Manufacturing View vs. Sourcing View

Amazon Vendor Central provides two different types of distributor views for sales and inventory reports.

• Sourcing View: Sourcing view provides data on ASINs that were actually purchased from the vendor by Amazon. Data from this view is determined based on an ASIN’s vendor code, which is the same code that purchase orders are placed against.
• Manufacturing View: Manufacturing view provides data on all ASIN’s “owned” by a manufacturer’s brand. Data from this view is determined based on an ASIN’s brand code, regardless of whether the ASIN was procured from the vendor.

In Vendor Central, the Manufacturing view aggregates data for a specific ASIN, no matter its source. This is different from the Sourcing view, which aggregates data according to the vendor that supplied the ASIN.

For example, say Amazon buys ASIN B012345678 from three different vendors. Vendor 1 sold 50 units, Vendor 2 sold 20 units and Vendor 3 sold 10 units. Manufacturing view for each vendor will report 80 units sold for that ASIN.

In contrast, a vendor's Sourcing view will only show that vendor's sales. Using the same example, Vendor 1 would see 50 units sold, Vendor 2 would see 20 units sold, and Vendor 3 would see 10 units sold in Sourcing view.

Why is Manufacturing View important?

Manufacturing view is the only way to get certain types of data. For example, Amazon only reports traffic, buy box, and forecasting data in Manufacturing view. For Sourcing view, these metrics contain nulls or zeroes.

If it contains more data, what are the downsides to using Manufacturing View?

The quality of manufacturing and sourcing views depends on how well Amazon manages the catalogs attached to your manufacturer, vendor, and brand codes.

• Manufacturing code: specific to the manufacturer of the products. A manufacturing code might be shared between multiple vendors.
• Vendor code: specific to the source of the products. Every vendor has their own unique vendor code, which lets the vendor see the performance of ASINs sourced through that vendor code.
• Brand code: specific to the brand of the products. Associates ASINs with a vendor, brand name, and brand store.

In theory, these systems work in harmony to ensure the right data is reported to the right group at the right time. In reality, Amazon does not implement this consistently; the availability and "cleanliness" of manufacturing data in particular seems to vary by category. If a brand leverages many channels and distributors, many of whom sell to Amazon, that brand's manufacturing data will be noisier because of all the inputs.

How can I compare manufacturing & sourcing data?

If you use both manufacturing & sourcing views, you can use the SQL query below to identify ASIN-level differences in shipped COGS between the two views. The query output will identify (1) ASINs that are present in one view but not the other, and (2) differences in sales volume between views.

select
asin,
max(case when distributor_view = 'Sourcing' then asin else '' END) as sourcing_asin,
max(case when distributor_view = 'Manufacturing' then asin else '' END) as manufacturing_asin,
sum(case when distributor_view = 'Sourcing' then shipped_cogs else 0 END) as sourcing_shipped_cogs,
sum(case when distributor_view = 'Manufacturing' then shipped_cogs else 0 END) as manufacturing_shipped_cogs,
sum(case when distributor_view = 'Sourcing' then shipped_units else 0 END) as sourcing_shipped_units,
sum(case when distributor_view = 'Manufacturing' then shipped_units else 0 END) as manufacturing_shipped_units
from
retail_analytics_sales

where date = date_trunc('week', current_date + '1 day' :: interval) - '8 day' :: interval

group by asin