How Do I Get My Brand on Faire?
What Is Faire and Why Sell There?
Faire is an online wholesale marketplace where independent retailers discover and order products from brands like yours. Shop owners browse it the way regular shoppers browse a store, then place bulk orders that you fulfill. It is built specifically to connect makers with the boutiques, gift shops, and specialty stores that want to carry them.
The reason brands flock to it is discovery. On your own site, a wholesale buyer has to already know you exist. On Faire, retailers arrive looking for new brands to stock, which means you get in front of buyers with genuine intent to order. That is a very different audience from cold outreach.
Faire also removes the two things that scare small brands about wholesale: payment risk and net terms. The platform pays you up front while letting qualifying retailers pay later, so you are not fronting inventory and chasing invoices. It also handles the checkout, the invoicing, and the buyer messaging, so you spend your time making product instead of managing paperwork. For a brand already selling on OpoShop, it is often the simplest way to open a wholesale channel without building one from scratch, and you can test the waters without committing to a full wholesale operation on your own site.
What You Need Before You Apply
Before you apply to Faire, you need a real brand presence, product photos, wholesale pricing, and a clear sense of your minimums. Getting these ready first makes approval smoother and your storefront stronger on day one.
Approval is not a lottery, but Faire does want to see a legitimate brand rather than a blank page. The stronger your materials, the faster you clear review and the better you convert once buyers land on your page.
Have these ready before you start the application:
- A brand name and story: A short description of who you are and what makes your products worth shelf space.
- Clean product photography: Clear images on a plain or lifestyle background, the same quality you use on your retail store.
- Wholesale prices: A price for each product at roughly half your retail price, confirmed to still profit.
- Case packs and minimums: How many units come in an order unit, and the smallest order you will accept.
If you already sell online, most of this exists. Your OpoShop product photos, descriptions, and retail prices give you a head start, and you only need to add wholesale prices and case packs on top. That is why syncing an existing catalog beats rebuilding it.
How to Set Up Your Faire Brand Profile Step by Step
Setting up your Faire profile is a sequence: apply, build your brand page, load products, set terms, and go live. Doing it in order keeps you from backtracking.
Here is where the details matter most.
1. Fill out the application thoroughly
The application asks about your business, your products, and where you already sell. Answer completely and link your existing online store so Faire can see you are a real, active brand. A thin application with no web presence takes longer to approve.
Pick the right product category too, because it shapes which buyers get recommended your products. A candle brand listed under home fragrance reaches the right shops far better than one listed under a vague catch-all.
2. Load products in a way buyers can order
Each product needs a wholesale price, a retail price, a case pack, and strong photos. The retail price matters because Faire shows buyers the margin they will make, and a healthy margin drives the order. Keep your images consistent with your OpoShop listings so a buyer sees the exact product that will arrive.
If you have more than a handful of products, entering them one by one is slow and error-prone. This is where Faire Sync helps, pushing your existing catalog into Faire and keeping prices and stock aligned so you do not maintain two separate product lists.
3. Set terms that protect your time
Your order minimum keeps small unprofitable orders out. Your lead time sets the expectation for how fast you ship. Set both honestly, because an unrealistic lead time leads to unhappy buyers and canceled orders. A $150 minimum and a clear one-week lead time is a sane starting point for many brands.
How Long Does Approval Take?
Faire approval usually takes a few business days, though a complete, professional application can move faster. The review confirms you are a legitimate brand with real products, not a reseller or a placeholder page.
You can speed it up by removing every reason for hesitation. A linked, active online store, real product photos, and a filled-out brand story all signal legitimacy. A brand that already runs a polished OpoShop storefront gives the reviewer an easy yes.
If approval stalls, it is usually because something looks incomplete. Missing photos, no brand description, or a product line that looks like dropshipped generic goods will slow you down. Tighten those before you follow up, and most brands clear review without a hitch.
Once approved, do not treat go-live as the finish line. Your first weeks on the platform are when buyers discover you, so a complete catalog and quick responses to order questions set the tone for every account you land.
