Amazon Vendor Economics · Glossary

Amazon Vendor Services (AVS)

Updated October 25, 2026

Amazon Vendor Services (AVS) is Amazon's paid account-management program for first-party (1P) vendors, the brands that sell wholesale to Amazon through Vendor Central. Amazon assigns the vendor a dedicated account manager, a permanent Amazon employee, and the vendor pays for the service. Amazon's job postings use two titles for the role: "Customer Success Manager, Amazon Vendor Services" and "Brand Specialist". As practitioners describe it, AVS is offered by invitation to existing 1P vendors, and it was formerly called Strategic Vendor Services. Seller Central's counterpart for third-party (3P) sellers is a separate program, Strategic Account Services.

AVS is paid, not owed. A vendor manager is Amazon's own category-side employee, whose attention is discretionary; AVS is a service the vendor buys. Co-op is the allowances a vendor funds under its agreement with Amazon; contra-COGS is the vendor-funded money Amazon books against its cost of goods sold (COGS). The AVS fee is agreed as one of the vendor's trade terms, negotiated alongside co-op at the Annual Vendor Negotiation (AVN), and it reduces the vendor's net proceeds like any other accrual, so confirm in your own trade terms where it sits.

How should a vendor price an AVS invitation?

Start from the fact that Amazon publishes no price. The figures circulating publicly disagree even on what the fee is charged against, so ask for the figure in writing and model it against your own terms.

Before accepting, a commercial lead needs three things on paper:

1. The fee, in writing from Amazon, and the base it is charged against.
2. Where it sits among the trade terms, beside co-op.
3. Its effect on net proceeds, modeled against the vendor's own terms.

Vendors in one 2021 survey reported valuing AVS most for promotional execution and escalation access to Amazon, and least for advertising support, A+ content work and customer insights. Whether that mix is worth the fee is an eCommerce strategy call for each vendor. In practice, AVS can also be agreed as part of a larger investment a vendor negotiates with the category, alongside promotional funding: the vendor is funding Amazon headcount.

The vendor manager role, which the vendor does not pay for, is covered in the article What an Amazon Vendor Manager Actually Does.