Guest Blog Post by:
Moni Kupczak Ainslie of Koopslie Consulting
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Why You Need to Care about Faire

In case you don’t know Faire, it’s an online marketplace where awesome brands can sell their products wholesale to independent retailers. I like to think of it as the Etsy for wholesale. There are currently over 700,000 retailers shopping on Faire and I highly recommend that brands who want to sell to independent retailers seriously consider selling on Faire. You can grow your business big time without having to travel to trade shows or spend money on advertising. 

Most Brands Are Doing It Wrong On Faire

Here’s how most brands start selling on Faire – they simply move their Shopify store over to Faire. Their product images, descriptions, and brand story all get moved over as is. And they leave it like that. This seems like such a handy solution to have everything moved over, but there’s a big problem: 

The shopper on Faire is not the same as the shopper on your Shopify website. 

You’re dealing with a completely different audience on Faire – retailers – so your listings, and everything you say, do, and show needs to be directed at them.

Get to Know the Buyer… Like, Really Well!!

The first thing you need to do as a product brand that wants to sell wholesale is to deeply understand the retail buyer. You need to get in their head and start learning about what matters to them. 

This is often seen as the boring stuff that nobody wants to do. Lots of brands skip this step and head straight to selling. Then they struggle and don’t understand why they’re not getting that many (or any) wholesale orders. It’s because they skipped this crucial step of understanding the retailer. 

The best way to get to know retailers is to talk to them. I know that can feel scary, but you can do scary things. Business is not for the faint of heart. You got this! And remember that these are only people. And they’re usually very nice, too. Ask them what you want to know. More often than not, they will tell you. It’s that simple. 

Once you know them well, develop retailer-focused messaging that will tell them everything they need to want to buy your products. Once you have your messaging ironed out, it’s time to optimize your Faire store. What does optimizing your Faire store mean? I’ll get into that in a second. 

Amazon and Faire Are Similar In Many Ways

I recently did some freelance work for an Amazon agency, where we optimized Amazon listings to increase sales, and it worked really well. Our listings looked better than any other Amazon listings around and our clients’ sales were skyrocketing. And this gave me an idea – we should do the same thing with Faire listings!

Even though Amazon and Faire cater to a different audience, there are many similarities with how they work. 

No one else is approaching Faire this way, so the opportunity to grow is huge and the competition is very low, since few brands are putting that level of care and effort when it comes to Faire. 

Why You Should Optimize Your Faire 

Faire is getting more competitive by the day! They recently launched beta ads and people are freaking out. This likely means that bigger brands with bigger advertising budgets will have an even bigger advantage over indie brands. 

The time to step up your Faire game is now. 

Here’s how we can use the lessons from Amazon listing optimization to get more orders on Faire: 

Step #1: You Need To Show Up In Search

When it comes to SEO it feels like this mystical thing that only a few people know how to do, but here’s the thing: if you understand what retailers are looking for when they shop for your products, you can infuse those keywords into your Faire listing. Add those keywords into your product descriptions, product names, and your brand story. 

Once you show up in search, your job is not done.

Step #2: Retailers Need To Click On Your Main Image

Once you show up in search, you need buyers to choose your product instead of all the other products that showed up in that search. That’s why your main image is super important. It’s the only image they see in search and it needs to catch their attention enough that they click into your listing to learn more. 

I have two tips for you when it comes to having an amazing main image on Faire:

Tip #1: Look at what your competitors are doing and do something different. Draw the retailer’s attention by standing out. Make sure your main image is drawing attention to your product and drawing attention away from your competition. 

Tip #2: The buyer needs to know immediately what your product is. I know you know what the product is, but they may not. I see this with my clients all the time. Because they worked on every intricate detail of their product, to them everything makes sense. But when a retailer sees your product for the first time, they don’t have that level of experience. As the founder, it’s almost impossible to see your product from a completely fresh perspective. I recommend getting a second set of eyes. 

Step #3: Keep the Buyer on Your Product Listing

So you got the buyer into your product listing! Nicely done! 

However your job is still. not. done.

The product listing is the last place buyers look, but the most important. This is the place where you can shine! But, there’s also a problem. This is not your DTC website where you have the buyer all to yourself. Here, you’re competing with 100,000 brands. You need to step up your game. 

When a retailer is on your listing, Faire does something right below your product listing. They show a ‘SIMILAR PRODUCTS’ section right below your listing with a bunch of your competitor’s products enticing them to click away from your listing. Seriously?! Yes, seriously!

But don’t worry, I have more tips and tricks to keep that buyer on your listing. 

First of all, this is where you can use your other images to shine. I recommend you include five more images. I am not talking about just beautifully styled photos. The purpose of each photo on your Faire product listing is to make it an easy “heck yes!” to buy your products for their store. 

If you have done your research and have your retailer-focused messaging ironed out, this will be simple. If you don’t, it won’t. That’s why I stressed so hard about that retailer-focused messaging at the beginning.

BONUS TIP:

Once you get the sale, ask those buyers for a five-star review. That will show other retailers that your line sells well and will be yet another reason for them to want to carry your line. 

The Secret Sauce 

This is the Secret Sauce to growth. It’s doing the hard work of doing the actual work. Optimizing your Faire can feel like a lot, but if you show up this way, a way that so few brands are showing up, you’re going to stand out to buyers and you’re going to make more money. 

What If You Need or Want Help?

If you want to do all of this, but you’re like “I need some help!”, let’s totally chat, because retailer-focused messaging and optimizing Faire stores is my jam. Mmmm jam, yum!

Grab my FREE GUIDE for How to Grow on Faire!