Exclusivity is a program that allows retailers to become the only Faire stockist of your products in their local area in exchange for an annual spend commitment. Offering exclusivity helps you increase sales, attract new customers and build loyalty.
Where is the exclusivity program available?
Our exclusivity program is currently available to all brands and brick & mortar retailers on Faire. To learn more about where Faire is available, read here
Only brick & mortar retailers with valid store addresses will have access to exclusivity.
How does exclusivity work on Faire?
There are two ways to offer exclusivity to retailers on Faire:
- Custom agreements by request: You can have custom exclusivity agreements with a unique annual spend for each retailer. Retailers will initiate the request and you’ll have 30 days to accept, decline, or counter offer.
- Instant Exclusivity agreements: You can set a single required annual spend that all retailers must commit to in order to instantly activate exclusivity. You’ll have 30 days to review these agreements and cancel if needed.
All agreements are for 12 months and start on the activation date. All orders placed on Faire during the exclusivity period count towards the retailer’s spend commitment. Spend commitments from retailers represent order volume, and brands are expected to ship products for all payments within an exclusivity agreement.
A retailer's required annual spend is not the same as an order minimum. For more information on minimums, please see What is an order minimum?
While Faire isn’t responsible for any required annual spend that isn’t met by the retailer, Faire will charge the retailer any remaining balance at the end of the 12 months. For more information, please see What if the retailer does not meet the required annual spend?
Can I have custom exclusivity agreements for each retailer who requests exclusivity?
Yes, by default retailers can send you custom exclusivity requests where they will submit an annual spend offer for you to review.
To action on these requests:
- Go to the Exclusivity section in your Customers tab.
- View the list of requests under Requests. You can review each request for 30 days, after which it will expire.
- When you select a request to review, you will see the details of the offer which include the annual spend amount the retailer has suggested. If you have a relationship with the retailer you’ll also be able to see how much they’ve spent in the last 12 months and how many orders they’ve placed.
- If you’re happy with the offer the retailer has submitted, check the box indicating you are aware that the agreement will activate immediately, and then select Accept & activate. This will activate the agreement immediately.
- If the retailer’s request doesn’t quite work for you, you can counter their offer by selecting Set a different spend. You’ll then be able to choose a different annual spend amount and send a note to the retailer. Once you’ve written the note and chosen a different annual spend, select Send new agreement. This new offer will then go to the retailer for review and they will have 30 days to accept it.
Can I set up a single required annual spend for all retailers?
If you would like to offer the option for retailers to set up an exclusivity agreement with you without sending you a request, you can set up Instant Exclusivity. To set this up:
- Go to the Exclusivity section in your Customers tab.
- Locate and select Set up Instant Exclusivity.
- Set a required annual spend. You’ll see a few suggestions for what you should set your annual spend based on your top customers’ spending history, or you can set your own annual spend.
- Once you’ve chosen an annual spend, select Turn on for all customers. Retailers will now be able to instantly activate exclusivity with you, but you’ll still have 30 days to review and cancel if needed.
Please note that by default, the exclusivity program is by request, which means you may still receive custom exclusivity requests even with Instant Exclusivity turned on.
What is the retailer’s exclusivity area?
Each retailer has a default exclusivity area set by Faire based on their store location, and it typically includes 20–25 other retailers around them ranging between approximately 0.3-5.5 miles (0.5-9 km). You can preview your customers’ exclusivity area from your stockist map, available on the Exclusivity tab in your brand portal.
Retailers also have the option to choose the radius of their exclusivity area size which best represents their shopping district. Retailers cannot choose an area larger than their zip code or postal code, and areas can only be customized for new requests or agreements (not existing ones). When you get a new request or agreement, Faire will flag to you whenever a retailer has customized their area.
Can exclusivity agreements be updated or canceled?
Once an exclusivity agreement is in place, it can't be edited, but may be able to be cancelled. For more information, please see Can exclusivity agreements be modified or cancelled?
Can I opt out of exclusivity?
You can choose to opt-out of exclusivity at any time, without fees or penalties. You can easily do this from the Exclusivity tab of your portal.
If you would like to turn off the ability for retailers to submit exclusivity requests, you can do so by going to the Requests section of your Exclusivity tab and selecting Turn off requests. This will turn off both exclusivity requests and Instant Exclusivity for your retailers.
Any active agreements will remain in place until they expire, however no new retailers will be able to request exclusivity with your brand and nothing related to exclusivity will show up on your brand page for retailers. If you’d like to end an active agreement early, please refer to our cancellation guidelines.
Can I opt back into exclusivity?
You can opt back into exclusivity at any time after opting out. To do so, select turn on requests on the banner at the top of your Exclusivity page.
What orders count toward the required annual spend?
The following orders are counted toward the retailer’s minimum required annual spend:
- Orders placed after an agreement is activated
- Orders placed 24 hours or less before an agreement is activated. Faire considers an agreement active when a retailer instantly activates, when you approve a custom agreement request, or when a retailer accepts your counter offer.
Orders placed more than 24 hours before an agreement has been activated will not count toward the retailer’s annual spend.
What happens at the end of an exclusivity agreement?
This will depend on whether or not the retailer has hit their required annual spend.
- If a retailer has met their required annual spend, your agreement has successfully ended.
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- Faire will encourage the retailer to renew their agreement with you
- Other retailers in the area will now be able to buy your products
- You can use Messages to let the retailer know you appreciated their partnership
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- If a retailer has not met their required annual spend, we will follow this process: What if a retailer does not meet the required annual spend?
What if the retailer does not meet the required annual spend?
