1P, 2P, 3P (Amazon Selling Models)

1P, 2P, and 3P are industry shorthand for who sells a product on Amazon: 1P (first-party) means Amazon buys from you as a vendor and resells, 3P (third-party) means you sell directly to shoppers through Seller Central, and 2P (second-party) is a looser label, most often for a reseller that sells your goods in its own account.

What it is

1P (first-party). You sell wholesale to Amazon through Vendor Central, and access to Vendor Central is by invitation. Amazon issues the PO, takes ownership of the inventory, and becomes the seller of record, so it sets the retail price and handles fulfillment, customer service, and returns.

3P (third-party). You sell directly to shoppers through Seller Central. You’re the seller of record, so you set the price and carry the inventory risk, and you decide whether Amazon fulfills your orders (FBA) or you ship them yourself (FBM).

2P (second-party). This one has no single standard meaning, and you’ll see it used two ways:

• A specialized partner buys your inventory at wholesale and becomes the seller of record in its own Seller Central account. The partner runs pricing, advertising, fulfillment, and customer service and keeps the margin between wholesale and retail, while you never touch Seller Central.
• Some sources use 2P loosely for 3P selling that Amazon fulfills through FBA, keeping 3P for sellers who ship their own orders (FBM). This usage is less common.

So when an agency or partner says 2P, ask which of the two it means.

Where it lives in Vendor Central

Amazon doesn’t use these labels. Its public selling glossary defines a vendor and a third-party seller in its own words and never uses the shorthand. In practice the labels map to the console you work in: a 1P relationship runs through Vendor Central, a 3P business runs through Seller Central, and a reseller-style 2P partner works in its own Seller Central account. A brand holding both a Vendor Central and a Seller Central account is selling hybrid.

Why it matters to a vendor

The label tells you who controls the price and who holds the stock. As a 1P vendor, Amazon owns the inventory once it buys it and decides the retail price, so the levers you keep are the terms you sell to Amazon on. As a 3P seller, the price and any unsold stock are both yours. In the reseller version of 2P the partner takes on both, which puts you back to selling wholesale, just to a partner instead of to Amazon.

The models also overlap on the same listing. An ASIN you supply as a 1P vendor can carry a third-party offer from another seller competing with Amazon’s own retail offer, so 1P and 3P activity often share one detail page.

Related terms

• Third-party offer: another seller’s offer on an ASIN you supply as a 1P vendor.
• Direct Fulfillment: the Vendor Central dropship program for 1P vendors.
• Comparing Vendor Central, Seller Central, and Hybrid Selling: how each account type works.
• Amazon 1P vs 3P: The Numbers That Should Decide It: the numbers for weighing a switch.
• Glossary index: the rest of the Vendor Central terms.