What Makers Need to Know About Bulletin and NY NOW Online

Updated March 2024

We’ve been a fan of online wholesale marketplace Bulletin since they opened. Certainly not as dominant as Faire, Bulletin is known for their values-driven approach to working with brands and for their focused, modern aesthetic. And while there was some question about whether it would remain open after Bulletin was purchased in 2022 by Emerald Expositions, the parent company of NY NOW, Bulletin remains alive and well. Bulletin is a very particular kind of marketplace that won’t be a fit for every brand. But since it can be so powerful to find the right marketplace for your product and ethos, we’re digging into all the details of Bulletin below (including an exclusive interview with their co-founder.)

What Is Bulletin?

Bulletin is an online wholesale marketplace based in New York that connects brands with retailers. It was initially founded in 2015 and went through several iterations, including brick-and-mortar pop-ups, until the marketplace launched in 2019. Like the other bigger marketplaces Faire, Handshake, Abound, and Tundra, Bulletin is venture capital-backed.

Their big focus is creating a curated buying experience for their retailers rather than an “everything to everyone” experience. To give you a sense of scale, they are currently working with around 1500 brands and about 10,000 stores and growing.

In terms of structure, it works like the other wholesale marketplaces. Makers apply to be part of Bulletin, create a storefront with their products, and stores are able to search and shop all of those products.

(You can find a comparison of the main wholesale marketplaces here. And an in-depth review of Faire here.)

How Does Bulletin Work For Makers?

Bulletin works similarly to other online wholesale marketplaces, with some tweaks. They also have a particular aesthetic and ethos, so be sure to make sure that’s a fit for your brand before applying.

• You must first apply and be approved to become a maker on the platform.

• Once you’ve been approved, you’ll create your shop page.

• There is no cost to join but Bulletin is quite selective in who they allow on to the site.

• Commissions are 15% on opening orders, 10% on repeat orders and 0% on orders from existing customers (including stores you reached out to previously even if they didn’t place an order at that time.)

• If they qualify some retailers are offered Net 60 Terms though Bulletin says brands get paid 15 days after shipment.

• Brands need to message stores through Bulletin.

Curious to learn more about Bulletin? Scroll down for our Q&A with Bulletin’s founder and some maker reviews of the platform.

What Are NY NOW and NY NOW Online?

NY NOW Online is a wholesale platform powered by Bulletin’s website that doubles as a market directory for NY NOW, a multi-day in-person trade show event held twice a year in New York City. NY NOW was launched in 2013, and is the rebranded New York International Gift Fair. Since 2013, NY NOW has been providing searchable websites for the products seen at its shows from registered vendors. Expanding on that practice, NY NOW Online harnesses Bulletin’s marketplace infrastructure to offer an e-commerce hybrid shopping experience where stockists are able to filter, preview and place orders from exhibiting brands virtual storefronts leading up to and after NY NOW events. 

How Does NY NOW Online Work For Makers and Brands?

Brands pay between $300 and $425 to register for a booth at a NY NOW event and that registration provides a membership to the NY NOW Online wholesale marketplace. Makers establish their virtual storefront with brand and product information, just like any other online wholesale platforms. Registered brands are added to the NY NOW Market Directory, and as events near, Market Information like booth number and show specials are added to their virtual storefront profile on NY NOW Online.

Pros and Cons of NY NOW Online

Pros

• Brands enjoy the same 15 days from order fulfillment payment time frame as Bulletin users.

• Brand profiles are also available on the Bulletin wholesale platform, so they can receive Bulletin orders, as well as NY NOW Online orders.

• Orders placed between contract signing through the month of the next NY NOW market event pay a 12% commission on new orders and 8% on reorders. Along with 0% on referrals and 0% during the NY NOW trade show event.  (Note: Orders placed via Bulletin are subject to Bulletin’s commission structure.)

• NY NOW Online works with a range of buyers including department stores, boutique shops, e-commerce retailers, museums and buying associations.

• NY NOW Online has its’ own version of Instagram called the “Discovery Feed” that buyers can scroll to see when makers post new products, have special pricing deals etc.

• NY NOW advertises that 10,000+ buyers attend their events, 70% of which are there to write orders, and 51% of those buyers only attend NY NOW. 
  

Cons

• Brands have to pay registration fees for each event.

• Brands have to plan to attend a week-long event in New York. This can add up quickly (many brands assume they’ll spend $10K-$20K at an event like this) with expenses like booth design and setup, travel, food and lodging.

