Why Brands Are Moving from the 1P to 3P Model in the Middle East

Brands across the globe are increasingly transitioning from Amazon’s first-party (1P) vendor model to the third-party (3P) seller model. This shift is driven by a desire for greater control, profitability, and agility on ecommerce marketplaces. By becoming 3P sellers (either directly or through an expert partner), brands can “control their own destiny” on platforms like Amazon and even expand to new channels and regions that were previously hard to reach. Below we break down the top five key drivers behind this 1P-to-3P movement, with a special focus on how the 3P model is enabling expansion into high-growth markets like the UAE.

1. Reclaiming Control and Brand Protection

When acting as a 1P vendor, brands share a significant degree of control with Amazon, including pricing, inventory decisions, and elements of the customer experience. The 3P model allows brands to take full control of their marketplace presence. This means you set your own prices, manage stock levels, and control content on product detail pages, thereby protecting brand integrity.

A major advantage of this control is the ability to eliminate unauthorised sellers and “grey market” activity. If a brand isn’t selling on a marketplace like Amazon, numerous third-parties often will – leading to a “messy seller landscape” that can damage customer trust. These unauthorised sellers may provide poor service or even counterfeit goods, resulting in bad reviews that hurt the brand’s reputation. By establishing an official 3P seller presence, brands can clean up their listings and ensure customers get authentic products with a great experience. As Pattern’s MENA benchmarking found, 74% of brands on Amazon.ae had more than one reseller on their listings, which correlated with negative reviews and customer confusion. Working with an authorised 3P partner such as Pattern lets brands govern their content through always monitoring; best‑in‑class, brand‑approved titles, bullets, A+ content, imagery, and attributes kept consistent across every ASIN and locale.

2. Higher Profit Margins and Cost Efficiency

Another key driver for moving to 3P is the opportunity for improved profitability. In a 1P wholesale relationship, margins are influenced by wholesale pricing structures, promotional activity, and programme-related fees (such as chargebacks and accruals), which can introduce variability into brand profitability. By contrast, selling 3P on Amazon (via Seller Central) lets brands set retail prices that make sense for their margin structure and avoid many vendor-side costs. You pay Amazon a fixed referral commission (~15%) and FBA fees, but you eliminate the uncertainty of Amazon’s purchase orders and negotiations. Brands often see profits increase when they have more control over pricing and inventory planning.

The 3P model eliminates the need for ongoing vendor negotiations common in 1P relationships, reducing unexpected cost adjustments, operational fees, and commercial complexity — especially when working with an experienced partner. For example, a leading sports nutrition brand eliminated chargebacks and surprise costs when Pattern transitioned them to a 3P model. As the brand’s exclusive authorised seller on Amazon, Pattern avoided incremental program fees while improving sales performance and operational efficiency.

Additionally, many brands overlook the hidden costs of 1P, such as hiring separate agencies for advertising, creative production, or subscribing to third-party tools. With a 3P partner like Pattern, these services are often bundled at no extra cost — improving both profitability and operational control.

When working with a 3P model — especially through a partner like Pattern — many of these services are included at no additional cost, offering both operational efficiency and significant savings.

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3. Inventory, Supply and Fulfillment Flexibility

In a 1P model, product availability is driven by Amazon’s purchasing decisions. When purchase orders are issued inconsistently or unpredictably, brand operations teams are often forced into a reactive mode, and products can go out of stock, causing sales to pause.

By contrast, a 3P model gives brands direct control over inventory levels, replenishment, and demand planning. Brands decide how much stock to send to FBA and when, ensuring consistent product availability and enabling more efficient operational planning—even when working with a 3P partner. This control also allows brands to launch new products or adjust their catalogue on their own timeline, without reliance on Amazon’s retail team.

This agility becomes especially critical during key seasons and promotional periods, allowing brands to stock ahead and fully capitalise on demand without constraint.

Additionally, as a 3P seller you have flexibility in fulfillment and logistics strategies. You can use Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) for Prime access, utilise third-party logistics, or a mix – whatever best balances cost and speed. You’re not locked into Amazon’s retail supply chain. Many brands find they can reduce lead times and prevent stockouts by actively managing FBA inventory levels, rather than waiting on Amazon’s forecasts.Other brands have leveraged Pattern’s logistics expertise to rapidly expand into new fulfillment centers. Pattern onboarded 47 SKUs across Amazon UAE and Noon in just 1.5 months, managing end-to-end operational logistics for one of the sports nutrition brands .This level of speed and supply chain flexibility would be difficult to achieve under a rigid 1P model.

