Faire Market: How to Prepare Your Brand

What is Faire Market and why does it matter?

Faire Market is a time-limited buying event on the Faire marketplace. Retailers plan their seasonal orders around it, Faire promotes it heavily to buyers, and brands run their own promotions on top. For a brand, it is one of the few moments in the year when a large share of buyers are actively shopping at the same time.

That concentration cuts both ways. Brands that arrive with clean listings, a clear offer and stock on hand collect first orders they would not get in a normal month. Brands that show up unprepared get lost among everyone else running a discount.

Faire does not run Market on a fixed public calendar. It announces dates and participation details in the brand portal, so check there and plan backward from the opening day.

What should you do 4 to 6 weeks before Faire Market?

Use the first stretch to fix everything a buyer sees and to decide your offer. Promotions do not rescue weak listings, and you cannot restock in the middle of Market. Do the slow work now.

• Audit your listings and photos. Check every product title, description and image. Titles should use the words retailers actually search for, and the lead photo should show the product clearly on a clean background. Our guide to Faire SEO for product listings covers this in detail.
• Check stock. Confirm you can fulfill a surge on your best sellers. Mark slow or low items accurately so you do not take orders you cannot ship.
• Plan the offer. Decide what you will promote and to whom: new retailers, past buyers, or both. Keep it simple enough to state in one line.
• Build a Market collection. Group the products you want buyers to see first, such as seasonal items, best sellers and an easy opening assortment. A focused collection is easier to shop than a full catalog.
• Set promotion tiers against your real average order value. Pull your average order value from past orders. If most orders land near a certain amount, set your first tier just above it so the promotion lifts basket size. Copying a generic template often sets the threshold too high to matter or too low to protect margin. Check that every tier still leaves you a healthy margin.

Faire often runs its own buyer incentives during Markets, on top of what brands offer. Check the current terms in your brand portal before you finalize your tiers, so your offer and Faire's work together instead of overlapping.

What should you do 1 to 2 weeks before Faire Market?

The last two weeks are about telling the right people. Retailers who already know your brand are the most likely to order during Market, and new retailers you bring yourself are the cheapest to acquire.

1. Email past buyers. Tell them Market is coming, what you are offering and which new products are in your collection. Remind them it is a good time to restock.
2. Email prospects with your Faire Direct link. When a retailer you bring places their first order through your Faire Direct link, Faire charges you 0% commission on that order. Retailers who sign up through your link also get Faire's Faire Direct referral offer: 50% off their first order with your brand (up to a cap), plus a year of free shipping on your products, used within 7 days of creating their account. Faire funds that offer, not you.
3. Plan your sends around Faire's limits. Faire limits how often a brand can email buyers through its own campaign tools. Decide in advance which audience gets which message and when, so you do not spend your sends early and go quiet during the event.

For more on how the link and the offer work, read what is Faire Direct.

How should you run your shop during Faire Market?

During Market, speed and accuracy win. Buyers are comparing many brands in a short window, and the ones who get answers fast tend to order fast.

• Respond quickly. Check your Faire inbox several times a day. Answer questions on minimums, lead times and shipping the same day.
• Follow up open carts. A retailer who adds your products to a cart and leaves is your warmest lead. A short, friendly message reminding them of the Market offer often closes the order.
• Keep stock accurate. Update inventory as orders come in. Cancelling an order because an item sold out costs you more than the sale: it hurts your standing with the retailer and on the platform.
• Accept and ship on time. Confirm orders promptly and ship within the lead time you listed. Reliable fulfillment is one of the signals Faire weighs for its Top Shop tier.

What should you do after Faire Market ends?

Market traffic does not stop the day the event closes. Many retailers browse during Market, build carts and decide later. The week after is where you convert them.

• Extend the offer briefly. Give retailers who browsed or built carts a short extension of your own promotion, a few days at most, so there is still a reason to act now.
• Follow up every cart and conversation. Message each retailer who showed interest and did not order. Keep it personal and short.
• Ask for reviews after delivery. Once new orders arrive, ask those retailers for a review. Reviews make the next buyer's decision easier.
• Prompt reorders. New Market accounts are only valuable if they come back. Time a reorder message for when they are likely to run low. Our guide on how to get reorders on Faire walks through the timing.

What does a Faire Market preparation timeline look like?

Here is the full plan in one view. Count back from the opening day Faire gives you in the brand portal.

What are the most common Faire Market mistakes?

Most brands that get little from Market make the same few mistakes. Each one is avoidable with a week or two of lead time.

• Starting late. Rewriting listings the week Market opens leaves no time for photos, stock or emails.
• Discounting without a plan. A big percentage off with no tiers often gives margin away on orders that would have happened anyway.
• Ignoring your own retailers. Past buyers and warm prospects are often the easiest Market orders, and the Faire Direct link makes new ones commission-free.
• Stopping when Market ends. The carts and conversations Market creates are worth following up for at least a week.

Can someone plan and run Faire Market for you?

Yes. Market prep is a few weeks of focused work on listings, offers, emails and follow-up, on top of running your business. Ginger plans and runs every Faire Market for the brands it works with: listings and a Market collection set up in advance, promotions built around each brand's own order data, Faire Direct invites to new retailers, and daily follow-up on carts, reviews and reorders during and after the event. You can see how Ginger runs this for brands as part of its ongoing Faire account management, for a flat monthly fee with no commission.