TrackIQ supports both Seller and Vendor accounts, and the difference runs deeper than a label. It changes how products are identified, which screens have data, and what "sales" even means.

[Watch the walkthrough](https://kb.trackiq.com/kb-assets/kbvideo-seller-vendor-explainer-c1d462e3.mp4)

*Prefer to watch? A hundred and ten seconds on SKU versus ASIN, two kinds of sales, and the large part where nothing changes.*

## **The account type is part of the connection**

![Connected accounts, with the account-type chip](/kb-assets/shot-conn2-brands-cfd7d8.png)

Every Amazon connection records its type alongside its marketplace and currency. The count chip on each brand row states it — *1 SELLERS* — and it is set by which Amazon account you authorised, not by anything you choose in TrackIQ.

**Seller** — you sell to shoppers. Seller Central.

**Vendor** — you sell to Amazon, which sells to shoppers. Vendor Central.

**KDP** — Kindle Direct Publishing.

One brand can hold both a Seller and a Vendor connection for the same country. They are separate authorisations and they report separately.

## **The identifier changes**

The single most consequential difference.

**Sellers identify products by SKU.** Your own code, your own naming, several SKUs frequently pointing at one ASIN.

**Vendors identify products by ASIN.** Amazon's identifier, one per product.

Everything downstream inherits this:

| | Seller | Vendor |
|---|---|---|
| Product identity | SKU | ASIN |
| Multiple listings per product | common | not applicable |
| Joining ads to inventory | via SKU | via ASIN |
| Export column | SKU | ASIN |

**A report built for one will not read cleanly on the other.** If you run both, expect to reconcile at ASIN level, because that is the only identifier they share.

## **What "sales" means changes too**

Worth being explicit, because the same word describes two different events.

**Seller sales** are sales to shoppers. Your revenue is the retail price less Amazon's fees.

**Vendor sales** are two different numbers:

**Shipped / ordered revenue** — what Amazon bought from you, at wholesale.

**Sell-through** — what Amazon then sold to shoppers, at retail.

Those diverge, sometimes badly. Amazon can order heavily and sell slowly, or the reverse. A vendor reading only one of them has half the picture.

## **Inventory means something different**

**Seller inventory** is yours, sitting in FBA or with you. You control replenishment, and a stockout is your problem to solve directly.

**Vendor inventory** is Amazon's, once shipped. You influence it through purchase orders and forecasts, not by sending stock when you choose. A vendor stockout is usually a purchase-order problem, and it is not fixed the same way.

**So the inventory playbooks are not interchangeable.** See [**Catch a Stockout Before It Costs You Rank**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/catch-a-stockout-early), which is written from the seller side.

## **Advertising is mostly the same**

The good news.

**Sponsored Products, Brands and Display** work for both, and TrackIQ reports them identically. ACoS, ROAS, search terms, placements, rules — all the same.

**AMC** works for both, given the connection.

**DSP** works for both.

Which means the advertising half of TrackIQ is common ground, and most of the difference sits in the sales, inventory and product screens.

## **Vendor screens need a vendor connection**

TrackIQ has vendor-specific reporting — forecasting, inventory health, product sales — and it is populated by the Vendor Central connection.

**Without a vendor connection those screens have nothing to show.** That is not a fault and not a plan restriction; it is an absent data source. Connect Vendor Central from **Settings → Connections** and they fill in.

**If you are a seller, you will never see them populated**, and you are not missing anything.

## **Which am I?**

If you are unsure:

**Do you set your own retail price?** Seller.

**Do you receive purchase orders from Amazon?** Vendor.

**Do you log into Seller Central or Vendor Central?** That is the answer.

**Both?** Then you have two connections and should read every figure with the account type in mind. TrackIQ keeps them separate; the reconciliation is yours.

## **Related**

- [**Managing Your Connected Accounts**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/managing-your-connected-accounts-sp-ads-dsp-amc) — where account types are visible.
- [**Marketplaces and Currency**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/marketplaces-and-currency) — the other axis of a connection.
- [**Inventory: On Hand, Inbound, Days of Cover and Velocity**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/how-to-monitor-your-stock-levels) — the seller-side inventory screen.