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.” (Amazon Ads, vendor guide, checked 2026-08-24.)
Amazon publishes very little about the 1P side — Seller Central’s plans and fees sit on open pages; Vendor Central’s terms live behind a login, inside a negotiated agreement. Statements marked † below are not documented by Amazon. If a vendor agreement is ending and you need mechanics rather than concepts, skip to how the 1P-to-3P switch works.
What 1P and 3P Mean, and What a 3P Seller Is
| Term | Portal | Amazon’s role |
|---|---|---|
| 1P (first-party) | Vendor Central | Amazon is the retailer — it buys your stock on a purchase order and resells it |
| 3P (third-party) | Seller Central | Amazon is the marketplace — you sell to the shopper and pay a referral fee |
| Hybrid | Both | Both, per ASIN — often a legacy 1P catalog plus a 3P account for new SKUs |
A 3P seller is any independent business selling on Amazon’s marketplace under its own name, with Amazon acting as the venue rather than the owner of the goods. That says nothing about who ships the box: a 3P seller using FBA still owns the inventory sitting in Amazon’s warehouse, and under FBM ships it themselves. FBA vs FBM sits underneath 3P, it is not an alternative to it.
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.
Nor is “1P vs 3P” a question about two marketplaces. Both put an offer on the same detail page for the same ASIN, competing for the same Featured Offer. The 3P side is the larger one: Amazon states that “More than 60% of sales in Amazon’s store are from independent sellers—most of which are small and medium-sized businesses” (small business impact page, checked 2026-08-24 — the page carries no date stamp of its own). For how many sellers that is, see how many Amazon sellers there are. One 1P variant sits between the two models and is openly documented: Amazon Direct Fulfillment, where vendors ship Amazon’s purchase orders straight to shoppers.
Amazon 1P vs 3P: The Comparison Table
Rows marked † are not documented on Amazon’s public pages — they reflect reported vendor practice and vary by the agreement you negotiate. Treat them as directional.
| 1P — Vendor Central | 3P — Seller Central | |
|---|---|---|
| Who sets the retail price | Amazon. You propose a wholesale cost; the shelf price is Amazon’s call and moves to match competing offers. | You, 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 FBA warehouse. |
| Who carries the stock risk | Amazon carries unsold-unit risk; you carry the risk of POs that stop coming. | You. Slow movers cost you storage and, eventually, disposal. |
| Returns and customer service | Amazon, as the seller of record. | You. Under FBA, Amazon handles returns and front-line contacts; under FBM you do. |
| What and how you’re paid | Your wholesale price per unit, on purchase orders invoiced on agreed terms.† | The full retail price minus fees, disbursed to your bank on a settlement cycle. |
| What Amazon charges | Negotiated deductions — co-op and marketing allowances, damage and freight allowances, non-compliance chargebacks.† | Published fees: referral fee per sale, a selling plan fee, plus FBA fees if used. |
| Entry | Invitation-based. vendorcentral.amazon.com is a sign-in screen with no public application path (checked 2026-08-24). | Open registration. |
| Ongoing cost of entry | No published platform fee.† | Individual $0.99 / item sold or Professional $39.99 / month (pricing page, checked 2026-08-24). |
| Content control | Amazon controls the detail page; your changes can be overridden. | You control your listing, subject to category rules. |
| Advertising access | Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands both available to vendors. | Sponsored Products for professional sellers; Sponsored Brands also requires Brand Registry. |
The two rows worth re-reading
Advertising eligibility is asymmetric, and it is documented. Amazon says “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 2026-08-24) — while its Sponsored Products list carries no such condition (Sponsored Products, checked 2026-07-29). Vendors appear unqualified in both; 3P sellers pick up a Brand Registry condition on the second.
Pricing control is the row that ends most 1P debates. You set a wholesale cost, not a shelf price, and Amazon moves that shelf price to stay competitive — so your Amazon price can drift below what your other channels sell at. With distribution to protect, that is a strategic cost, not an 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 these as mechanics, not benchmarks. Only the referral fee comes from Amazon’s published pricing (checked 2026-08-24) — 15% is common but varies by category, so check the referral fee schedule. Wholesale price, unit cost, FBA fee, and ad spend are illustrative; replace all four 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 |
Per unit, 3P usually keeps more of the retail dollar — but per unit is not per business. The 1P column carries no storage cost, no returns labor, no service headcount, and no capital tied up in unsold stock: a purchase order turns inventory into cash on invoice terms, while an FBA shipment turns cash into inventory and waits. For heavy, low-margin, or slow-turning items, that can invert the ranking. The fee-by-fee 3P model is in the FBA fees and profit guide.
