Updated January 4, 2024

Here at Wholesale In a Box, we know that your time is valuable and that keeping on-top of all the latest wholesale marketplace news can be time consuming. You’re so busy managing the ins and outs of your business that sometimes relevant information can slip right by you. So today, we’ve filtered all the recent updates and bring you three recent wholesale marketplace surprises that may directly impact your day to day operations.

3 Wholesale Marketplace Surprises

1. TRADA marketplace by quickbooks is closed

Founded in 2008, the crowdsourced Trada Marketplace was experiencing financial difficulties and after 15 years were forced to cease operations by their creditors.

What is the impact for sellers?

Sellers who received an order in the last few days of Trada operations had access to the marketplace to complete final transactions. Sellers were paid for pending orders once shipment tracking information is provided via the Trada platform. At the time, Trada requested that sellers communicate with Retailers via their platform for tracking purposes. We also recommended makers directly communicating with their active retailers outside the online wholesale platform to provide further contact information and alternative wholesale ordering methods. We go over more ways to reduce the impact of online wholesale marketplace closures in the article “What To Do When A Wholesale Marketplace Closes.”

Looking for a bit more context on marketplaces? You can find a comparison of the main wholesale marketplaces here.

2. JUNIPERMARKET NOW REQUIRES SELLERS EXHIBIT IN PERSON

One of the newest wholesale online marketplaces, JuniperMarket, which brought an old spin to online wholesale marketplaces by offering in-person marketplaces to accompany it’s online platform has been ‘sunset’ for the foreseeable future. When the fourth quarter earnings of their first year of operations dropped stock prices, JuniperMarket experienced a major restructuring and re-branding of it’s parent company ANDMORE, previously IMC (International Market Centers), resulting in a refocus on in-person marketplaces. This refocus resulted in sellers who exclusively utilized their online marketplace receiving communications that their accounts would be discontinued if they did not choose to exhibit in-person at one of JuniperMarket’s traveling or permanent in-person marketplaces. Unfortunately, those makers who chose to continue using the platform and opted into the in-person marketplaces still lost their JuniperMarket accounts just a few short months later in October of 2023.

What does this mean for wholesalers?

Sellers who wished to continue using the online wholesale marketplace along with the in-person option are now forced to seek other online marketplaces. While there is no one set path to wholesale success, we recommend a diverse wholesale strategy to help keep your sales steady even when marketplaces close. Interested in knowing what other wholesale options are available? Right this way…

3. FAIRE MAY BE PREPARING TO INTRODUCE ADS

Faire, one of the most popular marketplaces out there, recently hired the VP who oversaw the implementation of ads on Instagram. This along with statements from Faire’s co-founder and CEO indicate that Faire is preparing to introduce ads in the near future. While advertising is not a concept unheard of in the online marketplace arena, it would have big influence on small businesses who utilize the platform. Advertising revenue has long been a large money market for other online marketplaces like Amazon who charges sellers for Prime search results and banner placement. Meanwhile, Etsy offers Google Ads integration and promoted listings on their site.

Currently, no two searches on Faire generates the same results. Combining Faire’s existing search algorithm for product listings with ads would allow sellers to target and reach niche markets.

Additionally, Faire is developing features that could help sellers with existing relationships, through retailer reminders to restock items and modifying the checkout process to improve user experience for large orders.

What does this mean for makers?

Makers should keep this information in the back of their minds, as advertising on other wholesale marketplaces can siphon up to 20% of seller profits. There are things that can be done to optimize your shop by taking advantage of the Faire algorithms currently, but introducing a “pay-to- play” aspect could push smaller sellers to the fringes and impact their sales. Want to learn more about how to enhance your Faire listings and improve your sales opportunities? The Wholesale In a Box Course has an entire module dedicated to online marketplaces and Faire algorithm optimization. Learn more here.

Find free information and an in-depth review of Faire here.