Faire Market Manual 4: Building a compelling offer.
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It's week 4 of the Market Manual and this week we are talking about one of the biggest levers you have during Faire Summer Market: your offer.
A strong market offer can be the difference between a retailer placing a small tester order and a retailer deciding to properly stock up with you.
And when we say offer, we don’t mean taking 5% off here and there and hoping for the best. We mean building something generous, exciting and commercially smart. Something that makes retailers feel like Summer Market is the moment to buy from you.
There can be a bit of resistance around discounting in wholesale, but really, it’s no different to traditional bulk pricing. Retailers are used to being rewarded when they order more units. The more they commit to, the better the unit economics become for both sides.
So how do you build a compelling Summer Market offer?
- Make your tiers aspirational. Don’t make the first discount too easy to hit and don’t make the higher tiers meaningless. You want retailers to look at the next tier up and think, “Actually, if I add a few more products, I can unlock a much better deal.”
- Build your offer around bigger basket sizes. Summer Market is not the time to encourage tiny orders. Your offer should give retailers a reason to stock up, try more of your range and commit properly.
- Reward pre-orders when they benefit your cash flow. If you are launching new products, use SKU-level discounts on pre-order items. This gives retailers a reason to commit early, helps you forecast demand and can give you more confidence before going into production.
- Make the offer easy to understand. If a retailer has to work too hard to figure out what they get, you’ll lose them. Keep the structure simple and make the value obvious.
- Talk about your offer a lot. Don’t just set it up and hope people notice. Mention it in your banner, your messages, your emails and your follow-ups. Retailers are busy, and repetition is what makes the offer land.
- Use market as a clearance opportunity. If you have Level 3 stock that is slow-moving, this is a great time to run a proper clearance offer. Don’t let old stock quietly sit there tying up cash. Use the market traffic to move it on.
- Give your best products the best chance. Don’t only discount the products nobody wants. Use your offer to drive attention to newness, bestsellers, seasonal products and bundles that make commercial sense.
A simple structure could look something like this:
- Spend £300, get 10% off
- Spend £600, get 15% off
- Spend £1,000, get 20% off
- Pre-order selected new products and unlock an additional SKU-level discount
- Shop clearance products at a deeper discount while stock lasts
Of course, your numbers need to work for your margins, but the principle is the same: make the next step feel worth reaching for.
Action for this week: Build your Summer Market offer. Decide your discount tiers, your pre-order incentive and whether you have any slow-moving stock that could be cleared during the market.
"But I'm too burned out, I have too much on my plate..."
If you're reading this thinking - "yep all sounds great, I agree with what you're proposing but I simply don't have the time to do all this", we know how you feel. That's where we were, and we hired the team to do it all for us. Our team can now become yours, get in touch if you want to discuss.
Complementary reading
Chapter 10 is all about pricing and promotions in our brand new book 'How to Get More Sales on Faire'. You can download your free copy here.
See you in the market!
Lucy