You may have heard recently that Amazon shut off thousands of vendors. Though it appears this decision has been reversed, we’d like to share the available facts and their potential future implications.
Impact on Navazon clients:
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All dropship accounts were suspended the week of February 25th
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Most dropship accounts were reactivated by March 3rd, the remainder by March 11th
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On March 4th, Amazon paused purchase orders on many accounts (our largest accounts were unaffected)
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On March 11th Amazon resumed purchase orders for the remainder of Navazon clients
While the cause of the above events remains unclear, our Amazon contacts said the PO suspension affected only vendors managed by the Vendor Success Program (VSP) or Vendor Self Service. Vendors in these programs have no contact with an Amazon vendor manager (VM) and are expected to utilize Vendor Central resources independently.
Over the last two years, Amazon has transitioned thousands of vendors from VM support to VSP to reduce cost. While the general threshold to have VM support is $10M in annual revenue on Amazon, exceptions to this rule are made according to:
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Account profitability
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Selection parity (with Walmart, Target, etc.)
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Opportunity of the vendor (I.e. potential future sales growth)
The recent disruption in orders shows the importance of understanding all your selling options on Amazon. Since both Vendor Central and Seller Central accounts are vulnerable to suspensions, Navazon helps our clients understand the advantages and disadvantages of both platforms (i.e. operations, profitability, branding, etc).
If you’ve been affected by order disruptions or want to learn more about succeeding on Amazon, join us in Seattle for Navazon’s two-day learning seminar. Click the link below to learn more.