Finally, controlling your own inventory and fulfillment means you can deliver a better customer experience. Products sold via 3P (especially with FBA) arrive faster and in good condition, which isn’t always the case when random resellers fulfill cross-border orders. In the Middle East, for example, many shoppers have resorted to buying items from overseas due to lack of local stock – resulting in slow delivery and even products stored improperly during transit. By establishing a local 3P presence, brands ensure shoppers get fast, Prime-quality delivery and fresh product, improving the brand’s reputation. This agility in inventory and fulfillment management is a decisive advantage of the 3P approach.

4. Direct Consumer Data and Marketing Insights

In a 1P model, Amazon owns the customer relationship and provides brands with a limited view of customer-level data, reducing visibility into buyer behaviour, traffic patterns, and advertising performance. In contrast, a 3P model gives brands access to deeper data and analytics to inform strategic decision-making.

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As a Seller, brands can access detailed insights into sales performance, customer buying behaviour, and advertising metrics—including the direct impact of advertising on sales. When combined with D2C data through trusted partners like Pattern, these insights create a unified view of the customer journey, enabling brands to better understand lifetime value, identify potential cannibalisation across channels, optimise marketing spend, and refine targeting. This enhanced visibility can also inform product development by aligning offerings more closely with true customer demand.

Having direct control of listings also enables more robust marketing content – brands can experiment with A+ Content, storefronts, and tailored promotions that build brand equity (options that are often more limited for 1P vendors). Over time, the data collected in a 3P setup (from keyword performance to customer reviews and questions) becomes a valuable asset. It allows for continual SEO and content optimisation to improve discoverability and conversion. 

5. Global Expansion into New Markets (UAE and Beyond)

One of the most exciting drivers of the 1P-to-3P shift is the ability to expand into new international marketplaces with far greater ease. Under the 1P model, brands are largely limited to regions where Amazon operates a Vendor programme – and even then, expansion is at Amazon’s discretion. By contrast, the 3P approach lets brands proactively enter high-growth markets on their own terms. A standout example in 2024–2025 is the Middle East, specifically the United Arab Emirates. The UAE’s ecommerce sector is booming, projected to grow ~20% in the next five years (outpacing the global average of 13%). Ambitious brands are using the 3P model to secure a foothold in the UAE via Amazon.ae (Amazon’s UAE marketplace) and Noon.com (a major regional marketplace), tapping into a young, digitally savvy consumer base.

The 3P model is crucial for UAE market entry because it offers multi-channel flexibility. A brand selling 1P to Amazon would have no avenue to sell on Noon (which is a separate platform). By selling 3P, a brand (or its partner) can list products on both Amazon.ae and Noon simultaneously, maximising reach.

Importantly, succeeding in the UAE can be a gateway to the broader GCC region. Once a brand builds its UAE operations, it can leverage that infrastructure to expand to neighboring Gulf markets like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and beyond. For instance, Amazon has also launched Amazon.sa in Saudi Arabia, and Noon operates in both UAE and Saudi – meaning a proven 3P strategy in the UAE can be quickly scaled across the GCC with the right partnerships. Localisation remains key (each country has its own nuances), but a 3P model gives the flexibility to adapt and enter each market at the pace that suits the brand. Pattern’s Middle East team (Pattern MENA) supports brands in navigating local regulations, setting up Arabic content, and managing logistics across borders, thereby accelerating regional scale. With relatively lower e-commerce competition in the GCC compared to Western markets and higher average order values in categories like luxury and electronics, brands often find strong profitability and ROI when they move in early. In fact, many brands report higher returns on ad spend and faster revenue ramp-up in the UAE than in more mature markets, thanks to these favourable dynamics. All of this underscores that expanding to markets like the UAE is not just an added bonus of going 3P – it’s becoming a strategic imperative as part of the global 3P shift.

To learn more about how your brand can benefit from a 1P - 3P transition and expand your reach into the Middle East, contact us today. 

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