1P Vendors: Stop launching #Amazon -exclusive products. โ๐ โ Launch channel-exc
By Martin Heubel ยท April 29, 2026 ยท Curated by George's Blog
1P Vendors: Stop launching #Amazon-exclusive products. โ๐
โ ย Launch channel-exclusive selection instead.
Amazon is a notorious price follower.
Which means brands launching exclusives with Amazon quickly run into several problems:
1. Exclusive products have zero organic demand. No search history, no sales rank, and no demand signals for Amazon to place a PO.
2. Sales teams hand over too much margin, expecting Vendor Managers to drive visibility. They don't. So the product never gains traction and the exclusive item becomes a liability.
3. Your MSRP/RRP is rarely honoured by Amazon. Without a price anchor, overstocked exclusives face markdown immediately.
This leads to margin erosion, a poor customer experience, and frustration aimed at whoever recommended launching exclusives in the first place.
โ It doesn't have to be that way.
Two principles fix this:
๐ ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ด๐ถ๐ป ๐บ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฎ๐ด๐ฒ๐บ๐ฒ๐ป๐
Grant Amazon only a marginal Net PPM benefit on exclusive items, benchmarked against T12M. Exclusives drive returns through volume, not by ceding margin to your VM.
๐ฃ๐ฟ๐ถ๐ฐ๐ฒ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฐ๐ต๐ผ๐ฟ๐ถ๐ป๐ด
Amazon needs at least one external retailer to anchor its price algorithm. Once in place, promotions become more effective, and sales rank builds faster.
The conclusion?
Don't launch Amazon exclusives.
Sell online channel-exclusive products instead.
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#amazonvendor #amazonstrategy