Faire Report #14: 'tis already the season!

What’s on my brain this week?

This week we are chatting all things Q4, because any brand owner knows that Q4 does not happen in Q4. The work starts much earlier, and that is even more true for wholesale.

Generally, Faire has shortened these buying cycles for brands. It used to be that you would be at a trade show in January or February, while retailers wandered around shopping for Winter and Christmas at the end of the year. With bigger retailers, their buying cycles can be even longer than that.

With independents, the turnaround can be much shorter, but that does not mean you should not be prepared and ready to win Christmas as early as possible. We get our brands ready early, and on Bare Kind, that work begins in January.

Christmas trends all year round

Faire have released their trending search terms, and Christmas is on the list all year round.

It starts to spike over the summer and continues to dominate well into October and November. From an orders point of view, we generally start to see Christmas demand drop off near the end of November.

If your brand has a fast turnaround, you can still get orders into December from retailers who have completely sold out. With Bare Kind, our Christmas stock tends to go well before that date, which we love, because neither us nor retailers want to be holding onto Christmas designs after the 25th.

Our socks also work all year round, and with no best-before date, retailers can comfortably keep selling into December without worrying about overhang.

What this means for you is simple: you need to launch Christmas stock long before it feels comfortable. Basically, if you are reading this and have nothing live for Christmas, you are already late. If you do not have inventory in yet, use pre-orders.

Stocking and keyword stuffers

You can be really smart with your keyword stuffing on listings.

You now have 3,000 characters to play with, more than ever before, so use them. This does not need to look spammy. Something as simple as adding a section at the end of your listing can help:

People also search for: etc etc

Pair this product with: etc etc

Seasonal merchandising

It is the biggest season of the year, so make your POS options work for the holidays in retail.

How your products look on the shelf is huge for retailers, so what more can you do to make your products stand out?

We shared a Faire Report recently off the back of a post from Faire where they said it is not the retailer’s responsibility to sell your products, it is yours. That stands true here too. Make your products fit for retail, and your retailers will keep coming back.

The holiday window is well and truly open

If you have not nailed the holiday season on Faire yet, do not worry. We can help.

Brands who join the Candid Founders cohort get access to an entire team of Faire experts. You will have a Faire lead strategist, an account manager, a graphic designer and an SEO pro all deployed to grow your account for the long term — finding retailers and making sure they come back again and again.

Whether you are brand new to Faire or have simply hit a ceiling on sales you cannot seem to push past, get in touch.

Final thought

The holiday window is already open. The brands that win Q4 are the ones doing the work long before Q4 actually arrives.

See you on the marketplace,

Andy