Amazon announced the closure of Vendor Express in March 2018. It was an automated, self-service vendor platform for businesses without an invitation to Vendor Central. This post summarizes the main differences that there were between Vendor Central and Vendor Express.
The key points were that vendors could just sign up – they didn’t need to be invited. They could list their products and Amazon’s pricing algorithm would decide both the wholesale price and the retail price. There was no human involvement from Amazon’s side.
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As Vendor Central became more automated, there were fewer and fewer differences remaining between the two platforms. Some marketplace sellers had signed up for Vendor Express just to gain access to more detailed keyword data and additional advertising options, but they have retained their access to Amazon Advertising (formerly AMS). Sponsored Brands (formerly Headline Search Ads) are now available in Seller Central anyway.
Businesses who used Vendor Express will now have to use Seller Central. On the whole, Vendor Express was an unloved platform and there are very few reports of businesses being sad to see it go.