• Brands who wish to utilize NY NOW Online must commit to attending the next upcoming NY NOW trade show.

• Brands are expected to use NY NOW Online to communicate with Stockists. 

• Onsite sales and delivery of merchandise are strictly prohibited at NY NOW events.

More Details on Bulletin: a Q&A with Bulletin’s Co-Founder and COO Ali Kriegsman

We had a chance to sit down and ask Ali Kreigsman, one of the Bulletin’s co-founders, a few questions to understand how their approach differs from the other marketplaces. Ali emphasized that their goal has always been to help makers grow. The feedback they heard was that makers did well at in-person venues so they started doing pop-up markets and then opened their own retail locations in New York City. Eventually, they grew out of that and decided to try to serve more people by opening their own marketplace.

Bulletin’s goal was to put the brand first by offering fair commission rates (15% on opening orders, 10% on repeat orders, and 0% on orders from existing customers) and by not penalizing brands in the algorithm for rejecting an order.

According to Bulletin’s terms of service you do need to keep communication within their messaging system and not email stores directly. Although Ali emphasized that brands would not be punished for emailing stores directly.

Q. If I’m a maker and deciding which marketplace to put my time and energy into, why choose Bulletin?

We are more curated on both ends of the marketplace. We have more guardrails as to who we let in, the types of brands we are doubling down on, and that is to support the retailer discovery experience so they feel like anything they order on Bulletin is a surefire potential bestseller.

For brands who are a bit more thoughtful about where they want to distribute their products and who their retailers should be, Bulletin is a better bet because we only let true, legit retailers into the community. You will not get orders which seem sketchy.

We don’t penalize brands for rejecting an order and we will not bury you in the algorithm because you are being discerning about where you sell.

Q. What criteria do you use in selecting brands?

We are looking for brands that:

• Are already doing wholesale or are very eager to start.

• Really care about packaging and whose products show up shelf-ready.

• Have product photography that looks good and tells the brand’s story.

• Can demonstrate good consumer reviews of the brand.

• Fit within our existing product categories. For instance, Bulletin is currently investing in men and pet categories but we don’t have those yet.

Q. What would you recommend to brands who want to improve their results on Bulletin?

• The most effective way to increase sales is to use Bulletin Plus (our free, in-platform tool) - you can post links, your story, new arrivals, promo codes. And retailers use that constantly to find new products.

• Make sure that your product descriptions and title are optimized for search. If you have a necklace called ‘the Jenny’ a retailer isn’t going to type in ‘the Jenny’ into search they will type in ‘pearl necklace’. The more you litter your product descriptions with what the product is and the materiality, the higher likelihood you have of being discovered by retailers.

• Make sure your photography is on-point.

See the full interview with Ali below.

Maker reviews of Bulletin

We reached out to makers with a wealth of experience and have worked with one or more wholesale sites. They were thoughtful and honest in sharing their thoughts about Bulletin, its usability, impact on their business and what they see as its pros and cons.

Tara of Thara Sacra

Bulletin works the best for me because I believe they understand the vibe of my store and treat me well.

Out of the three I use (Faire, Abound, Bulletin) I would rate Bulletin the best for my type of business (small skincare line). They seem to be more ethical/fair in their treatment of their wholesalers as far as pricing. 15% initial then 10%. They are also pretty innovative when it comes to things like their new Bulletin Plus feature which lets makers be featured via their own action. Faire will rarely if ever feature a small maker and Bulletin Plus lets you throw up your own ads with or without a promotion kinda like a social media application.

I also think it's important to note Bulletin has provided the most repeat customers. Faire is second on that list but Bulletin has matched me better than the other two and by far. I believe every retailer on Bulletin has repurchased and on Faire a few I already knew who were familiar with my brand. I'm not sure if that is due to their algorithm or how they do advertising emails to retailers but I notice it.

I have seen some vendors complain that Bulletin doesn't have as many features as say Faire who has been around longer but for me, none of this bothers me because they are making fast upgrades and their ethical behavior far outweighs that concern.

I believe all are difficult for small vendors to be seen on but I do get more action on Bulletin. Faire is pretty much a bust for me and Abound hit or miss. I am actually strongly considering moving over to Bulletin as my sole platform.

One negative for all platforms is how to feature smaller brands. I could not get featured on any for AAIP month which was a bummer. Abound tries to do more outreach for those types of features on their Facebook group. Faire honestly could care less and just focuses on big brands (in my opinion). All three could do better at knowing their retailers and featuring small or minority brands.

