; you carry the risk of purchase orders that stop coming. | You, entirely. Slow movers cost you storage and, eventually, disposal. |
| Who handles returns and customer service | Amazon, as the seller of record. | You own the relationship. Under FBA, Amazon processes customer returns and front-line contacts on your behalf; under FBM, you handle both yourself. |
| How you get paid | Amazon issues purchase orders and pays the invoice on agreed terms.† | Amazon disburses your sales proceeds to your bank account on a settlement cycle, net of fees. |
| What you’re paid | Your wholesale price per unit. | The full retail price per unit, minus Amazon’s fees. |
| What Amazon charges | Deductions negotiated into the vendor agreement — co-op/marketing allowances, damage and freight allowances, chargebacks for operational non-compliance.† | Published fees: referral fee per sale, a selling plan fee, plus FBA fees if you use it. |
| Entry | Invitation-based. vendorcentral.amazon.com is a sign-in screen with no public application path (checked 2026-07-29). | Open registration. Anyone eligible can sign up and start listing. |
| Ongoing cost of entry | No published platform fee.† | Individual plan $0.99 / item sold or Professional plan $39.99 / month, per Amazon’s pricing page (checked 2026-07-29). |
| Catalog and content control | Amazon controls the detail page; content changes go through Vendor Central and can be overridden. | You control your own listing content, subject to category rules. |
| Advertising access | Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands are both available to vendors directly. | Sponsored Products is available to professional sellers; Sponsored Brands additionally requires Brand Registry enrollment. |
| Operational failure mode | Chargebacks and unfilled POs.† | Stockouts, account health issues, and losing the Featured Offer. |
The two rows worth re-reading
Advertising eligibility is asymmetric, and it is documented. Amazon states that “Sponsored Products are available for professional sellers, vendors, book vendors, Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) authors, and agencies” (Sponsored Products, checked 2026-07-29), but that “Sponsored Brands are available for vendors, book vendors, Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) authors, agencies, and professional sellers enrolled in Amazon Brand Registry” (Sponsored Brands, checked 2026-07-29). Read the two lists side by side: vendors appear unqualified in both, while 3P sellers pick up a Brand Registry condition on the second one. If you are going 3P with a brand, Brand Registry enrollment is not an optional nicety — it gates part of your ad stack. Enrollment is open to both sides, incidentally: Amazon’s Brand Registry page notes that “If you have a Seller Central or Vendor Central account, use the same username and password to create your Brand Registry account” (Brand Registry, checked 2026-07-29).
Pricing control is the row that ends most 1P debates. You set a wholesale cost, not a shelf price, and Amazon’s retail pricing systems will move that shelf price to stay competitive with other offers — so your Amazon price can drift below what your other channels are selling at. If you have distribution to protect, that is a strategic cost, not an operational annoyance.
The Profit Structure, Side by Side
1P pays you a wholesale price; 3P pays you a retail price you then spend fees and work to keep. Here is the mechanic, using one $30 item.
Read the numbers as mechanics, not benchmarks. Only two inputs below come from Amazon’s published pricing (checked 2026-07-29): the $39.99/month Professional plan and the per-category referral fee — 15% is a common rate but yours may differ, so check the referral fee schedule. Wholesale price, unit cost, FBA fee, and ad spend are illustrative inputs. Replace every one of them with your own.
| Per unit, $30 retail item | 1P (wholesale) | 3P (retail, FBA) |
|---|---|---|
| What Amazon pays you / what the shopper pays | $15.00 wholesale | $30.00 retail |
| Referral fee (~15% example) | — | −$4.50 |
| FBA fulfillment (illustrative) | — | −$5.50 |
| Vendor deductions: co-op, allowances, chargebacks (illustrative)† | −$1.50 | — |
| Advertising (illustrative) | −$1.00 | −$2.50 |
| Unit cost (illustrative) | −$8.00 | −$8.00 |
| Contribution per unit | $4.50 | $9.50 |
Two things this table is trying to show, neither of which is “3P wins.”
- Per unit, 3P usually keeps more of the retail dollar — you collect $30 and pay fees out of it rather than collecting $15 and paying deductions out of that.
- Per unit is not per business. The 1P column carries no storage cost, no returns labor, no customer service headcount, and no working capital tied up in unsold stock. A purchase order converts inventory into cash on invoice terms; an FBA shipment converts cash into inventory and waits. For heavy, low-margin, or slow-turning items, that can invert the ranking entirely.
To build the 3P column properly, the full fee-by-fee model is in the Amazon FBA fees and profit guide — and FBA vs FBM covers the fulfillment layer, which sits underneath the 1P/3P choice rather than beside it.
Entry: How You Actually Get Into Each One
3P is an open door. You register a selling account, choose the Individual or Professional plan, and list. Amazon publishes both the plan prices and the referral fee schedule on its pricing page; nothing about the entry path is discretionary.