Amazon 1P to 3P: How the Switch Actually Works
Most people searching “amazon 1p to 3p” are not choosing — they are moving, either because the brand wants pricing and content control back or because Amazon ended the vendor relationship. Agencies and trade press reported a wave of vendor-agreement terminations for smaller suppliers from late 2024, with those brands directed to Seller Central; Amazon published no policy page describing it, so that is third-party reporting, not documented policy.†
What carries over, and what does not. Reviews and ratings live on the ASIN’s detail page, not on any one offer, so the page keeps them when the offer selling it changes hands.† Vendor Central sales history, forecasts, and reporting do not move into Seller Central — separate systems, separate agreements.† Brand Registry is the one clean bridge: Amazon states 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).
The sequence that matters. Registration is the easy part; the overlap is not.
- Open a Professional selling account ($39.99/month, checked 2026-08-24 — the plan comparison covers why Individual rarely fits here) and confirm Brand Registry enrollment carries to it.
- Create or claim your offers on the existing ASINs — you are adding an offer to a detail page that already exists, not building a new catalog.
- Get inventory in place before the last purchase orders are consumed. A gap between Amazon Retail selling out and your FBA stock landing is the most expensive part of this move.†
- Expect an overlap window: Amazon owns the units it already bought and keeps selling them at prices it sets, alongside your offer, until that stock clears.†
- Price for that window. Two offers on one detail page compete for the same Featured Offer — and one of them is Amazon, clearing inventory it bought at your old wholesale cost.
Going the other way (3P to 1P) is not a switch you execute; it is an invitation you accept, because there is no public application path. Brands that accept usually keep the 3P account running in parallel — the hybrid setup in the table above.
The Decision: Which One Should You Choose?
If an invitation is on the table, run it through these questions rather than a 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 removes that row. |
| Your margin is thin and your item is heavy or bulky | 1P | Wholesale on a PO beats paying fulfillment and storage on a low-margin, high-weight unit. |
| You want 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 the 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 | Reliable movers on 1P; new, seasonal, or experimental SKUs on 3P. |
The one-line rule: choose 1P when your bottleneck is capital and operations, choose 3P when your bottleneck is control and margin. Brands with both usually end up hybrid, which is an 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. If the model is still fuzzy, start with what Amazon FBA is.
- Planning a 1P-to-3P move as a paperwork task. The account opens in a day; the inventory overlap and the pricing window are where the money goes.
- Assuming an invitation is a promotion. A 1P offer is a commercial proposal with negotiated terms and compliance requirements attached.
- Quoting 1P terms as if they were published. Payment terms, allowance percentages, and chargeback schedules vary by agreement and appear on no public page.
- Forgetting Brand Registry on the 3P side. It gates Sponsored Brands eligibility for sellers — see the Brand Registry guide.
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 pay Amazon a referral fee, managed in Seller Central.
What is a 3P seller on Amazon?
A 3P seller is an independent business selling on Amazon’s marketplace under its own name, owning the inventory until it sells and paying Amazon a referral fee per sale. The term describes the commercial model, not the fulfillment method — a 3P seller can use FBA or ship orders themselves. On a listing, a 3P offer reads “sold by [company name]” rather than “sold by Amazon.com.”
How do you switch from Amazon 1P to 3P?
You open a Professional Seller Central account, confirm Brand Registry carries across, add your own offers to the existing ASINs, and get inventory in position before Amazon Retail sells through the stock it bought from you. Amazon publishes no migration procedure, so that sequence is reported practice, not documented policy.†
Does a listing lose its reviews when it moves from 1P to 3P?
Reviews and ratings attach to the ASIN’s detail page rather than to a particular offer, so the page keeps them when the offer changes hands.† What does not transfer is Vendor Central sales history and reporting — Seller Central starts empty.†
Can you be both 1P and 3P on Amazon?
Yes — hybrid setups are common, with some ASINs supplied 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 is to keep steady movers on 1P while controlling launches and seasonal SKUs on 3P.
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 2026-08-24). Vendor accounts are consistently described as arriving by invitation from an Amazon vendor manager, but Amazon does not publish criteria, so that is third-party practice rather than documented policy.†
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.
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. If the choice is live, the two rows that decide it are your retail price across every channel and your capital position when Amazon owns the stock. If the move is already under way, the work is in the overlap — stock timing, and the price on the detail page while Amazon still has units.
Facts here were checked against Amazon’s published pages on 2026-08-24 unless a different date is shown inline. Statements marked † are not publicly documented by Amazon and reflect third-party reports of vendor practice — verify them against your own agreement.