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The workshop
The Amazon-wholesale program (called 1P — first-party — where Amazon buys from a vendor and resells) is invitation-only. Agencies can't open the door any more than brands can. We hold the account. Your client wholesales their products to us; we run the wholesale channel; you keep doing the advertising (PPC), A+ Content, DSP, and ranking work you already do. No scope conflict. No fee compression. Referral arrangements available — paid quarterly against realized revenue.
The application doesn't exist for brands and it doesn't exist for agencies. Amazon's vendor onboarding has been consolidating around larger, longer-tenured suppliers since late 2024. New direct-vendor invitations are increasingly rare. We hold the account. Active vendor on Amazon.ca with EDI integration, AVN feed, an assigned vendor manager, and the operational track record to keep it.
Your strategic value to your client plus our 1P access. Two capabilities in one engagement.
No. Your retainer is paid by your client out of their marketing budget for the work you do — PPC management, A+ Content production, DSP campaigns, ranking strategy, brand store builds. VendorSprout is paid out of the wholesale spread — the margin between what we pay your client for inventory and what Amazon pays us. The two revenue streams sit in different parts of your client's P&L. In practice, agencies who bring us in grow their account size with the client because the 1P channel creates additional reporting, cross-channel coordination, and strategic conversation that the agency leads.
What stays with you, unchanged: PPC across all formats (Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display). DSP. A+ Content production — creative, copy, imagery. Brand store builds. Listing optimization (titles, bullets, images, SEO). Ranking work. Account-health monitoring. Performance reporting at the brand level. The client relationship — strategic conversations, QBRs, account growth.
What we take on, for the SKUs in scope: the Amazon Vendor Central commercial relationship (POs, ASN, AVN, chargebacks, deductions, compliance). Catalog setup and listing-health on the 1P listings, coordinated with your A+ Content and ranking work. Wholesale inventory and PO management with the client. Brand registry overlap and 1P-side brand-protection. Vendor-side performance reporting, shared with you.
The two layers run in parallel. We coordinate explicitly on the few things that touch both — A+ Content updates affecting the listings we sell against, cross-channel advertising decisions, brand-registry coordination. Everything else stays clean.
Only with you in the loop, and only by your explicit invitation. The default arrangement: you make the introduction, you're on every call that involves the client, you're copied on every client-facing email. We don't reach out to your client without your say-so. We don't propose scope expansions to your client without aligning with you first. We don't try to convert the client to a direct VendorSprout relationship that bypasses you. If your client requests a direct operational question to us, we respond with you copied. For agencies that prefer all comms route through you, that's set up in onboarding.
Yes, we do them. Tier-based percentage of wholesale revenue, paid to you for the life of the client relationship. Starting tier sits in the mid-single-digit percentage of wholesale revenue. Mid tier (multiple clients introduced) moves into the upper-single-digit range. Volume tier (sustained portfolio of referrals) reaches double digits. Paid quarterly against realized wholesale revenue — not forecast, not signed-but-not-transacted, not intent. Real revenue, real referral fee. No expiration as long as the wholesale relationship continues. No exclusivity required. Full partner-program one-pager available on partnership conversation.
Your existing scope continues in full. We run the 1P channel as a parallel layer. We coordinate with you on cross-channel decisions; we don't substitute for you. The default model for any agency-introduced engagement. Fit: agency wants to add 1P capability without changing the client relationship structure.
The client's FBA keeps running (managed by you). We run 1P on a separate set of SKUs in parallel. Each ASIN in exactly one channel — no Buy Box conflict. Fit: client has a working FBA program (which you manage) and wants 1P on specific hero SKUs without disrupting the rest.
A hand-picked few SKUs through us. Everything else stays where it lives. Fit: client wants to test 1P on a small surface before deciding whether to expand. Fastest entry point.
We become the client's only Amazon Canada presence. The client's FBA retires. Fit: client (and you) have decided FBA's operating model isn't where the brand should be spending resources. Less common as agency-introduced, but supported when it's the right shape.
| Things you run | Things we coordinate | Things we run |
|---|---|---|
| Sponsored Products / Brands / Display PPC | A+ Content updates affecting 1P listings | Vendor Central commercial relationship |
| DSP campaigns | Cross-channel advertising strategy | Catalog setup and listing health on 1P SKUs |
| A+ Content production (creative, copy) | Brand registry alignment | PO acceptance, ASN, AVN, chargebacks |
| Brand store builds | Vendor-side promotional decisions affecting client P&L | 1P-side brand-protection cleanup |
| Listing optimization (titles, bullets, images) | Performance reporting handoff between channels | Wholesale inventory and PO management with client |
| Keyword and ranking work | Quarterly cross-team reviews | Net 45 payment to client on wholesale invoices |
| Account-health monitoring | Strategic client conversations involving both channels | Annual Amazon vendor negotiations for client's category |
| The client relationship | Edge cases that span both operational layers | Vendor-side performance reporting (shared with you) |
VendorSprout is one capability you can add to your agency offering. Not a replacement for anything you do. Not a competitor in any of your existing scope. Not an attempt to acquire your clients or build a direct relationship that excludes you. We are the 1P channel your clients can't access on their own and you can't build for them through any amount of work. When you partner with us, you offer your clients a capability that materially differentiates your agency from competitors who don't have a 1P partnership.
