We fund your Amazon inventory. You keep the margin.

What is an Amazon 3P distribution partnership?

A third-party distribution partnership is a model where an exclusive seller buys your inventory at wholesale, becomes the seller of record on Amazon, funds advertising, and runs daily operations. The brand receives wholesale margin upfront. The 3P partner profits on the resale margin after buy and ad costs. Risk shifts from the brand's balance sheet to the partner's.

The 3P model is distinct from 1P (where Amazon Vendor Central is your buyer) and from a managed-service agency (where you keep inventory risk and the agency just operates). In 3P, ownership of inventory transfers to the distributor at the warehouse, but the brand keeps strategic control over pricing architecture, brand voice, and category positioning. Done well, it converts a capital problem into an operating partnership.

Done badly, it converts a brand into a commodity. The wrong 3P partner uses brand inventory as their loss-leader, races MAP to the bottom, and burns the brand's long-term equity for short-term sell-through. Eleviam's contract structure is built to prevent that, with enforceable MAP language, brand-approval gates on pricing changes, and milestone-based commercial terms.

When does an Amazon 3P partnership make sense for a CPG brand?

3P fits brands with proven product-market fit, $75K+/month run-rate on Amazon or TikTok Shop, ≥20% gross margin, and a real cash-flow constraint blocking growth. If the data says scale, but inventory financing or paid-ad cash flow is the bottleneck, 3P is the lever. If margin is below 20% or PMF is unproven, 3P is the wrong tool.

The brands where 3P delivers the most value usually share four characteristics: consistent repeat purchase rate, growing branded search, an existing Amazon flywheel that is starving for ad fuel, and a founder who is comfortable handing operational execution to an external team. We turn down brands that don't have these. Misaligned 3P engagements waste capital on both sides.

How does Eleviam structure the 3P commercial agreement?

Eleviam buys inventory at a contracted wholesale price, takes seller-of-record on Amazon, and funds ad spend out of our own P&L. The brand receives wholesale margin on every PO with no further upside or downside. Eleviam profits on the resale margin after our buy cost and ad spend. We require ≥30% target ROI on capital deployed.

Three commercial guardrails in every contract: (1) MAP enforcement language that lets either party terminate distribution rights if the other violates pricing policy; (2) milestone-based unwind terms so neither side is stuck if the partnership is not working at the 60 or 90 day mark; (3) brand-approval gates on any pricing or positioning change that could affect equity outside Amazon.

For brands that want to accelerate growth, an optional co-op spend mechanism lets the brand contribute additional ad dollars on top of Eleviam's investment. Co-op spend triggers when Eleviam capital is deployed and incremental ad investment is the bottleneck on inventory turn rate, not when the brand wants to subsidize Eleviam's risk.

What categories does Eleviam fund through 3P?

Beauty and wellness, small-form-factor consumer electronics, home and household, and apparel and fashion accessories. These four CPG verticals share the unit-economics profile that makes 3P work: ≥30% gross margin at the brand level, repeat-purchase tailwinds, and category-specific reseller problems we can solve with capital plus operations.

We do not fund 3P partnerships in regulated categories (supplements with FDA exposure beyond standard structure-function claims, controlled substances, age-restricted goods), in single-SKU brands without a roadmap to a second product, or in commodity categories where price is the only differentiator. Those engagements ship capital risk we don't think we can underwrite.

How does 3P compare to inventory loans, factoring, and other Amazon capital sources?

Inventory loans (Amazon Lending, Wayflyer, Clearco) advance cash against future Amazon receivables and charge interest. Factoring sells receivables at a discount. Both keep inventory risk on the brand. Eleviam's 3P partnership transfers inventory risk entirely. We buy and hold. The brand's balance sheet stays clean, and the brand doesn't service debt.

The right capital tool depends on the bottleneck. If your brand has strong unit economics, fast turn rate, and the only constraint is the cash to fund the next purchase order, an inventory loan at competitive interest is often cheaper than 3P. If your brand has the inventory but the ad efficiency is dragging because you can't fuel a meaningful campaign budget, an Eleviam Operator-tier agency engagement may be the right answer instead.

3P fits the brand that needs capital plus operations, where the founder's time is the real bottleneck and the cash flow constraint is structural, not seasonal. We have a 30 minute discovery call dedicated to figuring out which path is the right fit. We have turned brands toward inventory loans more than once because that was the cheaper, better answer.

What does the first 90 days of an Eleviam 3P partnership look like?

Days 0 to 14: financial diligence, contract execution, first PO. Days 15 to 45: Amazon account ownership transfer, listing optimization, advertising launch. Days 45 to 90: paid scaling, brand protection lock-in, first compounding period. Specific 30/60/90 milestones are written into every operating agreement.

We deliver a written Account Business Plan (ABP) in the first two weeks. The ABP covers expected Buy Box trajectory, advertising baseline, contribution-margin progression, and explicit milestones the partnership will be measured against. If the partnership is not on track at the 60-day evaluation point, we adjust the strategy or the commercial terms transparently. We don't hide bad data.