Platform Exclusivity Deals: What to Charge

Every platform buyer in India eventually asks for something nobody else has. Blinkit wants a pack size Zepto cannot list. Amazon wants your new SKU two weeks before Flipkart. Myntra wants a colourway that stays on Myntra. The ask arrives wrapped in a growth story. Underneath, it is a commercial trade, and it should be priced like one.

What the platform is actually asking for

Exclusivity is a supply restriction you place on yourself. The platform gains a reason for a shopper to open its app instead of a competitor’s. You give up optionality on every other channel for the length of the term. Those two things are not equal, which is why the deal needs a number attached to it.

There are four shapes of the ask. They cost very different amounts.

• Launch window. Your new SKU lists on one platform first. Everyone else follows after 30, 60 or 90 days.
• Permanent SKU. One specific SKU lives only on that platform until one side exits.
• Pack or variant. Same product, but a pack size, shade or bundle only that platform carries.
• Category. You will not list anything in that category anywhere else. This is the one that ends brands.

Get the buyer to name which one, in writing, before you talk money. Conversations that start as a 60 day launch window routinely arrive as a contract reading category exclusivity across all online channels. Read the definition clause, not the email.

Launch window versus permanent SKU

A launch window is usually worth doing. You get concentrated visibility, a real merchandising slot, and a clean demand read without splitting first-batch inventory four ways. The platform gets a headline it can market. Ninety days is the longest window most brands should accept. In categories where a copycat can be on shelf in six weeks, 45 days is the sensible cap.

Permanent SKU exclusivity is a different instrument. You are now building product for a channel rather than for a consumer. That is defensible when the SKU is genuinely channel-shaped: a 60g impulse pack that only makes sense in a ten minute basket, a two-pack that only works at a modern trade price point. It is indefensible when the exclusive SKU is your hero. Lock your best seller to one platform and every negotiation after that is one you have already lost.

A useful test. If the exclusive SKU disappeared tomorrow, would your business notice? If the answer is yes, it should not be exclusive.

What to charge

Exclusivity gets paid for in one of four currencies. Pick the one you actually need.

• Guaranteed offtake. A committed purchase order or a minimum monthly volume the platform will buy, written as units, not as an aspiration.
• Commercial terms. Lower commission, a reduced fee slab, faster settlement, or waived listing and onboarding charges.
• Funded visibility. A rupee number of platform-funded banner, search and category placement, with dates and slots named.
• Margin protection. A floor on your net realisation so the platform cannot discount your price out of your margin during the term.

Rough calibration from the deals we see. A 60 to 90 day launch window is worth two to four points of margin or an equivalent visibility package. Permanent SKU exclusivity in a fought-over category should carry a minimum offtake commitment covering at least the manufacturing minimum order quantity for that SKU, plus a first-year volume floor. If a buyer will not commit volume, they are not buying exclusivity. They are asking for a favour.

Never trade exclusivity for ranking promises. Search position is an outcome the category team does not fully control and cannot be enforced. Trade it for money, terms, or committed units.

The clauses that decide the deal

Five clauses carry almost all the risk. Everything else is paperwork.

• Term and renewal. Fixed end date, no auto-renewal, renewal requires a fresh signature from you. Auto-renewal turns a one season test into a three year cage.
• Category scope. Define it by SKU or GTIN, never by category name. A clause naming skincare means every future product you launch.
• Minimum offtake with automatic lapse. If the platform buys under the committed number in any quarter, exclusivity ends on its own, with no notice and no dispute needed.
• Channel carve-outs. Your own website, offline general trade, modern trade and export should be excluded by name. Buyers rarely object. They just do not offer it.
• Exit and tail. Notice period both ways, a sell-through window for stock in their warehouse, and an explicit statement that no restriction survives the term.

What it does to your other channels

Exclusivity is never contained. Your other platform managers see the launch. The competing quick commerce buyer notices you gave a rival a pack they cannot get, and your next joint business plan there gets harder. Distributors ask why the new variant is not in their catalogue. Modern trade buyers who plan planograms two quarters out drop you from the reset.

Budget for the repair work. Tell the other platforms before they find out. Give them something concrete on the same timeline, even a smaller thing: a first look on the following launch, a bundle only they carry, an event window. Silence costs more than the exclusive earned.

When to refuse

Refuse when the ask covers a category rather than a SKU. Refuse when there is no volume commitment. Refuse when the term runs past twelve months on a first deal. Refuse when the exclusive SKU is more than roughly 15 percent of your revenue. Refuse when the contract has no automatic lapse and no exit tail.

Refusal is cheaper than most founders think. Platforms ask every brand, and they keep buying from the ones who say no. What they stop respecting is a brand that gives exclusivity away and then asks for support anyway. Price it, write it down, put an end date on it, and hold the line on scope.