Role Overview
This role exists to build, manage, and maximize supplier relationships in the Amazon wholesale/reselling model. Clients hire you to unlock profitable catalog access and maintain strong accounts that deliver consistent inventory and margins. Your value is measured by what you can source, how well you negotiate, and your ability to protect and grow supplier-level partnerships over time. You’re not just managing emails or placing orders — you’re positioned upstream, where supplier trust and account performance directly affect revenue flow.
This is not a fulfillment or support role. It’s not about taking direction — it’s about owning supplier communication, spotting opportunities, and preventing problems before they impact the account. When you underperform, accounts get cut, catalogs dry up, and clients lose months of progress overnight. When you perform at a high level, you create steady growth and resilience across the supply chain. The client counts on your strategic judgment, industry awareness, and reliability to turn supplier access into actual business results.
Standards You Must Meet
- You consistently secure access to profitable, Amazon-approved SKUs — clients expect real catalog wins, not just supplier conversations.
- Every supplier relationship you manage must result in stable inventory flow and dependable margins that justify the account.
- Clients expect to see proactive sourcing — if you wait for leads or only act after instructions, you’re leaving money and trust on the table.
- Your negotiations directly affect the bottom line; weak pricing, rigid MOQs, or missed terms signal a lack of leverage and cost the client.
- No supplier should go cold — clients will hold you responsible for dormant accounts, broken communication, or preventable churn.
- You must be first to notice order issues, catalog gaps, or non-compliance — if clients find out before you do, you’re not managing the account.
- Clients rely on your judgment to avoid bad product fits, supplier risks, or policy red flags before they reach the account.
- It’s not just about contact — if a supplier trusts you, they loop you into line extensions, exclusives, and deeper discounts. That’s the bar.
What You’ll Be Doing
- Initiate and manage supplier outreach campaigns weekly to open new accounts aligned with client approval and margin standards.
- Negotiate directly with suppliers to secure favorable pricing, flexible MOQs, and payment terms that improve catalog viability.
- Track and follow up on all open communications to prevent supplier churn and ensure consistent inventory flow.
- Review supplier catalogs regularly to catch unlisted SKUs, discontinued products, or price shifts before they affect the account.
- Proactively monitor restocks and shipping windows to flag disruptions before they impact FBA availability.
- Identify and re-engage cold or underperforming suppliers with a revised pitch backed by updated forecasts or client wins.
- Evaluate each new product against brand restrictions, category policies, and client performance thresholds before submission.
- Use smart tracking tools or automations to streamline PO management, invoice logging, and pricing updates across the supplier base.
What You’ll Hand Over
- A vetted supplier list with confirmed contact details, product catalogs, approval status, and next actionable steps.
- A ready-to-order SKU sheet showing profit-qualified products, negotiated pricing, MOQ terms, and estimated lead times.
- A supplier communication log summarizing all key exchanges, escalations, and relationship status updates.
- A restock tracker or purchasing rhythm report highlighting upcoming POs, low-inventory flags, and turnaround timing.
- A product risk summary filtering out non-compliant, policy-sensitive, or poor-fit SKUs before client review.
Tools You’ll Need to Use
- Amazon Seller Central – Central hub for managing listings, orders, performance metrics, and inbound shipments.
- InventoryLab – Key for FBA inventory management, profitability tracking, and shipment creation.
- Keepa – Essential for historic price, sales rank, and stock movement analysis when evaluating suppliers and products.
- Jungle Scout or Helium 10 – Used for product research, competition tracking, and sales estimates within strategic sourcing.
- Google Workspace (Docs, Sheets, Drive) – Required for efficient supplier communication, data tracking, and team collaboration.
- WhatsApp or Skype – Standard channels for consistent, real-time communication with wholesale suppliers.
- QuickBooks or Xero (basic) – Necessary for tracking purchase orders, invoices, and supplier payments in coordination with accounting.
Why Work Smarter
At this level, we expect operational awareness of tools like Zapier, Make, and n8n. You don’t need to be an expert, but you do need to understand what’s possible and take the initiative to apply it. If a VA hired for strategic supplier management can’t automate a basic task like dumping invoice data into a shared drive or syncing prices to a sheet, the client is wasting money — plain and simple.
This skill set is not yet required everywhere, but it is clearly becoming the baseline. We’re setting the bar higher because the market already has. Act accordingly.
Why Your Work Matters
In Amazon wholesale, supplier access *is* the business. If a client doesn’t have fresh SKUs, competitive pricing, and consistent restocks, their margin dies — and their entire account starts bleeding. That makes the Supplier Relations / Account Manager one of the most leveraged roles on any client’s team. You’re not background support; you’re upstream, where the first dollar is either created or lost. When you mismanage a supplier, miss a window to negotiate, or let comms go cold, it doesn’t just hurt — it sabotages months of client investment.
Right now, clients are losing deals to sharper operators who act faster, negotiate smarter, and stay tighter with suppliers. Every delay in pricing, every misread MOQ, every dead account is a revenue leak the client *shouldn’t* have to explain. But when you’re strong in this role — persistent, strategic, reliable — you unlock real catalogs, stabilize supply, and give clients the inventory foundation they need to grow. This is not optional work. It’s what keeps accounts alive.
What We Expect From You
As a Strategist in Supplier Relations, you are expected to operate beyond rote account management. You bring business judgment to every decision—pricing, MOQs, margins, brand approvals, and reorders—balancing risk and profitability with operational discipline. This is not a role for order-takers; it’s for someone who can lead conversations with suppliers, navigate compliance with Amazon policies, and protect the bottom line of client accounts. You see trends before others do, and your sourcing plans are rooted in both data and market sense.
We’re looking for someone who treats every supplier as a long-term partner and every purchase order as a strategic move. You take full ownership of your accounts—if a product tanks or violates ToS, you don’t deflect, you diagnose and adjust. You’re proactive about tightening systems, training VAs, and flagging issues before they become problems. You understand that growth requires both aggression and control, and you’re comfortable being held accountable for both. This role carries weight—OES will invest in you, but we expect returns.
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$620 – $1,960
OES salary standards reflect real market benchmarks, tier and experience level, ensuring fair pay for VAs and realistic expectations for clients.
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