Is Amazon a Wholesaler or Retailer?
Quick, direct answer first. Then the part that actually matters if you searched this because you want to sell wholesale products on Amazon yourself.
Amazon is a retailer and an online marketplace, not a wholesaler. It sells products directly to consumers, and it also hosts millions of independent third-party sellers who sell their own inventory through its platform. Selling in bulk to other businesses for resale, which is what a wholesaler actually does, is not Amazon's core business.
Where the confusion comes from
Amazon does have one relationship that looks distributor-like: through its Vendor Central program, Amazon buys inventory directly from some brands and resells it itself, at retail prices, under its own account. In that one specific relationship, Amazon is acting like the retailer buying wholesale, which is the classic definition of retail. It is still not operating as a wholesaler supplying other businesses.
There is also Amazon Business, which offers bulk purchasing for companies buying supplies for their own use, like a office ordering pallets of paper towels. That is bulk retail buying, not wholesale sourcing for resale, and it will not get you products at a price you could profitably resell.
What you probably actually meant to ask
If you searched "is Amazon a wholesaler," there's a good chance the real question underneath it is something closer to: can I source products wholesale and sell them on Amazon? That is a completely different question, and the answer is yes, that's an entire, legitimate business model, just not one where Amazon itself is your wholesaler.
Not how it works
- Buying inventory wholesale directly from Amazon
- Amazon supplying stock to resellers at bulk prices
- Amazon acting as your distributor
How it actually works
- You buy real, brand-name products wholesale from a distributor or the brand directly
- You get approved to sell that brand on Amazon
- You list and sell those products through Amazon's marketplace
Amazon's role in this is the sales channel, not the source of the inventory. You are never buying from Amazon in this model, you're buying from a wholesale distributor or a brand, then using Amazon to reach customers. This is exactly what "Amazon wholesale" means as a seller business model, distinct from Amazon's own classification as a retailer.
If that's the business you're actually trying to figure out, Amazon wholesale for beginners covers how the model works end to end, and how to find wholesale suppliers covers exactly where to source the inventory from, since it's never Amazon itself.
The free minicourse walks through exactly how sourcing, approvals, and selling work, no confusion about who's buying from who.