Key Takeaways
- A reseller buys your inventory; an agency runs your account. With a reseller, you make a wholesale sale and they own the Amazon business. With an agency, you keep the seller account, the price and the customer data, and pay for the management.
- The reseller trade is margin and control for simplicity. You get a purchase order and no Amazon workload. You give up the retail margin, the pricing decisions and most of the data.
- An agency keeps the retail margin with you, and the risk. You fund the inventory and the advertising, and you keep what the channel earns.
- Resellers can be the right answer. They fit brands with no team, tight cash or a small Amazon opportunity, as long as the contract has a clean exit.
- Read the exit terms first. Exclusivity length, who holds Brand Registry roles and what happens to the listings when the deal ends matter more than the opening price.
Selling to an Amazon reseller means a large seller buys your inventory at wholesale and runs your products on Amazon under its own account. Hiring an agency means you sell direct through your own account and pay a team to manage it. The reseller route is simpler and easier on cash. The agency route keeps more margin, pricing control and customer data with you.
Manufacturers get pitched by both. Large resellers, sometimes called 1P resellers or brand partners, offer to take Amazon off your plate entirely. Agencies, including us, offer to build your own Amazon business. We will be even-handed here, because there are brands for which a reseller is the better choice. For the bigger picture of how manufacturers approach Amazon, see Selling on Amazon as a Manufacturer.
How does the Amazon reseller model work?
A reseller treats you like any wholesale customer. It issues purchase orders, buys your inventory at a negotiated wholesale price and sells it on Amazon through its own seller account, or sometimes to Amazon itself through Vendor Central. It handles the listings, advertising, fulfillment and customer service. Your revenue is the wholesale invoice.
Most larger resellers ask for something in return for that investment, usually some form of exclusivity: they want to be the only authorized seller of your brand on Amazon, sometimes on other marketplaces too, for a set term. Many also ask to be added to your Amazon Brand Registry so they can edit content and report other sellers. Terms vary a lot from one reseller to the next, which is why the contract matters more than the pitch.
What a good reseller brings
- Cash for inventory. They pay for the product, so you are not funding Amazon stock and advertising.
- No workload. Your team does not have to learn Seller Central, advertising or FBA.
- Scale and systems. Big resellers run many brands and often have good tools, fulfillment and advertising processes.
- Channel cleanup. An exclusive reseller has every reason to push unauthorized sellers off your listings.
What do you give up when you sell to a reseller?
The retail margin
The difference between your wholesale price and the Amazon retail price, minus Amazon's fees and advertising, belongs to the reseller. On a healthy product, that is a meaningful share of the profit the channel generates. You traded it for a sure sale on day one.
Price control
The reseller sets the Amazon price. Most honor MAP, and many are careful about it, but the decision is theirs. If they need to clear stock or chase rank, your retail partners will see the result.
The data and the customer
Sales, search terms, advertising results and conversion data sit in the reseller's accounts. You may get reports, but you do not own the history. When the relationship ends, the advertising data and account performance stay with them. Reviews stay attached to the product listing, but the know-how of which keywords and campaigns built the sales does not come with it.
Strategic flexibility
With exclusivity, you cannot easily go direct, add your own storefront or bring in another partner until the term ends. If Amazon becomes a larger part of your business than you expected, you may find the most important growth channel is run by someone else. We have taken on brands in exactly this position. One B2B and B2C brand we work with launched with a reseller that bought its inventory and sold through the reseller's own account, then came to us to take back control of pricing, advertising and listings. You can read how that transition worked.
What do you keep when you hire an agency instead?
With an agency, you own the seller account, and the agency works inside it. You set the price policy, you keep the retail margin after Amazon's fees and the agency's fee, and every piece of data stays in your account whether the agency stays or not.
You also take on the risk. You pay for inventory, you fund the advertising and you absorb the slow months. An agency can build the plan and run the day-to-day work, but the profit and loss is yours. That is why the agency route suits brands that see Amazon as a long-term channel rather than a wholesale account.
Reseller vs agency: how do they compare?
| Selling to a reseller | Hiring an agency | |
|---|---|---|
| Who owns the seller account | The reseller | You |
| Your revenue | Wholesale price on purchase orders | Retail price minus Amazon fees, advertising and agency fees |
| Who funds inventory and ads | The reseller | You |
| Who sets the Amazon price | The reseller, ideally within your MAP | You |
| Who owns the data | The reseller; you get what they share | You, permanently |
| Your team's workload | Low | Moderate: approvals, inventory, product information |
| Typical commitment | Often multi-year exclusivity | Service agreement; notice periods vary by agency |
| What happens at the end | You rebuild the Amazon business, often from the reseller's listings | You keep the account, listings and history |
When does selling to a reseller make sense?
