How Amazon 3P Helps You Get to Know Your Customers Better

How Amazon 3P Helps You Get to Know Your Customers Better

One of the most important aspects of any business is to get to know your customers. Insights into who your customers are, their demographics, their preferences, and other characteristics are essential to developing and selling products customers not only want, but need. 

And while B2B manufacturers have historically considered distributors and other resellers their customers, we believe it’s more important to understand who your end users are. After all, they’re the ones who will eventually determine which brand gets purchased. 

Traditionally, distributors and resellers have tightly guarded customer information in an effort to prevent channel conflict, including empowering manufacturers to sell directly to end users. But this is exactly where Amazon’s Seller Central (3P) excels, not only in connecting B2B manufacturers to buyers, but also in providing a bevy of data that can help you succeed on the platform. 

Let’s take a closer look at what kind of data Amazon provides through its Seller Central program and how you can leverage this information to better understand your end customers, and therefore sell more to them. But before we dive in, it’s important to note that this data is only available to sellers using the Seller Central, or 3P, model. 

Why is that? Because Amazon wants to provide the best customer experience possible and, importantly, 3P is designed as a self-service platform for sellers as compared to a more traditional wholesale buying and selling model, like Amazon Vendor Central (1P). When 3P sellers run their own storefronts on Amazon, having better data and insights helps them make smarter decisions about the effectiveness of their content, advertising, stock levels, and operational performance.

By providing 3P sellers with these key data points, Amazon is enabling sellers to improve their performance in the marketplace by catering more to what their customers want. It’s a win-win; the higher the sales volume, the greater the profitability of both Amazon and its sellers. 

What Data Does Amazon Provide to 3P Sellers?

Amazon provides 3P sellers with a remarkably detailed and dynamic set of data tools through Seller Central. At the core of these tools are comprehensive reports that cover everything from overall sales performance and customer demographics to individual product metrics and B2B selling effectiveness. Sellers can access data on traffic, conversion rates, average order value, and advertising, all of which help them evaluate how well their content, promotions, and inventory strategies are working. These insights highlight opportunities for sellers to proactively identify issues and optimize their product listings, brand content, and more.

At a broader level, Amazon offers visibility into sales and traffic patterns, including how many units are ordered, how often products are viewed, and how well each item converts, as well as overall brand sales on the channel, including sales generated through resellers. Sellers can also distinguish between B2B buyers and B2C customers (or at least those buyers without an Amazon Business account). 

B2B vs. B2C Sales on Amazon

For those selling through Amazon Business, performance metrics specific to B2B transactions are available, helping sellers understand how effectively they’re reaching and serving professional buyers. These include conversion rates, the proportion of products sold to B2B buyers, and indicators of product quality such as refund rates and customer feedback. If a particular item receives a high volume of negative reviews or returns, sellers can quickly identify potential manufacturing defects or other issues. This level of granularity is especially valuable for quality control, allowing sellers to respond swiftly to problems. Amazon also provides data grouped by industry category, offering useful benchmarks and context.

Brand analytics add another strategic layer of insight. Sellers can track overall brand engagement, including funnel analytics that show how customers interact with their products at different stages of the buying journey on Amazon. Users can see how often their brand or products are searched, monitor revenue generated—including sales from resellers—and identify how many buyers return for repeat purchases. These insights enable sellers to take targeted actions, such as sending promotions to customers who abandon their shopping carts or adjusting merchandising strategies based on funnel behavior. Sellers can also perform basket analysis to understand which products are frequently purchased together, helping them create effective bundles. 

Another type of data provided is customer demographics. Amazon shares with sellers their buyers’ locations (city and state), age ranges, income levels, education, gender, and marital status. Geographic data shows where products are being shipped to, which can inform regional marketing and inventory decisions. 

Finally, the Voice of the Customer report offers a detailed view of product health from the customer’s perspective. It includes review summaries, return rates, and the top reasons for returns. Advanced AI tools provide sentiment analysis, allowing sellers to gauge customer satisfaction and emotional response to their products. This feedback is invaluable for refining product offerings and enhancing the overall customer experience.

In today’s data-driven world, access to insights like these can prove extremely valuable to businesses that want to grow their sales and revenues. Most distributors can’t (or won’t) provide this level of detail. In fact, it can be difficult to acquire this level of detailed customer data even from your own website or other 3^rd party analytics. 

And that’s exactly Amazon’s aim. Not only do they want their 3P sellers to sell more, but they want sellers to rely on them for key data insights. 

If you’re looking to get more out of your Amazon program, or if you’re ready to start one from scratch, it’s a good idea to talk to a top Amazon consultant. Schedule a call with our Amazon experts to discuss your challenges and how Enceiba can help you win on the largest Ecommerce platform in the world.