Are you making the most of your Faire account, or are you simply waiting for orders to come in?

Faire has become an important wholesale platform for independent brands and retailers, offering businesses an additional way to connect with stockists and manage wholesale orders.

But creating an account and uploading your products is only the beginning.

Like any sales channel, the businesses that get the most from Faire are generally those that actively manage their listings, understand their customers and regularly review their performance.

And for Home & Gift brands, where product presentation, seasonality and retailer relationships are particularly important, getting the basics right can make a real difference.

We've explored Faire's own guidance and tools to bring together practical steps that can help you improve visibility, convert more visitors into customers and maximise the return you're getting from the platform.

Takeaway 1

Treat Faire like a shop window, not just an ordering platform

Imagine walking into a shop where half the shelves are empty, the products aren't clearly labelled and you can't find any information about the business.

You probably wouldn't feel particularly confident about placing an order.

The same principle applies to your Faire account.

Retailers need to understand what you sell, who your products are suitable for and why they should choose your brand.

Faire recommends completing your shop profile with:

Think about what an independent retailer needs to know before deciding whether your products belong on their shelves.

For example, are your products handmade? Designed in Britain? Suitable for gift shops, garden centres or lifestyle retailers? Do you offer seasonal collections?

Make the answers easy to find, but ensure any claims you make are accurate and supportable.

Takeaway 2

Your product photography matters more than you might think

Home & Gift is a particularly visual industry.

Whether you're selling candles, greeting cards, ceramics, home fragrance or decorative accessories, retailers want to see exactly what they're buying.

Faire's guidance recommends using multiple high-quality images to help retailers make confident purchasing decisions.

Faire's high-quality listing guidance recommends images at 2000 x 2000 pixels.

For Home & Gift brands, we'd also recommend including packaging photographs where relevant, particularly for products intended as gifts.

Retailers need to know what their customers will actually see on the shelf.

Takeaway 3

Write product titles that retailers are actually searching for

Your product might have a wonderful name, but that doesn't necessarily mean somebody searching Faire will find it.

Faire considers product titles, descriptions and categories when determining which products appear in relevant searches.

That means descriptive product titles are important.

The goal isn't to cram as many keywords into a title as possible.

It's to clearly describe what you're selling using language that a retailer would naturally use.

Think about product type, material, design, scent, occasion and other genuinely relevant characteristics.

Make sure you've also selected the correct product categories and attributes.

Takeaway 4

Give retailers enough information to say yes

A beautiful photograph might get somebody interested, but your product description often helps them decide whether to order.

Faire recommends detailed descriptions that answer the questions retailers are likely to have.

Depending on the product, useful information includes:

For food gifts, shelf life, ingredients and storage requirements may also be important.

For home fragrance, retailers may want to know the fragrance notes, size and relevant product information.

For greeting cards, dimensions, finish, envelope inclusion and packaging can all influence purchasing decisions.

Our advice: Try to answer the questions a retailer would otherwise have to message you to ask.

Takeaway 5

Don't underestimate the power of a complete catalogue

Faire recommends making your full available wholesale catalogue accessible rather than uploading just a handful of products.

A broader catalogue gives retailers more opportunities to discover your products and build orders that suit their shop.

It can also make it easier for them to find complementary products.

For example, a retailer buying candles might also be interested in matching diffusers, wax melts or gift sets.

Faire allows brands to organise products into collections, making it easier for buyers to browse.

Only create collections that genuinely reflect your range.

Keep stock availability, prices and lead times accurate, and remove or update products that are no longer available.

Faire also introduced the ability to upload a PDF catalogue or lookbook directly to your shop page in July 2026.

This gives retailers another way to browse your collection and understand how products work together.

Takeaway 6

Make it easy for retailers to place their first order

One of the biggest barriers to winning new stockists can be the initial financial commitment.

A retailer might love your products but hesitate if they need to spend a substantial amount before testing how well they sell.

Faire recommends keeping opening order minimums accessible to encourage retailers to try new brands.

However, that doesn't mean setting your minimums so low that orders become unprofitable.

Review your minimum order quantities, case sizes and shipping arrangements.

For example, would smaller case quantities help an independent gift shop test a new range?

Could a carefully selected starter collection make it easier for a retailer to place their first order?

These are commercial decisions, so test changes against your margins rather than assuming lower minimums will always be better.