A reseller can be the right call. We would lean that way when:
- You cannot fund another channel. If paying for Amazon inventory and advertising would strain working capital, a reseller who buys up front solves a real problem.
- Amazon is a small opportunity for your products. If the category is small, the margin you give up is small too, and simplicity wins.
- You have no one to own the channel internally. Even with an agency, someone at the brand has to approve, supply and decide. If no one can, a wholesale relationship is more honest.
- You want to test Amazon without building a team. A short, non-exclusive or short-exclusive deal can prove demand before you commit.
- You are entering a marketplace abroad. A reseller that handles import, tax and local fulfillment can be simpler than building that yourself.
When does hiring an agency make more sense?
- Amazon is or will be a major channel. The bigger the channel, the more the retail margin and the data are worth keeping.
- You need price control. If retail partners and distributors are watching your Amazon price, you want the decision in your hands. See MAP pricing on Amazon.
- You want to sell across channels. An agency can run Amazon, your own site, Walmart and TikTok Shop together, so pricing, content and inventory stay consistent. A reseller's interest is usually limited to its channels.
- You plan to sell the company. Buyers generally prefer a brand that owns its Amazon account, history and customer data over one whose biggest channel depends on a reseller's contract.
Weighing a reseller offer against running Amazon yourself? Our Growth Diagnostic is a full audit across Amazon, your own website, TikTok Shop and your other marketplaces, with a 90-day roadmap. For this decision it models your margin under both routes with your real costs and flags the contract terms that matter. The cost is credited to your first month if we work together. Start with a conversation.
How do you compare the margin for your own products?
Do the math per unit, on your top five products, in two columns.
- Reseller column: the wholesale price they offer, minus your product cost and any freight you pay. That is your margin per unit, with almost no other cost.
- Direct column: the Amazon retail price you would hold, minus product cost, the Amazon referral fee (a percentage of price that falls between 8% and 15% in most categories), Fulfillment by Amazon fees, a realistic advertising cost per unit, and the agency fee spread across your expected units.
- Subtract the costs the reseller was absorbing: the cost of the cash tied up in inventory and the risk of slow sellers.
- Compare the two at your expected volume, not today's. A reseller deal that looks good at small volume can look expensive once Amazon grows.
If the direct column wins by a small amount, the reseller's simplicity may be worth it. If it wins by a lot at the volume you expect, you are paying heavily for convenience. Agency fees vary by scope and model; ours are published on one page, Amazon agency pricing, and this breakdown of agency costs explains what drives them.
What should you ask a reseller before you sign?
- How long is the exclusivity, which marketplaces and countries does it cover, and can it end early if sales targets are missed?
- Will you hold MAP in writing, and what happens if you do not?
- What access do you need to our Brand Registry, and will you give it back at the end?
- What reporting will we get: sales, search terms, advertising, returns and reviews?
- How are purchase orders forecast, and what happens to inventory you cannot sell?
- What happens to the listings, content and advertising when the agreement ends?
- Will you create any new product pages, and who owns them?
What should you ask an agency before you sign?
- Does the seller account, advertising account and all content stay in our name?
- Who does the day-to-day work, and how many brands does that person manage?
- How do you report on profit, not just sales and advertising cost of sale (ACoS)?
- How do you handle unauthorized sellers and MAP violations?
- What is the notice period, and what do we keep if we leave?
- What do you need from our team every week?
For a longer checklist, see how to choose an Amazon agency. If you are also considering Vendor Central, where Amazon itself buys your inventory, read Seller Central vs Vendor Central, because it is the same wholesale trade with Amazon as the buyer.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an Amazon reseller?
An Amazon reseller is a company that buys products at wholesale and sells them on Amazon through its own seller account. Some are small arbitrage sellers. Larger ones partner with brands, buy inventory in volume and manage the brand's Amazon presence, usually in exchange for exclusivity.
Is it better to sell to an Amazon reseller or sell direct?
Selling direct usually keeps more margin, price control and data with the brand, but you fund inventory and advertising and carry the risk. Selling to a reseller is simpler and easier on cash, but you give up the retail margin and control. The right answer depends on your cash, your team and how big Amazon could be for your products.
Can I leave a reseller agreement and go direct later?
Usually yes, once the exclusivity term ends or under whatever exit terms the contract allows. Plan for a transition: reclaim Brand Registry roles, take over or merge listings, and rebuild advertising in your own account. Reviews stay with the product listing, but advertising history stays with the reseller.
Does an agency buy my inventory?
No. A management agency works inside your own seller account. You buy and own the inventory, set the price policy and keep the sales revenue, and you pay the agency for its work.
Do resellers follow MAP pricing?
Reputable resellers usually commit to MAP, and an exclusive reseller has a reason to protect price. Get the commitment in writing, with consequences if it is broken, because the reseller controls the Amazon price day to day.