1P is not. The Vendor Central homepage at vendorcentral.amazon.com is a plain Amazon sign-in screen — no “apply,” no eligibility questionnaire, no published criteria (checked 2026-07-29). Vendors describe being approached by an Amazon vendor manager after a brand has built visible demand; that is consistent with the absence of a public application, but Amazon does not document it, so treat any specific “how to get invited” recipe as third-party advice rather than policy.†
The practical read: you do not choose 1P the way you choose 3P. For nearly everyone, 3P is the default and 1P is a proposal that arrives — at which point the real question is whether to accept it.
The Decision: Which One Should You Choose?
If an invitation is on the table, run it through these four questions rather than the pros-and-cons list.
| Your situation | Lean | Why |
|---|---|---|
| You need retail price control — MAP policy, other retail partners, a premium position | 3P | 1P hands the shelf price to Amazon. No workaround makes this row go away. |
| Your margin is thin and your item is heavy or bulky | 1P | Wholesale on a purchase order beats paying fulfillment and storage on a low-margin, high-weight unit. |
| You want the customer data, review flow, and listing control to run a brand | 3P | You own the detail page, the pricing tests, and the launch cadence. |
| You are capital-constrained and inventory risk is your binding problem | 1P | Amazon buys the stock. The cash conversion cycle is the point. |
| You sell a large catalog with unpredictable per-SKU demand | Hybrid | Keep the reliable movers on 1P and run new, seasonal, or experimental SKUs on 3P. |
| You are a new seller with no invitation | 3P | This is not really a choice — see the entry section above. |
The one-line rule: choose 1P when your bottleneck is capital and operations, choose 3P when your bottleneck is control and margin. Brands that have both bottlenecks usually end up hybrid, and that is a legitimate answer rather than indecision.
Common Mistakes
- Treating 1P/3P and FBA/FBM as the same axis. They are stacked, not parallel. FBA vs FBM is a question you only have because you are 3P — in 1P, Amazon’s logistics network handles everything after you deliver the PO. If the model itself is still fuzzy, start with what Amazon FBA is.
- Assuming an invitation is a promotion. A 1P offer is a commercial proposal with negotiated terms, deductions, and compliance requirements attached. Worth modeling, not celebrating.
- Quoting 1P terms as if they were published. Payment terms, allowance percentages, and chargeback schedules vary by agreement and appear on no public Amazon page. Anyone citing exact universal figures is describing their own contract.
- Forgetting Brand Registry on the 3P side. As shown above, it gates Sponsored Brands eligibility for sellers — see the Brand Registry guide for the trademark gate and what enrollment unlocks.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between Amazon 1P and 3P?
1P means you sell your inventory wholesale to Amazon, which resells it as the retailer — managed in Vendor Central. 3P means you sell directly to shoppers and Amazon takes a per-sale referral fee — managed in Seller Central. Amazon’s own definition: “Vendors sell their items directly to Amazon, who then sells them to customers” (Amazon Ads, checked 2026-07-29).
Is Vendor Central invitation only?
There is no public application path: vendorcentral.amazon.com is a sign-in page with no “apply” flow and no published eligibility criteria (checked 2026-07-29). Vendor accounts are consistently described as arriving by invitation from an Amazon vendor manager, but Amazon does not publish the criteria, so that description is third-party practice rather than documented policy.
Can you be both 1P and 3P on Amazon?
Yes — hybrid setups are common, with some ASINs supplied to Amazon on purchase orders and others sold on the seller’s own account. They are separate accounts and separate agreements, so the overhead is real; the usual reason to run both is to keep steady movers on 1P while controlling launches and seasonal SKUs on 3P.
Who sets the price in Amazon 1P?
Amazon does. You negotiate a wholesale cost per unit; the shelf price is set by Amazon’s retail systems and adjusted to stay competitive with other offers. Sellers who need a price floor across channels generally cannot get it from 1P.
Is 1P or 3P more profitable?
Per unit, 3P typically keeps more of the retail dollar, because you collect the full retail price and pay published fees out of it. Per business, 1P can win on heavy, low-margin, or slow-turning items, because Amazon absorbs the inventory, storage, returns, and service costs. Model both with your own numbers — the FBA fees and profit guide covers the 3P side fee by fee.
Do 1P vendors pay a monthly Seller Central fee?
No. The $39.99/month Professional plan and the $0.99/item Individual plan are 3P selling plans on Amazon’s pricing page (checked 2026-07-29). Vendors are compensated on purchase orders instead, with deductions and allowances set in the vendor agreement rather than by a public fee schedule.
Conclusion
Amazon 1P vs 3P is not a ranking, it is a trade: 1P sells Amazon your inventory risk and your pricing control in exchange for purchase orders and a much smaller operation; 3P keeps both, and hands you the fees, the storage, and the customer.
When an invitation does arrive, fill in the two rows of the table above that actually decide it: what happens to your retail price across every channel, and what your capital looks like when Amazon owns the stock instead of you.
Facts here were checked against Amazon’s published pages on 2026-07-29. Rows marked † are not publicly documented by Amazon and reflect third-party reports of vendor practice — verify them against your own agreement.