Takeaway 7

Understand what Faire is actually costing you

This is one of the most important areas to understand if you want to maximise your return on investment.

For brands based outside North America, including the UK, Faire's published standard commission structure is:

Other costs may still apply, including optional faster payout fees, shipping costs, brand-funded promotions and your own fulfilment expenses.

Faire's published payout options for brands outside North America include a next-day option with a 3% fee and a 30-day option without that payout fee.

Always check your own account's current fees and terms before making pricing decisions.

A simple example

Imagine you receive a £200 wholesale order before VAT, discounts, shipping and other costs.

These figures illustrate commission only. They are not the amount of profit your business makes.

You'll still need to account for the cost of your products, fulfilment, shipping, discounts and any applicable fees.

Takeaway 8

Use Faire Direct to protect your margins

Faire Direct is one of the most useful tools available to brands looking to make the platform more profitable.

It allows you to invite your own wholesale customers and prospects to order through your personalised Faire Direct link.

When a retailer relationship qualifies under Faire's policy, those orders attract 0% commission.

That means Faire can be used not only to discover new stockists, but also to make ordering easier for retailers you've already connected with yourself.

For Home & Gift businesses exhibiting at Spring Fair, Autumn Fair, Harrogate Home & Gift or other trade events, this can be particularly useful.

Rather than relying on a retailer remembering to place an order after the show, you can give them a direct route to your wholesale catalogue.

Important: Faire Direct's commission-free status is subject to its relationship qualification rules. Simply sharing a link doesn't automatically make every existing marketplace customer commission-free.

Takeaway 9

Don't forget about the retailers who already know you

It's easy to become so focused on finding new customers that you forget about the retailers who have already purchased from you.

But repeat orders can be an important part of building a sustainable wholesale business.

Faire provides marketing tools that allow brands to communicate with retailers, promote new collections and encourage repeat purchases.

These include:

For example, a brand selling greeting cards might contact existing stockists ahead of Valentine's Day, Mother's Day or Christmas.

A home fragrance brand could highlight its new autumn collection to retailers who previously purchased seasonal fragrances.

Try to make every message genuinely useful rather than simply sending another sales email.

Faire's campaign tools are free to use, but brands must follow its email policies and applicable marketing and data protection requirements.

Takeaway 10

Use promotions strategically, not automatically

Discounting can help encourage orders, but it can also eat into your margins.

Faire allows brands to create different types of promotions, including shop-wide, product-specific and customer-targeted offers.

Before creating a promotion, ask yourself what you're trying to achieve.

Faire now provides enhanced promotion reporting, including information about traffic, sales and discounts funded.

Use this information to assess whether an offer is actually delivering worthwhile results.

Remember: A promotion that increases turnover but reduces your overall profit may not be a successful promotion.

Takeaway 11

Keep your customer service standards high

Retailers want to work with suppliers they can rely on.

Faire identifies brand performance, including conversion and customer experience, as important factors in marketplace performance.

That means the way you manage orders matters.

Focus on:

For fragile Home & Gift products such as ceramics, glassware and decorative accessories, suitable packaging is particularly important.

Faire also provides tools to help brands request reviews from customers.

Genuine positive reviews can help build confidence among retailers considering your brand for the first time.

Takeaway 12

Review your analytics rather than guessing what's working

One of the biggest mistakes a business can make is assuming that a sales channel is performing well simply because orders are coming in.

Faire provides an Analytics section where brands can monitor their performance.

Useful metrics include:

Look at trends over time rather than judging performance from one particularly good or bad week.

For example:

Lots of visits but few orders? Review your product photography, descriptions, pricing and minimum order requirements.

Good first-order sales but few reorders? Review customer feedback, product performance and your follow-up communications.

Strong sales but disappointing profit? Review commissions, promotions, fulfilment costs and payout fees.

These are useful diagnostic questions rather than guaranteed explanations for changes in performance.

A useful way to evaluate Faire is to track the contribution generated over a period and compare it with the additional costs of managing and promoting the channel.

Remember that a new retailer may go on to place several orders, so assessing the value of a customer over time can be more informative than judging their first order alone.

However, don't assume future repeat orders will happen. Monitor actual purchasing behaviour.

Keep improving

Your monthly Faire routine

You don't need to spend hours every day managing your account, but setting aside time for regular reviews can help you spot opportunities and problems early.

Useful Faire resources

These official Faire resources provide further guidance on the tools and recommendations covered in this article.