Faire vs Your Own Wholesale Channel vs Direct Outreach
You can reach wholesale buyers through Faire, through your own private wholesale channel, or through direct outreach, and they solve different parts of the problem. Most brands use more than one.
| Approach | Best for | Strength | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|---|
| Faire marketplace | Being discovered by new shops | Buyers arrive ready to order and payment is handled | Marketplace fees on orders it sources |
| Own wholesale channel | Repeat orders from known accounts | You keep the full margin and the relationship | You must send buyers there yourself |
| Direct outreach | Landing specific target stores | Total control over which shops carry you | Slow and fully dependent on your effort |
Faire is the discovery engine. It puts you in front of retailers who are actively shopping for brands, which no amount of cold emailing matches for speed. That is why most new-to-wholesale brands start there.
Your own wholesale channel is the long game. Once a shop has ordered twice, they will reorder directly, and moving those accounts to your own OpoShop wholesale area saves you the marketplace fee on every future order. The two work together, with Faire finding buyers and your own channel keeping them.
Direct outreach fills the gap for dream accounts. If there is a specific store you want to be in, a personal email with your line sheet can land it, marketplace or not.
How to Keep Faire and Your Store in Sync
Keep Faire and your store in sync by sharing one catalog and one stock count, so a sale in either place updates both. The moment you sell in two channels, drift becomes your biggest risk.
Picture the problem. You have ten units of a product. Retail shoppers on your OpoShop store buy four, and the next morning a boutique orders a case of eight on Faire. Without a shared count, you just sold twelve units of ten, and someone gets a cancellation. That is the kind of stumble that costs a new wholesale account.
The fix is automatic syncing. Faire Sync pushes your catalog to Faire and pulls wholesale orders back into your store, so every wholesale order lands next to your retail orders and draws down the same inventory. Prices stay aligned too, so a change in your store does not leave a stale price on Faire.
This also saves you from maintaining two product lists by hand. Add a product once, and it flows to both channels with the right retail and wholesale prices attached. When you discontinue an item or run low on a bestseller, that change reaches your wholesale channel too, so buyers never order something you can no longer make.
Best answer: To get your brand on Faire, apply as a seller, build a complete brand profile, upload products with wholesale prices and case packs, and set your minimum and terms. Approval takes a few days and goes faster with a linked, active store. The smoothest path for an existing shop is to sync your OpoShop catalog into Faire so you never rebuild products or track stock in two places.
If you are ready to open a wholesale channel, start by getting the catalog you already have into a marketplace where buyers are looking.
FAQs
How long does it take to get approved on Faire?
Approval usually takes a few business days. A complete application with a linked active store, real product photos, and a filled-out brand story clears faster. Incomplete profiles or product lines that look like generic resold goods take longer or get held for more information.
Do I need wholesale prices before I apply?
Yes, you need a wholesale price for each product, typically around half your retail price. Faire shows buyers the margin they will earn, so your wholesale and retail prices both matter. Confirm each wholesale price still covers your unit cost with profit before you list it.
Can I import my existing store catalog into Faire?
Yes, and it is the fastest way to launch if you already sell online. Instead of entering products one by one, an app can push your existing catalog into Faire and keep prices and stock aligned. That saves hours and prevents the errors that come with maintaining two separate product lists.
What order minimum should I set on Faire?
A common starting point is a $100 to $150 minimum, which keeps tiny unprofitable orders out while staying approachable for new buyers. You can raise it as your accounts grow. Set it based on what makes an order worth packing, not on a number that scares off first-time shops.
Does Faire charge fees?
Faire charges a commission on orders, with the rate depending on whether the platform found the customer or you brought them yourself. Orders from buyers you refer to Faire cost you less than orders Faire sources for you. Factor the fee into your wholesale price so every order stays profitable.
Should I keep selling on my own store after joining Faire?
Yes. Faire is a discovery channel, not a replacement for your store. Keep your retail store running at full margin and use Faire to find new wholesale accounts. Over time, move repeat wholesale buyers to your own channel so you keep more of each reorder.
Ready to reach shops that stock brands like yours? Get your existing catalog onto the marketplace where they shop.