Manufacturer-archetype Hybrid: for agencies whose clients already operate wholesale, 1P becomes one more downstream buyer — operationally familiar to the brand-side team.
Single hero SKU 3P → 1P switch. 10× volume, rank below #40 to #7. Agency-relevant pattern: when marketing is already strong and the bottleneck is unit-economic, fixing the channel architecture unlocks the volume the marketing was already producing demand for.
High-cube SKU rescued from FBA size-tier pricing. 25× volume with improved margins. Agency-relevant pattern: when FBA fees are the constraint, even excellent agency-managed campaigns hit a ceiling. 1P removes the ceiling.
VendorSprout is the only Amazon capability we couldn't build in-house. Bringing them in let us answer 'yes' to a client request we used to answer 'sorry, we can't' on. Our retainer didn't shrink. Our differentiation grew. — Managing Partner, mid-size Amazon agency
Thirty minutes, just you and us. We learn how you work, what your client portfolio looks like, what your scope typically covers. You learn how VendorSprout fits with your existing engagements. We agree on referral structure, communication preferences, and the introduction process.
The three of us: you, your client, us. You drive the conversation. We answer 1P-specific questions when invited. Goal: client understands the 1P opportunity, knows the scope split between you and us, agrees to proceed.
We screen the candidate SKUs (you can be involved or hand off, your choice). You're copied on the output.
Direct between us and client, with you copied. Wholesale agreement signed. Net 45 with favourable terms is the default.
We set up the SKUs in Vendor Central, coordinate brand registry with the client (and with you on A+ Content alignment), configure EDI if applicable.
Amazon issues PO. We issue client PO. Client ships. We ship to Amazon. SKUs go live as Sold by Amazon.ca. Quarterly cross-team reviews keep alignment tight from here.
No. Your retainer is paid out of your client's marketing budget for work you do. We're paid out of the wholesale spread between what we pay your client and what Amazon pays us. The two revenue streams sit in different parts of your client's P&L. In practice, agencies who bring us in often see their account size grow because the 1P channel creates additional reporting, strategic conversation, and cross-channel coordination that the agency leads.
Default: no — you're on every call, copied on every email. If your client requests a direct operational question to us, we respond with you copied. For agencies that prefer all comms route through you, that's set up in onboarding.
Tier-based percentage of wholesale revenue, starting in the mid-single-digit range, scaling to double digits at portfolio volume. Paid quarterly against realized revenue. No expiration. Specifics negotiated case-by-case in the partner-program agreement; full one-pager available on partnership conversation.
Stays with you, unchanged. We coordinate on A+ Content updates that hit the 1P listings (the listings live at the ASIN level and the creative work you do benefits both channels). PPC and DSP target ASINs, not sellers — your campaigns work the same way regardless of which channel is winning the Buy Box for a given SKU.
Case by case. Default is co-branded ("via VendorSprout") because transparency reduces friction in onboarding the client. For agencies who want to position 1P access as their own capability with us in the operational background, we'll discuss the arrangement during partnership conversation. Not every situation works as white-label; we'll be honest about which do.
We're happy to join your client sales calls. The pitch in those calls is partnership-framed: "We work with VendorSprout to deliver 1P capability for clients like yours." Your client sees us as your trusted partner, not as a competing vendor. This actually shortens sales cycles for many agencies — having a credible 1P story is a differentiator.
Yes. Monthly performance summaries on the 1P SKUs in scope — PO velocity, sell-through, Buy Box win rate, category rank, vendor-side performance metrics. Format negotiable; many agencies request raw data feeds they can integrate into their existing client reporting templates. We work with whatever you already use.
We tell you on the partnership conversation if a particular client isn't a fit (category mismatch, scale mismatch, brand-owner posture, regulatory issues). If we get into discovery and discover a fit issue, we surface it with you first before saying anything to the client. The agency relationship is protected regardless of whether the specific client engagement proceeds.
Yes — and the referral economics improve at portfolio volume. We can set up a master partner-program agreement covering multiple clients with a unified reporting and economics structure. Common for agencies with five or more candidate clients.
No. We don't require exclusivity from agencies and agencies don't have to refer all clients to us. If an agency wants to position VendorSprout as one of several Amazon partnership options to their clients, that's fine. Default referral economics earn better terms over time with portfolio volume, but there's no exclusivity gate.
Yes. Bringing us into a new-business pitch — where you're competing for an Amazon-strategic prospect and 1P capability is part of your differentiation — is one of the highest-value uses of the partnership. We make ourselves available for prospect calls on short notice when it helps you win.
A partner-program agreement that covers referral economics, communication preferences, attribution rules, and conflict-resolution process. Two to four pages. Reviewed and signed before the first introduction. Renewed annually only if either side wants to change terms.