Faire will send reminders to the retailer throughout the 12 months exclusivity is active to encourage them to make progress towards their spending commitment. If a retailer has not met their required annual spend by the end of the 12 months, we will follow the below process:
- The retailer will be charged the remaining balance and other retailers in the area will now be able to buy your products
- The retailer will then have a credit in their account to be spent with your brand within 60 days. Retailers are entitled to place orders with you within those 60 days for any exclusivity credit they receive
- At the end of the 60 days, you will be paid out any unspent credit, less Faire's commission and processing fee
- While other retailers will be able to buy products from you during the 60 days, they will not be able to activate exclusivity with you until after the 60 days, or until the retailer with the credit has used up all their credit
If we’re unable to charge the retailer at the end of the agreement, Faire will pay you out your estimated earnings from the agreement after 60 days of trying to collect payment, to ensure that you’re compensated for holding up your end of the agreement. While Faire isn’t responsible for the full remaining balance, our goal is to match your earnings as though the retailer had fulfilled their commitment with orders. This is calculated as the remaining balance on your agreement, less Faire’s commission and processing fees, and less an estimate of the cost of goods you would’ve shipped had the retailer placed orders to fulfill their spend agreement.
Our goal with this payout is to match your earnings as if the agreements had been on track (i.e. the retailer placed orders and you shipped them products). The retailer will no longer be required to meet your required annual spend and will no longer have exclusivity with you in their local area.
Can multi-location retailers be covered under one agreement?
No. Some retailers have more than one location and may request that the exclusivity agreement applies to all their locations. We are only able to create agreements for one location on a retailer's account. All exclusivity agreements will be between one retailer account and one brand account. We are currently not able to accommodate multiple retailer locations sharing an agreement with one brand account. If your retailer has more than one account, each account would require their own separate agreement.
How can I manage my off-Faire stockist with exclusivity on Faire?
If you want to keep track of your off-Faire stockists, you can add them to your stockist map even if they are not on Faire. This will help you get a complete picture of who you sell to, both on and off the Faire platform, and make managing exclusivity easy.
You can also mark any stockists (whether they are on or off of Faire) as exclusive and choose the size of their exclusivity area. This means that any other Faire retailer in the exclusivity area will not be able to order from you. For more information on marking a stockist as exclusive please see the steps here.
Any stockist marked as exclusive by you will have exclusivity until the expiry date you choose and will not be required to commit to an annual spend with you.
How can I add a new customer to my stockist map?
To add a new customer to your stockist map:
- Select Exclusivity from under the Customers tab on the left side of your portal.
- Scroll down to your stockist map.
- Select Add customer at the bottom of Your stockists on the left hand side of the map.
- Add your customer’s information and select Save. Please note, you must add a street address in order to mark a customer as exclusive.
To mark the customer as exclusive, please see the steps below.
How can I mark a customer as exclusive?
To add a new stockist and mark them as exclusive:
- Select Exclusivity from under the Customers tab on the left side of your portal.
- Scroll down to your stockist map.
- Search for the stockist you would like to mark as exclusive.
- Once you have found the stockist you would like to mark as exclusive, select Mark as exclusive.
- Check This is an exclusive customer, adjust the exclusivity area if desired, and add an expiration date to the exclusivity agreement if needed.
Do I have to honor exclusivity if a retailer orders from me directly?
When you receive a new exclusivity request or agreement from a retailer on Faire, we ask that you review this with off-Faire conflicts in mind, and decline if you’re already selling to a retailer in the same area.
If you have an active exclusivity agreement with a retailer on Faire and receive an off-Faire order from another retailer in the same area, we recommend you reach out to your exclusive retailer on Faire to let them know if you plan to sell to someone else in the same area. The retailer can then decide to keep or cancel the exclusivity agreement on Faire. While you are not obligated, Faire retailers who have exclusivity with you likely expect you not to sell to others in their area across any of your sales channels.
Can I have multiple customers be exclusive in the same area?
Yes, it is possible to have multiple exclusive customers in the same area if you’ve negotiated with both retailers and they’ve agreed to share exclusivity. This typically occurs when the retailers carry different products from your catalog.
If Retailer A has activated an exclusivity agreement with you on Faire and you want to ensure that Retailer B is not blocked from buying from you on Faire, you can mark Retailer B as exclusive on your stockist map. Note that Retailer B will not have to commit to any required annual spend.
If you’d like Retailer B to also activate an exclusivity agreement with a required annual spend, please reach out to our Support team for assistance.
What happens to other retailers located in areas with active exclusivity agreements?
Other retailers located within an active exclusivity area can browse your brand page and save your products but cannot add your products to their cart or place an order due to the active exclusivity agreement. When they visit your brand page, they’ll receive an error message that says A retailer in your area currently has exclusivity with this brand.
Based on data from our beta so far, only 0.1% of brand page visits have been blocked from ordering due to an active exclusivity agreement.
Why is my retailer being blocked if I have exclusivity turned off?
If you have disabled exclusivity, your retailer could be prevented from placing orders if you have restricted specific states, blocked specific zip codes, or turned off selling to online or social retailers.
To confirm if you have blocked restricted states or turned off selling to online or social retailers, please visit your Shop settings page. The ability for online and social retailers to make purchases can be turned on or off in the Retailer options section, and restricted states can be managed in International orders.
Retailers who are blocked due to a zip code will receive a pop-up when they try to place an order that reads, [Your store name] has blocked orders from your area. [Your store name] has asked Faire to block orders from your zip code.
Renewing an exclusivity agreement
Retailers can renew an exclusivity agreement up to 3 months before their current agreement expires provided they have met the required annual spend under their current agreement. When a retailer renews their agreement, you’ll still have 30 days to cancel if you cannot commit to the agreement.