Faire is a B2B marketplace that launched its first online trade show, Faire Market, during the height of the pandemic in 2020 when in-person trade shows and events came to a halt. The wholesaler marketplace took first mover advantage, said Anjarae Hamilton, head of retailer sales and account management at Faire.
“We hit the nail on the head identifying what this independent retail channel needed,” she said, “which was access to products and free returns.”
Anjarae Hamilton, head of retailer sales and account management, Faire Wholesale Inc.
The popularity of B2B marketplaces continues to grow. B2B marketplaces are the fastest-growing segment of B2B ecommerce, according to Digital Commerce 360’s 2023 B2B Ecommerce Market Report. B2B marketplace sales exploded to $112.0 billion in 2022, up 100% from 2021. They grew five times faster than B2B ecommerce revenue overall, according to the report.
In a March 2022 Digital Commerce 360 survey, 35% of B2B buyers said they did at least half their purchasing through online marketplaces.
Online wholesale marketplace connects retailers and brands online
Faire connects retailers with brands online. Founded in 2017, the B2B marketplace offers retailers 60-day payment terms, free freight and free returns. It previously charged a 25% commission on each transaction, but recently reduced that to 15% in May 2023, Hamilton said.
“We’re charging a one-time $10 new customer fee.” Faire also charges a 1.9% + $0.30 payment processing fee for 60-day payouts, 2.4% + $0.30 for 30-day payouts, and 3.5% + $0.30 payment processing fee for next-day payouts.
The marketplace continues to evolve and improve the features and capabilities it gives retailers and brands, Hamilton said. It learned there was room for improvement for retailers buying products using multiple buyers, Hamilton said.
“We learned by talking to retailers with multiple locations and multiple buyers that they were sharing Faire logins and passwords so more than one person could log in,” Hamilton told Digital Commerce 360 at the RICE convention in Chicago. “[One retailer] told us they posted a card up in the office with that information. We learned that upwards of 60% of buyers for the retailers that work with Faire didn’t have direct access, or it was complicated [for buyers] to access Faire.com because we didn’t have multi-buyer support. So we developed and built out [changes] and saw what resonated and launched it.”
As a result, account owners can now assign different permissions. The capability went live in Spring 2023 where account owners can allow multiple buyers access to its Faire dashboard. They can also delegate some buyers as capable of making complete purchases while others might be limited to adding items to cart without placing an order.
“Having these tools to help collaborate on these orders and the ability to customize it to fit how your team operates is helpful,” she said.
B2B online marketplace
Currently, Faire is ramping up its analytics so its Top Shop brands can see their return and cancellation rates, for example. It is also working on developing a mobile app for businesses to use, she said. Top Shop status is for brands that have earned at least a 4.5-star retailer rating, have frequent repeat orders from buyers, quick and problem-free fulfillment and a high merchandising score. A high merchandising score is determined by the number of products available in a brand’s shop, high-quality product photos and descriptions, promotions and a low order minimum.
Faire also recently improved its “Collections” tool, which is designed to help brands curate and streamline their products “into logical and inspirational groupings.” Retailers and brands can design their catalogs around seasons, trends, bestsellers and other trends. The tool also suggests relevant products to upsell and cross-sell.
Faire wholesale opportunities
Faire recently completed its summer virtual trade show, Faire Market, from July 18 to July 20. Nearly 53,000 retailers made a purchase, 26,000 brands received orders, and the average retailer ordered from five brands during the event.
Approximately 20% of brands that received orders were part of the wholesaler marketplace’s European brands in France, Germany and the U.K. About 5,600 of the nearly 53,000 participating retailers were located throughout Europe.
During the show, which Faire says was its largest to date, retailers placed about 290,000 orders.
Faire’s top search queries included:
- Back to school
- Freeze dried candy
- Halloween
- Barbie
- Fall
The most-searched products by country:
- U.S.: cocktail mixers
- Canada: bath bombs
- U.K.: dog treats
- France: drink syrups
- Germany: handmade mugs
Top purchased brand “value tags:”
- Made in USA
- Women-owned
- Handmade
- Not on Amazon
- Eco-friendly
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