Tired of Relying on Faire? Here’s How to Build Direct Wholesale Relationships
Faire is a curated wholesale marketplace that connects independent retailers with emerging and established brands. While it has made it easier than ever for brands to connect with retailers, convenience comes with compromises. High commission fees, lack of customer ownership, and limited control over your brand experience can leave you feeling like a guest in your own business. If you’re tired of relying solely on Faire or other third-party marketplaces (like Mable or Airgoods), now is the time to build a direct wholesale strategy that puts you back in control.
In this post, we’ll walk through clear, actionable steps to help you attract, retain, and manage wholesale buyers directly, all while improving your margins and strengthening long-term retailer relationships.
Why Move Beyond Faire?
You may be asking and thinking that Faire is so great, why should I move beyond it? While Faire offers exposure and streamlined operations, many brands eventually hit a ceiling due to:
High Commission Fees: Faire and other marketplaces charge 15%+ on new orders and reorders (for those that are not directly referred to the platform), which significantly reduces margins. And as uncertainty builds around tariffs, these commissions will become more damaging to your bottom line.
Lack of Customer Ownership: Faire controls the customer relationship, not you. Not only do they control the ownership, they have valuable data, such as when your customers are ordering, what they are ordering and how much they have spent with your brand. When you lose control of the relationship, you also have less control of who is buying your product as well as who is eligible to return your product. Getting access to this data will only make your business stronger.
Platform Dependency: Your business is subject to Faire’s rules, policies, and algorithms. So anytime Faire decides to change their policies (including increasing their commission structure), you are subject to their rules and regulations, which puts you in the passenger seat.
Other Fees: Faire has recently increased the cost of marketing on their platform, similar to Amazon. Brands are finding it harder to get discovered without ‘paying to play’. Additionally Faire is increasing fees on shipping, and brands have little control over returns, all cutting into the bottom line.
Transitioning to a direct model doesn’t mean abandoning Faire all together. Faire can still be a part of your overall business, but diversifying off of a marketplace will put your business in the best position to grow profitability, while developing stronger relationships with your customers.
Below, we’ll walk you through five steps towards beginning to build direct relationships with independent retailers.
Step 1: Build a Wholesale Portal on Your Website
Create a gated wholesale website (or an extension of your current website) for your retailers to order from. This wholesale section should include:
A clear buyer application form
Tiered pricing or exclusive product lines
Net terms and flexible shipping options
Self-service ordering capabilities
B2B commerce has and continues to significantly evolve from outdated ordering processes like brands collecting orders on phone to a more digitally involved process. In fact, 52% of retail buyers are frustrated with the current processes and 90% of them would switch to a better digital ordering experience.
By not updating your B2B ordering process to a more digitally savvy one, you are losing out on revenue. You can start out by using your existing Shopify site to collect wholesale orders, you’d just need to create unique wholesale products and you would be off to the races.
Step 2: Create a List of all of Your Retailers
If you don’t already have a list for your wholesale contacts, it’s time to start building one. This list can and should include the retailer's name, address, email address and purchase history. This list can be used to:
Announce new products or seasonal collections to retailers
Share exclusive offers or early access to launches
Request feedback through surveys or personalized outreach
While it’s great to have access to a software platform to help you maintain this list, if you don’t have the budget for one, an excel file will work just fine!
Pro Tip: Create a “notes” column of this document to add in some personal touches about the retailer. For example, if the retailer likes a certain sports team or has a favorite travel destination that you know of, weaving this into your messaging can go a long way towards building loyalty.
Step 3: Develop a Targeted Outreach Strategy to Grow Your List
Use LinkedIn, Instagram, and trade show directories to research and identify your ideal retail partners. Also, don’t be afraid to ask your existing customers for referrals to other potential valuable retailers of contacts. Once you have your targeted list:
Send personalized outreach emails that include a brand introduction that describes why your products would be a great fit for the retailer
Emphasize key differentiators (e.g., low MOQs, fast turnaround times, exclusivity) between you and some of your competitors
Follow up with samples, testimonials, or case studies to build trust
Consistency and personalization are key to converting interest into orders.
Step 4: Offer Strong Incentives to Buy Direct
While marketplaces are great for new retailer discovery, they come at a cost. Upwards of 15% per sale, which in some cases could mean that you need to raise your prices to offset the commission fees. Knowing this, you can easily make your direct channel more attractive for retailers by offering:
Slightly discounted pricing from your marketplace pricing
Tiered discounts for retailers that purchase a certain amount of goods
Free shipping thresholds
Early access to limited or seasonal collections
The more that you can show your retailers that you value the partnership, not just the purchase, the more likely you are to build a lasting relationship with them.
Step 5: Use Smart Tools to Streamline Operations
One of the most attractive aspects of a marketplace is that all of the ordering is centralized. This makes it streamlined for retailers to place orders. Brands have deferred to marketplaces for so long because managing direct relationships is very time consuming. Personally emailing retailers asking if they need a reorder and then going back and forth for weeks on end, to only have to create an invoice and pack the order requires lots of steps.
However, thanks to Vanik, managing direct wholesale orders doesn’t have to be time-consuming. Vanik streamlines and automates your direct wholesale business. It sends personalized and timely notifications to your retailers when it’s time for them to reorder, based on their previous order history. If the retailer wants a reorder, they can then click through on the email to add or subtract products on their own and checkout.
Vanik takes the manual work out of managing direct relationships and makes the ordering experience easier for your retailers. Brands like Onesto Foods are seeing reorders 2x faster than they previously were, while saving 10+ hours a month and 13%+ on each transaction since they switched to Vanik.
Don’t Let Faire be Your Only Wholesale Strategy
Faire is a powerful launchpad, but it shouldn’t be your only wholesale strategy. By building your own direct sales channel, you regain control, deepen retailer loyalty, and boost profitability.
Start with small, manageable changes, invest in the right tools, and stay consistent in your outreach. The long-term rewards—better margins, stronger relationships, and greater independence—are worth the effort.
Your brand deserves to own the relationships that power its growth. And to learn more about how Vanik can help you own and scale your direct wholesale relationships, set-up some time to chat with us.
