Faire Report #11: Don't build your entire year around the markets.

What’s on my brain this week?

Don't build your year around market dates

Everyone is focused on Faire Summer Market and Winter Market. Together, they account for just 8 days of the year.

What nobody seems to be thinking about is the other 357 days.

You should be creating reasons for retailers to buy throughout the year, not just waiting for the next market to come around. Faire accounts are being opened every single day, retailers are placing orders every week, and there is plenty of opportunity outside of the headline events.

Flatten the spikes

One of the goals should be to flatten those huge sales spikes and create more consistent ordering behaviour from your retailers.

We have been doing this with Bare Kind and we're seeing it work well across client accounts too. Instead of relying on a handful of major events, we are giving retailers reasons to come back more regularly.

The result is more predictable revenue, healthier cash flow, and less pressure on those big market weeks.

Think like a wholesale brand

A conversation we have all the time goes something like this:

"Do you run promotions?"

"Yes, we do the markets."

"Anything else?"

"No, why would we?"

Because you're a wholesale brand.

You have access to volume discounts all year round, and in our experience these often outperform the traditional B2C-style promotion mindset.

Wholesale has always been built around buying more and rewarding bigger orders. Lean into that. Create regular volume-based promotions throughout the year and give retailers a reason to increase basket size before the next market arrives.

Final thought

The brands that win on Faire are not just active during market weeks. They are creating buying opportunities all year round.

See you in the algorithm,

Andy