When Faire Wholesale first debuted, many makers were pretty amazed by all that it offered. It felt like a gamechanger to have so many buyers in one place… and to be able to manage your wholesale ordering on their platform. And it’s true – for many independent brands, Faire has proven to be an incredible asset.

As time has gone on, though, not everyone has decided they love Faire. Some makers find the commissions to be punishingly high. Other brands find that it’s hard to build sustainable relationships with store owners through the platform. And still others simply don’t get orders there.

As a maker or indie product line, it can be challenging to know how to use your website for wholesale sales. In this article, we answer key questions like: Should I hire help or DIY my first Shopify site? What wholesale apps are best for a Shopify website? What mistakes am I making on my website that could be hurting sales? Do I need a separate wholesale website?

Faire has become a part of the maker community. In fact, most of the makers we work with also use Faire or similar. That said, there are some things to be cautious about if you are considering using Faire as a key avenue for your wholesale growth.

As many of you know, the online wholesale marketplace landscape is ever changing. It seems like a new marketplace opens every 6 months.

When marketplaces change focus or shut down, we know brands and makers can be left frustrated, scrambling, and wary of joining yet another marketplace. Which is why we put together some tips on how to move forward and continue your wholesale journey, even when a marketplace closes.

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 wholesale marketplace surprises that may directly impact your day to day operations.

In June 2023, after 6 years of operations, Tundra, one of the largest online wholesale marketplaces at the time, shuttered its online marketplace. Tundra’s email announcement made some big waves by announcing their intention to file a lawsuit against Faire, while simultaneously promoting their new online wholesale business, Wholesale Co-Op. In the whirlwind that followed, Wholesale Co-Op went belly-up at the end of January 2024. This article reviews the details on both Tundra and Wholesale Co-Op.

When you’re a maker growing your wholesale business, the crowd of new wholesale marketplaces can feel bewildering. One maker says she thrived on Faire, while another tells horror stories of stolen stockists. Some makers put their line on every marketplace while others grow wholesale without using marketplaces at all. Each marketplace has different advantages, disadvantages, and risks.

As new wholesale marketplaces pop up, it can be hard to sort out the real opportunities from the time-wasters. As you know, we’ve done profiles of all the key marketplaces (starting with Faire of course.) But JuniperMarket LINK, one of the newest entrants to the space holds real promise. JuniperMarket’s key differences are its focus on home goods and furniture, certainly – but they also have an interesting showroom component that may just prove to be a truly new offering.

It’s so exciting to get an order from a new stockist. But the thing that is most satisfying and ultimately transformative to your business is to have long-term relationships with stockists that order from you repeatedly over the span of years. Here’s what we recommend in terms of communication with your stockists, including those who buy from you on Faire.

When considering wholesale marketplaces there is no shortage of options these days. Many of the marketplaces are similar but small differences can mean large impacts on makers and independent brands. In this article we review a newer wholesale marketplace, Creoate, and give you the information you need to decide if it’s a good fit for your wholesale strategy.

Editor’s note: Originally, Candid started at well under $100/month with unlimited users. But as of March, 2024, Candid’s price increased to a minimum of $179/month. For many small makers and brands this may be well out of range as a fee that makes sense. This article was originally written when the tool was more affordable, but at that higher price, think carefully about whether it makes sense for you before proceeding.

For years, Abound was a major player in the wholesale marketplace world – and a major competitor to Faire. So for many small brands, Abound was a marketplace they had considered selling with.

In 2023 and 2024, though, Abound made an abrupt business model transition and then (effectively) closed altogether. In this article we wrangled all the details of that evolution – and we’ll give you the details you need for Abound, Droply, and their Droply’s parent company, Carro.