What Is Amazon Direct Fulfillment? Vendor Dropship Explained
Quick answer: Amazon Direct Fulfillment (DF) is Amazon's dropship program for 1P vendors, the brands that sell wholesale to Amazon through Vendor Central. The product is listed as sold by Amazon, but the stock stays in the vendor's own warehouse or 3PL. When a shopper orders, Amazon sends the order to the vendor, who ships it straight to the customer with a prepaid label from Amazon. It suits established vendors with bulky, long-tail or slow-moving items and reliable US fulfillment. If you sell through Seller Central, DF isn't open to you; your equivalents are merchant fulfillment and Seller Fulfilled Prime.
Where DF fits in the vendor model
A vendor normally supplies Amazon in bulk: Amazon sends a purchase order, the vendor ships pallets or cartons to Amazon's warehouses, and Amazon sells from its own stock. DF is the second channel. Amazon still owns the sale and sets the retail price, but it never holds the inventory. Many vendors use both: fast movers go in bulk, while bulky, seasonal or long-tail items, which Amazon would rather not store, go through DF.
If 1P and 3P are new terms, start with our explainer on Amazon 1P vs 3P.
How a DF order flows
- Shopper buys an item listed as sold by Amazon.
- Amazon sends a DF order to the vendor, visible in Vendor Central or delivered through Amazon's API or EDI.
- The vendor accepts or cancels. Partial shipments aren't allowed; an order you can't fill in full has to be cancelled, and cancellations are tracked.
- The vendor prints Amazon's label and packing slip. Amazon provides the prepaid shipping label, and the carrier is the one Amazon specifies.
- Pick, pack and hand over to the carrier by the expected ship date.
- The vendor confirms the shipment, which is required before it can invoice.
- The vendor invoices Amazon at the agreed DF cost price. Amazon handles the shopper relationship.
Behind this sits an inventory feed. The vendor reports available stock per warehouse at least daily, through Vendor Central, a file or the DF inventory API, so Amazon only sells what is actually on the shelf.
DF compared with the other ways a product reaches a shopper
| Direct Fulfillment | Vendor bulk orders | FBA (3P) | Merchant fulfilled (3P) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Who sells to the shopper | Amazon | Amazon | You | You |
| Who sets the price | Amazon | Amazon | You | You |
| Where stock sits | Your warehouse or 3PL | Amazon | Amazon | Your warehouse or 3PL |
| Who ships each order | You, on Amazon's label | Amazon | Amazon | You |
| Who buys postage | Amazon provides the label | Not applicable | Included in FBA fees | You |
| How you get in | Existing vendors with DF enabled | Invitation | Open registration | Open registration |
For the 3P side of this table, see our breakdown of FBA vs merchant fulfilled costs.
What Amazon measures
DF has fewer chargeback codes than bulk vendor shipments, but it has a scorecard and Amazon acts on it. The exact targets sit inside Vendor Central and your DF documentation, so confirm them with your vendor manager. The metrics vendors are tracked on include:
- Cancellation rate: orders you couldn't ship, often caused by an inventory feed that showed stock you didn't have.
- Late shipment rate: parcels handed over after the expected ship date.
- Carrier first scan: whether the carrier scanned the parcel soon after you printed the label.
- Ship method mismatch: using a different service from the one Amazon specified.
- Delivery estimate accuracy: whether parcels arrive by the date Amazon promised.
Poor performance escalates from warnings to at-risk status. In serious cases Amazon sets the vendor's DF inventory to zero and stops sending orders until an action plan is approved. Even before that, a weak record can mean longer delivery promises on your listings, which costs sales.
Who DF suits, and who it doesn't
| Good fit | Poor fit |
|---|---|
| Existing vendors with bulky, oversized or heavy items | Sellers without a Vendor Central account |
| Long catalogs where many items sell a few units a month | Small catalogs of fast movers that Amazon would buy in bulk anyway |
| A US warehouse or 3PL with daily carrier pickups | Stock held only outside the country you sell in |
| EDI or API connection for orders, labels and inventory | Manual order handling and irregular stock counts |
| Accurate, real-time inventory | Stock that is also sold on other channels without a shared count |
Location matters. Sources that work with DF vendors describe the US program as one for vendors with stock in a US warehouse, their own or a 3PL's, and every program depends on meeting Amazon's delivery promise. In practice, parcels sent one by one from China don't work for US DF.
DF readiness checklist
- An active Vendor Central account, with DF requested through Vendor Central or switched on during onboarding.
- A ship-from warehouse in the selling country, with pickup times and holiday closures set up in Vendor Central.
- An inventory feed that updates at least daily and only counts stock that is ready to ship.
- Label and packing slip printing straight from Amazon's documents, in the format your printers handle.
- A clear rule for orders you can't fill in full: cancel quickly rather than ship partially.
- Customer data handled under Amazon's data protection rules, which limit how long you keep shoppers' details.
- A weekly review of your DF scorecard.
Not a vendor? Your equivalents
Most brands sourcing from China sell through Seller Central, where the matching options are Seller Fulfilled Prime (you ship Prime orders from a US warehouse) and plain merchant fulfillment. Amazon has been reducing smaller vendor accounts since 2024, so planning around a Vendor Central invitation is risky for a new brand.
How PackQuay supports vendors
DF orders ship from a warehouse in the selling country, so we work upstream of it. We source from factories, inspect 20% of each batch free at our warehouse in Xinxiang, Henan, and ship bulk cartons at cost to the US warehouse or 3PL that runs your DF orders. For your bulk purchase orders, we can apply Amazon labels, pack to Amazon's requirements and ship the goods to the Amazon warehouses on the order. Labelling is $0.10 per unit; see Amazon FBA prep for all prices. Message us on WhatsApp with your catalog.
FAQ
What is Amazon Direct Fulfillment?
Amazon Direct Fulfillment (DF) is a dropship program for Vendor Central vendors. Products are sold by Amazon, but when a shopper orders, Amazon sends the order to the vendor, who ships it from its own warehouse or 3PL using a prepaid label provided by Amazon.
What is the difference between Direct Fulfillment and FBA?
With FBA, a third-party seller's stock sits in Amazon's warehouses and Amazon ships each order. With Direct Fulfillment, the vendor keeps the stock and ships each order itself, while Amazon is the seller of record and provides the shipping label.
Can Seller Central sellers use Amazon Direct Fulfillment?
No. Direct Fulfillment is only for 1P vendors in Vendor Central. Seller Central sellers who want to ship orders themselves use merchant fulfillment, or Seller Fulfilled Prime if they want the Prime badge.
Who pays for shipping in Amazon Direct Fulfillment?
Amazon provides prepaid shipping labels for DF orders, and the vendor pays for its own warehouse, labor and packaging. DF cost prices can be negotiated differently from your bulk purchase-order terms, so check the full economics with your vendor manager.
Can I run Amazon Direct Fulfillment from China?
Not for US shoppers in practice. DF depends on meeting Amazon's delivery promise with daily carrier pickups, which means holding stock in a warehouse or 3PL in the country you sell in and restocking it in bulk from China.