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.

In coaching with makers, I’ve reviewed hundreds of Shopify sites in terms of their aesthetics and function. But until this year, I had never actually built one! 

Recently, I started working on a new project that required creating a Shopify site. And as you probably know, it’s technically straightforward but can be daunting once you realize how many steps and decisions are actually involved. I knew I didn’t want to commit the funds to paying someone to create the website for me… but I also did not want to spend more of my time on it than I needed to. 

Like so many people, I got really into The Great British Baking Show a few years back.

After a stressful day, there is something bizarrely relaxing about watching people frantically bake Cardamom-Vanilla Cupcakes With Raspberry Coulis Filling.

As you probably know, we’re in constant dialogue with our Wholesale In a Box makers about their questions, concerns, and new opportunities on the horizon. We combine these insights with our own observations of how the wholesale community is shifting and changing. And we synthesize all of that into a docket of course updates and changes that we do in batches.

Part of Made to Last – a series of interviews we’re doing with established makers who have grown and evolved their businesses over the long term. We speak with Becca of Thicket talk money, starting small and focusing on what really matters in a small business.

As my baby’s first birthday approaches, another anniversary approaches as well — my anniversary of becoming a mom, experiencing birth, and stepping into this new phase.

For me, becoming a mom has felt like riding a mountain bike down a steep hill: exhilarating, joyful, demanding of my strength and skill, and only partially in my control. I’ve learned a lot over the past year. And most of what I’ve learned feels viscerally true to me across both my personal life and my work life.

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.

In this article, we’re talking about the power and opportunity of email newsletters: using email to engage with your community and build relationships.

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.

If you’re working to grow wholesale, your wholesale line sheet (or wholesale catalog) is one of your most important tools. It’s a single, cohesive way to present your line, products, pricing, and wholesale terms in a format that lets you tell your story to store owners, exactly how you want to.