Set your brand up for success in 2024

Each new year comes with new, aspirational goals. To help turn your brand’s 2024 ambitions into reality, we hosted a webinar all about how to get the most out of Faire’s latest tools, updates, and innovations. The webinar, which we recorded and have made available to anyone who wasn’t able to attend, offers a recap of the most exciting product and program launches of 2023 as well as a summary of important policy changes—all designed to prepare our brand community for a successful 2024.

The key updates fall into three categories:

• Reach: Tools and programs to help bring new retailers to your shop
• Relationships: Resources to help you get more from your best and most valuable relationships
• Ease: Tools and programs to help you simplify your operations and save time

Your top questions, answered

Does Faire bring buyers to the platform, or do we have to invite our own customers to Faire?
We do bring buyers to Faire through our own advertising and marketing investments. These investments include growth marketing to drive online traffic to the most relevant listings through search engines and online ad spending; social marketing on Instagram, Facebook, and other platforms where retailers spend time; and targeted brand marketing at trade shows to make sure that Faire is top of mind at key buying moments throughout the year.  

We recognize that traffic doesn’t always flow through to individual brands’ listings, but there are things that our savviest brands do to capture more of that traffic and increase the visibility of their shop and products—check out this handy guide for our top tips.

What does a “complete catalog” mean in the context of the new Top Shop requirements?
You will need to add your full wholesale catalog to Faire to complete the catalog check. This includes any wholesale product that you would sell to a retailer directly or on another platform, with the wholesale and MSRP pricing listed on Faire being the same or lower than the other places you sell. 

We do understand, however, that some products cannot be listed on Faire. For a complete list of products that are not required for the catalog check, please see our Help Center article.

Why is it beneficial to offer my entire wholesale catalog on Faire? 
We want to help brands capitalize on every potential sale and offering your full wholesale catalog on Faire is an important way to do this. Having all of your products on Faire can help you get more retailer visits to your shop page, result in higher conversion, and make it easier for retailers to reach your order minimum, resulting in more sales for you. Plus, it instills confidence in your brand and the exceptional experience you deliver.

Retailers have provided feedback that it’s frustrating when a brand they’re interested in doesn’t offer their full selection on Faire, especially when they’re badged as a Top Shop. It can result in lost confidence in the brand and the Top Shop program. 

Is there going to be a paid ad platform on Faire?
Faire is now testing paid ads with a limited set of customers. We are running a beta test that will slowly expand through 2024. Beta tests allow us to develop a product in a controlled environment, where we can quickly gather feedback and iterate to improve the experience. We are trying to learn:

• Do promoted listings help brands efficiently acquire additional customers?
• What features and information do brands want to manage their ad spend?
• How do ads affect the shopping experience for retailers?
  

The new mobile app features are exciting! If I use the app’s new lead-capture tool to record a lead and then that person buys from my shop without using the Faire Direct link, will it be 0% commission? 
Yes—if a lead scans your Faire Direct QR code in the Faire mobile app before their first order with you, they will automatically qualify for 0% commission when they place that first order within 12 months, even if they don’t use your Faire Direct link. For more information about which relationships qualify for 0% commission under the new policy, please check out this Help Center article.

We tried the Faire app for brands at a February 2023 trade show, but it was a time-consuming way to capture leads. Has it been improved?
Yes! We are excited to introduce a new lead-capture tool in the mobile app for brands ahead of trade show season that automates and simplifies the process, omitting the need for time-consuming manual entry. If you don’t have the Faire app for brands, it’s a great time to download it. This blog post includes all the features that the app currently offers, including the new features just released this month.

Following the rate-limiting changes Faire has made to its CRM, how will I know which retailers are receiving my emails?
We love the energy to improve and elevate your email campaigns and better understand deliverability. Many of you know that we’ve made some recent changes to address retailer feedback on the overwhelming amount of emails they were receiving and have improved visibility for brands to ensure you have a better understanding of which emails are getting delivered (or not) and why. Check the results of your most recent email campaigns in the Campaigns tab where you can see—customer by customer—the delivery status for each recipient. 

Need a refresher on best practices for emailing retailers? We’ve collected a simple and straightforward set of rules for sending effective emails into an article on the Faire blog.

How can I be ranked higher in search results? 
We know that getting your products more visibility in search is a huge priority for brands. We dedicated an entire team to “search relevance” this year and made significant improvements. As of this month, we are seeing a 13% increase in retailer searches and a 30% higher search-to-order conversion rate from earlier this year. We will continue to work on the algorithms, and as we do, there are a few things that you can do to improve how your products rank:

• Add your full wholesale catalog. The more products you have on Faire, the more likely they are to match retailer searches: Brands with more products have up to 2x higher sales than other brands.
• Make sure you maintain excellent catalog hygiene. Take a quarterly spin through your product listings to confirm that details are accurate and descriptions are fresh.
• Stay ahead of shopping trends and consider how your products and collections speak to what’s top of mind. The 2024 Faire Forecast is a great read, and the predictions are based on what we are seeing in search data.
• Check out our popular Help Center articles that dive into the factors that impact your ranking and the specific things that impact a brand’s searchability, which includes a step-by-step checklist to make sure your products are optimized.