How to sell on Faire as a brand

How does Faire work for brands?

Faire is a wholesale marketplace. Brands list products at wholesale prices, and independent retailers such as brick-and-mortar shops, online shops and pop-ups buy them to resell. You sell on Faire by applying as a brand, building a catalog with a wholesale and a retail price for each product, and shipping each order to the retailer that placed it.

Faire is free to join, with no monthly plan. You pay per order. On orders from retailers who found you on the marketplace you pay a 15% commission on Order subtotal, and the first order from each new marketplace customer adds a one-time fee of $10. On orders from retailers you bring yourself through Faire Direct you pay 0% commission. Every order pays a payment processing fee.

Faire handles the retailer side of the deal. It offers retailers Net 60 payment terms while paying you on your own schedule, and it gives free returns on a retailer’s first order with a new brand. Faire's help center states that Faire takes on that return risk, not the brand.

How to sell on Faire, step by step

These are the steps from Faire's brand help center, from the application to a live shop.

1. Apply as a brand

   Go to Faire's brand application page, enter an email address and fill in the application form. The email must be different from any Faire retailer account you already have, and you need to be logged out of that retailer account first. Faire reviews each application in the order it’s received.

2. Show what Faire looks for

   Faire weighs supply and demand in your product category, so it can keep the marketplace balanced. It also looks at the brand's location, type of product, number of SKUs and its existing business: whether it already sells wholesale, how established it is and its social media presence.

3. Complete the onboarding form

   Once accepted, you get an email with a link to the onboarding form. Faire says the form takes approx. 15 minutes. After it, you land in the brand portal, where you add your products.

4. Build your shop page and catalog

   After the onboarding form, you add your product catalog in the brand portal. You can add products yourself and activate the shop on your own time, or have Faire's team build the shop for you. Faire says a shop takes 1-10 days to complete, depending on how you add products. If Faire's team builds it, the shop goes live 4 days after this email is sent, so review it in that window.

5. Set prices, minimums and your payout option

   Enter a wholesale and a retail price for each product, decide on order minimums, and choose a payout speed. Faire asks you to pick a payout option when you receive your first order, and you can change it later.

Faire wholesale pricing: what you set and the rules

Each product on Faire carries two prices. The wholesale price is what the retailer pays you. The retail price is the manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP), which retailers see on the listing. Under Faire's rules, products bought on Faire at or above the price set by the brand, so your MSRP sets the floor for what shops charge.

Faire also has a pricing policy for US and Canada based brands: your wholesale and MSRP pricing must be the same or lower on Faire as on other places you sell your products, including your own wholesale site. Faire runs occasional pricing reviews. If a brand does not fix higher prices on Faire, it may face reduced visibility in the marketplace, suspension of products.

Work out your wholesale price from your costs first, then check what is left after Faire's fees. Example: a mug with a $24 retail price listed at $12 wholesale. On a marketplace reorder with next-day payout, Faire takes its 15% commission and 3.5% + $0.30 processing out of that $12, before your materials, labour and packaging.

Order minimums and minimum quantities

Faire uses two kinds of minimum. The order minimum is the smallest order total a retailer can check out with, and you can set one figure for a retailer's first order and a lower one for reorders. The minimum order quantity is set per product: the fewest units of that item a retailer must add to the cart.

Both are your choice. Order minimums aren’t required, and minimum order quantities are optional. A minimum protects you from orders too small to ship at a profit, while a high one can put off a shop trying your line for the first time. If you sell by the case, the minimum order quantity cannot be smaller than your case size.

Faire fees: how much Faire takes from sellers

Faire's fees for North America brands have two parts: a commission that depends on where the retailer came from, and a payment processing fee that depends on how fast you are paid. The current pricing has applied since July 5, 2023. Commission is charged on Order subtotal, and processing on Item subtotal.

Your payout on each order is (order subtotal) + (shipping reimbursement) - (commission) - (payment processing fee). The shipping reimbursement only applies when the order is fulfilled on your own, not with Ship with Faire labels. For Faire Direct customers you pay only payment processing fees, so sending your existing stockists to your Faire Direct link is one way to lower the fee.

Faire vs Etsy: fees on the same $200 of sales

Faire sells to shops at wholesale prices; Etsy sells to shoppers at retail prices. This compares the fees each one takes from $200 of sales, using each platform's own published rates. The wholesale sale moves more units at once, at a lower price per unit.

How to fill your first Faire orders

A first order from a new retailer follows the same path as every later one.

1. Check the order and plan the ship date

   New orders arrive in your brand portal. Check that every item is in stock and plan a ship date you can meet before you start packing.

2. Choose how to ship

   With Ship with Faire you print labels through Faire, with zero shipping fees upfront. If you ship on your own carrier account, the shipping reimbursement only applies when the order is fulfilled on your own and is added to your payout.

3. Pack and send it

   Ship with Faire does not support shipments of dangerous goods (DG) or hazardous materials, so products like that must ship on your own carrier account. Wholesale orders within the US are not charged sales tax. Retailers are responsible for collecting and remitting sales tax when they resell the products.

4. Get paid

   Payout starts after the order ships, on the schedule you chose. The fee for that schedule ranges from 1.9% + $0.30 for the slowest payout to 3.5% + $0.30 for next-day payout.

5. Turn first orders into reorders

   On reorders from a marketplace retailer you pay the standard 15% without the new customer fee. For retailers you bring through Faire Direct, you pay 0% commission on all of their orders.

Where Nation fits

Questions about selling on Faire