Shana from Shana Luther

I have not had any orders at all through it. The platform is nice and user friendly and I like how brands can do social posts on the website, but other than that, no orders. I think it may be hard to stand out on there.

Anonymous Maker

Overall I think Bulletin is fine, they just launched the ability to bulk upload products but overall my biggest gripe is that product uploading/bulk changes are a pain though I'm not sure bulk upload will fix this, especially since uploading photos is probably the slowest/most inconsistent part of all this.

Fulfilling orders and printing packing slips is super clunky - there's no "print packing slip" button like Abound or Faire, so it's multiple steps to get the darn thing printed. And it's not intuitive to upload multiple boxes/tracking numbers for larger orders.

Big pros include reasonable commission, (in my experience) individual sale volumes are pretty high, the curation of vendors prevents you from getting lost in a sea of vendors (less overwhelming to people shopping, better visibility for people selling), helpful customer service, and the "ma and pa" small business nature of the company (unlike Faire).

Pros And Cons Of Bulletin For Handmade Lines

Pros of using Bulletin:

• Easy to set up.

• Commission rates are 15% for new orders. And reorder rates are 10%, lower than Faire’s 15% for reorders).

• A more curated aesthetic, with more trusted brands, especially thoughtful about where you want your products to be sold.

• Like on other platforms, makers can get a 0% commission on store leads or stockist orders that they’ve been in contact with in the past.

• Because of Bulletin’s selection process and algorithm, it seems that initial orders may be slightly lower but reorders may be higher than on other platforms.

• Bulletin Plus (which is free) can be a great tool for promoting your brand, promo codes, and new products.

• Crucially for choosy brands, Bulletin doesn’t penalize you (in your visibility to retailers) for turning down an order.

Cons of using Bulletin:

• We have heard reports from a several makers that the upload time for products and photos is quite slow but may be improving with a bulk upload feature.

• No shipping label integration which adds an extra step.

• It is selective and quite small so you may not be accepted.

• Brands need to be based in the USA, Canada, or operate out of a warehouse in the USA or Canada so no international brands at this stage.

• It’s smaller size can mean lower order volumes, but this depends on your product type and aesthetic.

  
  

Our Assessment And Things To Consider When Deciding Whether To Use Bulletin

A few things to consider if you are deciding whether to use Bulletin to help you grow your wholesale.

Be strategic about how you use Bulletin.

When it comes to growing wholesale, use a balanced approach that includes direct outreach to stores, cultivating your existing store relationships, as well as using marketplaces such as Bulletin. When you are on it, use Bulletin Plus to promote yourself to new potential retailers. It’s unusual that a marketplace’s promotion tool would be free, effective, and not require compromises from you -- but Bulletin Plus really does check all of those boxes.

Be creative about maintaining control over your relationships.

Long-term relationships with shops are the lifeblood of your wholesale business. So it is definitely a downside that Bulletin’s terms of service don’t allow you to communicate with stores off the platform. Certainly, it’s encouraging that Ali emphasizes that there wouldn’t be a penalty for doing so -- but many other marketplaces do allow that off-platform communication (even if they implicitly try to keep all your communication on the platform.) Given that potential obstacle, be thoughtful about how you manage your accounts and use all of the tools available to you to communicate with stockists regularly and over the long term.

Be thoughtful about Bulletin’s particular strengths for your business.

Compare the marketplace options for your business, look at some of our other reviews and maker tips about Faire and Handshake and choose one or more that really fits your approach, aesthetic, and goals. Check out Bulletin’s aesthetic and product categories and see if they’re a fit. And, consider using a couple of marketplaces simultaneously so you can compare results.

Let us know if you have other questions about Bulletin or Wholesale In a Box! We’re happy to dig into your particular business goals and product line to help you explore the right strategy for you.

How We Can Help You Grow Wholesale:

More free line sheet resources:

• Smart Ways to Use Faire to Grow Wholesale as a Maker — And Mistakes to Avoid

• Faire Wholesale Reviews and Maker Tips

• What You Need to Know About Handshake

• How to Compare and Choose The Right Wholesale Marketplace For You

• Creoate Wholesale Marketplace: Brand Tips + How It Compares To Faire

*At Wholesale In a Box we do not receive any commissions or compensation of any kind from Bulletin, Shopify or any other marketplace. All of our educational content is meant to support makers and small brands in making the right choices for them.