The biggest cost drivers in Vendor Central — and what they're doing 💸
You see the declining margin — but do you know where it's disappearing? We'll show you the main causes that continue to reduce profitability in the vendor business:
📦
Amazon conditions (COOP, WKZ, return packages)
The best euphemism for: “We take what we want.
🔻️
NetPPM traps due to price-follower strategy
Are your prices falling? That's when your NetPPM falls too — even if it wasn't your action at all.
⚠️
Chargebacks (fines)
From the missing SSCC to the wrong packaging — Amazon always finds something.
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Shortage Claims
Your goods have arrived — but unfortunately Amazon doesn't see it that way. And you pay twice.
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Returns
Whether announced or not, the condition of the returned goods can rarely be described as saleable.
🤯
Internal effort & tool growth
Three systems, four Excel spreadsheets and a chain of internal reconciliations — for a deduction.
Vendor conditions & NetPPM — a downward spiral 📉
Amazon demands a better NetPPM — no matter what the market is doing. When your prices fall as a result of external actions, your NetPPM drops too. And who gets to smooth that out again? That's right: you.
It goes like this:
Sales prices fall
Retailers in the market trigger price matching
Higher conditions
More COOP, more WKZ, higher contra-COGs
No consideration
New price list? Preorders? Of course not.
Better margin for Amazon
Amazon benefits at the expense of their margins.
Chargebacks — when Amazon distributes speeding tickets 🧾
Whether delivery is late, ASN incomplete or pallet height 3 cm above the limit: Any infringement is a deduction. Automated. No comment.
And questions? Welcome to Vendor Support's Kafka Queue.
Top 5 chargebacks after experience
PO On-Time Non-Compliance
Advance Shipment Notifications (ASN)
Labeling Errors
Carton Configuration
Transportation Window Missed
Good monitoring is a must. Anyone who does not pursue and contradict shortage claims in a structured manner pays twice — once to Amazon, once internally at expense.
Phil Layer, founder of PLEC
💸 Price Claims — Amazon Only Believes Itself
Price variance? Reason enough for Amazon to withdraw
Amazon deducts price claims when the purchase price on your invoice doesn't match the price in Amazon's system.
Typical practical experience:
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Price changes are not (completely) received by the system, e.g. because PO prices are based on old data
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Retrospective deductions for alleged overpayments — even if Amazon itself had initially confirmed the higher price
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Lack of synchronization between PO, Listujg & Cost File: Three sources, three prices — one consequence: Deduction
🛠️
Manual price uploads come to nothing because cost files are processed — but not accepted
🧾 Open positions in accounting — a jungle of deductions
Amazon pays on time — but not necessarily everything
Lots of small (or large) prints that remain unexplained. As a result, more and more open items end up in accounting, which no one can assign without Deep Dive.
Typical
Unclear deductions for repayments, returns, claims
Cumulative sums for various deduction reasons (partly without document)
Different allocation logics to POs, invoices, weeks or products
As a result, your accounting department is stuck in a sewage treatment marathon — or completely dispenses with complaints for reasons of efficiency. Both cost.
Don't let yourself be dictated what you deserve. Get a fair piece of cake now!
