Helping grocery suppliers grow
In partnership with our suppliers, we offer a vast selection of grocery products, with fast and convenient deliveries, for Amazon customers around the UK. Many of our suppliers' businesses have grown significantly by working with us, and we are committed to creating more opportunities for suppliers and making it easier for them to work with us.
The importance of our suppliers to us is why we frequently listen to our suppliers to identify ways we can better work together. We invite suppliers into our Fulfilment Centres to see first-hand how our business operates, and we hold one-to-one and group sessions where senior Amazon leaders hear directly from suppliers.
Some inspiring Amazon supplier success stories are as follows:
Joe & Seph’s popping success!
"We’ve been working with Amazon since 2012, when we first launched Joe & Seph’s on the platform. Back then, gourmet popcorn was still a niche category - and Amazon gave us the opportunity to reach a wider audience and build our brand on a national scale. Since then, it’s grown to become one of our most important retail channels.
We’ve recently been part of the Stellar programme, where the vendor support has been exceptional, and we’re now preparing to launch on AVS – which we’re confident will help take our Amazon performance to the next level.
What we’ve seen in the last few years is a clear step forward in how Amazon supports its suppliers, with stronger engagement, proactive support, and a real desire to build long-term partnerships. We’re excited about growth on Amazon, increasing appetite for more variety and proud to be part of Amazon’s growth in the Grocery space."
Paul Sopher, Commercial Director, Joe & Seph’s
Rosetta Brands
"We’ve been working with Amazon Vendor since 2014 and accelerating growth in more recent years since 2018/19 onwards. Amazon has changed a lot in that period, and we’ve grown alongside Amazon as they’ve expanded within the Grocery sector.
Amazon is constantly evolving, and we work strategically with them to maintain and improve our metrics and revenue. Whether it’s AVS support, monthly Vendor Manager catch-ups, or high-level roundtable meetings, we openly champion Amazon’s position as the world’s leading online store, and work with them to keep growing and unlocking mutual success.
Over the past year, we've seen a significant improvement in how Amazon engages with us - with stronger communication, a deeper understanding of our challenges, and a noticeably more proactive approach to resolving issues, all of which have helped foster a more collaborative and productive working relationship."
Rebecca Webster, Head of Operations @ Rosetta Brands
How our Code Compliance Team ensures Amazon consistently complies with GSCOP
Since Amazon’s designation under the UK’s Groceries Supply Code of Practice (GSCOP) in March 2022, we have made a number of changes to ensure we consistently comply with the requirements of the Code, and deliver a better experience for our grocery suppliers. Below we highlight some of the ways we ensure we consistently comply with GSCOP:
Code Compliance Officer and Code Compliance Team
Our Code Compliance Officer (‘CCO’), Tom Gorrard-Smith, is independent of Amazon’s Buying team. All of our GSCOP suppliers can raise concerns with Tom at any time. Suppliers can contact him and the dedicated Code Compliance team who supports him at codecomplianceofficer@amazon.co.uk. Any concern you raise will be swiftly investigated on a confidential basis and will never result in any form of negative consequences.
Training
All of our buying team receive regular, in-depth training on the Code and understand our obligations under it.
Senior Buyers
We have appointed Senior Buyers across each category who are available to our grocery suppliers to review decisions made in relation to the Code, such as de-listing. Their contact details are available here.
Fair dealing
We are committed to dealing with all of our grocery suppliers fairly and lawfully, and conducting our trading relationships in good faith, without duress, and in recognition of suppliers’ need for certainty as regards the risks and costs of trading.
Payments
We have robust payment controls in place to ensure we always pay invoices on time. Where we apply deductions to invoices we will always provide advance notice and a minimum of 30-days to raise a dispute before any deduction is applied. Disputes can be raised in the following ways:
- Purchase Quantity Variances (PQVs) via the Receive Variance Dashboard access from the Operational Performance Dashboard on Vendor Central.
- Purchase Price Variances and Chargebacks access from the Operational Performance Dashboard on Vendor Central.
No obligation to contribute to marketing costs
The Code prohibits retailers from requiring payments towards buyer visits to new or prospective suppliers, artwork or packaging design, consumer or market research, the opening or refurbishing of a store, or hospitality for Amazon’s staff, unless provided for in the supply agreement. Amazon does not charge suppliers for any of these costs.
De-listing
To ensure we maintain the best possible experience for our customers by providing products at great prices, we may on occasion need to cease or reduce purchasing volumes of certain products, either temporarily or permanently. Under GSCOP, a ‘de-list’ means to completely cease purchasing products from a supplier or to significantly reduce the volume of purchases made. In such cases, a designated retailer must only de-list for genuine commercial reasons and is required to provide its suppliers with reasonable notice and written reasons for this decision. Whilst most of the time where we cease or reduce purchasing volumes of certain products it will not constitute a ‘de-list’ under GSCOP, we will only ever do so if there are genuine commercial reasons (including where it is no longer economically viable to offer the product to customers based on existing terms).
Where we do de-list products we will always provide reasonable notice and will also always provide written reasons for the decision and allow grocery suppliers the opportunity to have the decision reviewed by one of our Senior Buyers. Grocery suppliers can also meet with our CCO to discuss the decision too, which we welcome.
Variation of agreements
We will never request or require our grocery suppliers to consent to a retrospective variation of their contractual terms with us. On occasion we may need to make prospective variations to our contractual terms but we will always provide reasonable notice where we do so.
Payments as a condition of being a supplier
We do not require payments as a condition of stocking or listing products with Amazon.
- We’re increasing transparency to give more visibilitySuppliers now have access to new tools offering information about their deliveries which alert them to potential issues much earlier and can enable quicker resolutions.
- We’re improving processes to ensure greater certaintyWe’ve introduced 30-day timeframes for suppliers to dispute specific issues, clearer explanations on key decisions and we’re improving how we receive products from suppliers.
- We’re strengthening our supplier supportWe have introduced designated account manager support for grocery suppliers and added live phone support for fast and effective assistance on wide range of issues.
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Amazon’s Code Compliance Officer is Tom Gorrard-Smith who you can contact for any GSCOP-related queries. Any issue you raise will be investigated on a confidential basis and it will never result in any form of negative consequence for suppliers.
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If you are a grocery supplier for Amazon, you can sign up to our regular newsletter featuring news, essential updates and other resources.
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If you have a concern in relation to any of these matters, or the Code more broadly please reach out to our Code Compliance Team at: codecomplianceofficer@amazon.co.uk
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