How to Run a Successful Wholesale Business on Faire and Become a Top Shop

If you’re unfamiliar with Faire, their goal is to be “the online wholesale marketplace connecting independent retailers and brands around the world.” I have been a wholesaler on the platform since 2022, nearing six figures in sales there. These are all the tips and tricks I’ve learned running a successful brand that’s earned Top Shop.

Whether you have just signed up for Faire or are a seasoned Faire wholesaler, I hope you find these tricks useful.

1. Mind Your Margins. The quickest way to go out of business is to give your product away for free. Ensure you have built a loss of ~20% into your wholesale price. The current Faire fee structure is 15% and $10 on opening (first) orders and 15% commission on reorders. Do not forget about the payout fee, which I typically calculate at ~3% of the total after commission is taken.

2. Minimum Order Requirement. I recommend having at least a $100 opening order minimum. Why? Because of the opening commission fee! You’re losing $10 + 15%. If your minimum is lower than $100, you will lose a higher percentage of your money.

Example: if your minimum is $50 and a customer places an order for that amount, you’ll lose $10 off the top and then 15% on the remaining $40, which is $6. This makes your commission paid to Faire $16 on the $50 order. The math ends up being a 34% loss. Ouch. However, if your minimum is $100 and a customer places an order for that amount, you’ll lose $10 off the top and then 15% on the remaining $90, which is $13.50. This makes your commission paid to Faire $23.50 on the $100 order. While a 23.5% loss is still substantial, it hurts A LOT less than losing 34%.

Entice your customers to reorder by offering a much lower reorder minimum. You are paying a 15% flat commission on reorders. I personally have a $25 reorder minimum, and my customers love that.

3. Always Run a Sale. In my experience, having a discount results in more sales, but not in the way you might think. Running a sale seems to push you higher in search results. You don’t have to offer a crazy discount. It can be 3% off $500.

4. Add New Products. Adding at least one new product every two weeks will get pushed up in search results. Faire also might send a promo email to customers with your new products.

5. Set Up Automated Emails. My favorite is the targeted automation for customers who haven’t reordered in 60 days. In my automation email, I also ask for their feedback, whether good or bad. This can help you identify any problems you might not be aware of and improve the chances they will reorder.

6. Excellent Customer Service. It is essential to keep high metrics to obtain Top Shop status and keep your customers happy. You want at least a 4.5 retailer review rating. Customers can leave a review of their order with a rating from 1–5 stars. You also want to ship on time. It is crucial to input a realistic lead time. Obviously, a 100% on-time ship rate is what you should shoot for, but do not let it fall below 70%. Finally, answer your messages within 24 hours. Show your (potential) customers that you value them.

7. Participate in Faire Markets. Faire runs two markets every year: Winter in January and Summer in July. It typically lasts four days, with the first day exclusively for Insiders. They heavily promote the markets, and many customers place orders with participating wholesalers. These are the events I recommend offering the best sale that you realistically can. Faire will match up to 5%. I suggest using tiered discounts, as my experience is that customers are willing to spend $300 to hit that higher discount during these markets.

8. Direct Commission Link. Do you want to send your current customers to Faire but don’t want to eat the commission fee? Faire has got you! If a customer orders from your direct link, you pay 0% commission fees. The only fee you’ll be paying is the standard payment processing fee. Cha-Ching!

9. Weekly Emails. How will your customers know you have new products if you don’t tell them? Email a round-up of your latest offerings every week or two. You will be surprised how many orders you get from these campaigns.

10. Rich SEO. Think about the words you would use to find the product you’re selling. Incorporate as many of those as you can into your product description. This will help your future customers find you more easily. Also, fill out as many drop-down sections as applicable to the product as possible, such as color, material, etc.

I hope these tips & tricks gave you some new ideas to breathe life into your 2024 sales and continued success. Remember, it’s a marathon, not a sprint. I would be happy to answer any questions about my experience. If you want to sign up for Faire as a retailer or a wholesaler, please consider using my links below.

Interested in joining Faire as a wholesaler? Click Here

Interested in joining Faire as a retailer? Click Here

If you are not on Faire yet as a retailer, I highly suggest you find a wholesaler you like that sells on Faire & sign up through their direct link (I won’t be offended if it’s not me!) so that you can get the $100 in credit + free shipping for a year with them.

*Disclaimer: I may be eligible for a commission through the use of my links at no cost to you.