The situation
The client sells to Amazon Retail. They were getting hit with chargebacks they didn’t understand. Missing PO acknowledgment windows. Watching ASINs go in and out of suppression for reasons no one could pin down. The internal team treated Vendor Central like email — checking it once a day, reacting to whatever was on fire.
The mandate
Be the dedicated owner of the Vendor Central relationship. Run PO operations on Amazon’s clock, dispute chargebacks aggressively, keep the catalog clean, and prepare for the annual terms negotiation.
What we do
- PO operations. POs received → acknowledged within Amazon’s window → fulfillment routed (direct ship, FBA inbound, or fulfillment center routing depending on the SKU) → ASN sent → invoice generated. We work to Amazon’s schedule, not ours.
- Chargeback management. Every chargeback reviewed inside the response window. We dispute what’s disputable with the right evidence — carrier scans, packing slips, prior approvals. We don’t dispute the ones we won’t win. Recovery stays high because we pick our battles.
- Catalog health. Detail pages monitored for suppression, image-policy violations, content overrides by third parties, and unauthorized resellers. Brand Registry leveraged where it’s available.
- Vendor Central reporting. Weekly view of net PPM, sell-through, out-of-stock rates, lost sales due to OOS, and contribution profit. Not just reporting — action on each.
- Amazon Advertising (DSP plus Sponsored). Campaign structure designed for 1P realities — ASIN-level targeting, share of voice on competitive terms, defensive bidding on owned brand terms.
- Annual terms. Weeks before the negotiation window opens, we build the data case — what the brand contributes to Amazon’s category, and where Amazon’s asks would erode margin to non-viable. We attend the call. We push back on the right asks.
The outcome
Chargebacks stopped being a slow bleed. Out-of-stock rate held through peak. ASINs stayed indexed. The annual terms conversation became a conversation, not an ambush.
Why it worked
Vendor Central rewards consistency more than brilliance. Show up. Hit the deadlines. Dispute the chargebacks you can win. Build the case for the negotiations. We treat it as an operational discipline, not a periodic project.