5 Costly Mistakes to Avoid During the Faire Summer Market

The Faire Summer Market is the biggest B2B sales week of the year. If you're not tapping into its potential, you're likely missing out on huge opportunities. At Candid Founders, we’ve helped countless brands grow on Faire, and we’re here to make sure you don’t fall into these common traps. 

In this piece, we highlight five critical mistakes to avoid this Faire Summer Market and what to do instead to maximise your results. These tips will work for both new sellers and the best brands on Faire alike.  

1. Skipping the Market Altogether 

Let’s get the biggest mistake out of the way first: not participating. Each year, some brands opt out of the Summer Market. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of retailers are logging in, ready to buy. These retailers have budgets set aside, and they're expecting to place orders.  

In fact, we often see a slowdown in early July sales as buyers wait for the Faire Summer Market deals. If you’re not part of it, you’re not only losing visibility but also hurting your chances with the Faire algorithm, which favours active participants. 

2. Not Launching New Products 

The market is the time to grab retailer attention. They’re in shopping mode with eyes wide open for fresh offerings. This is the best time to launch new products, and pre-orders are your best friend. 

For instance, at Bare Kind, we put all our Christmas stock of bamboo socks and new products for the second half of the year on pre-order. We even offer product-level discounts, and the results have been incredible for cash flow and visibility every year. What’s more, new listings give the algorithm more to love! 

3. Not Knowing Your Margins 

This one is crucial. If you don’t know your margins inside out, you might hesitate to offer the discounts retailers expect. Even worse, you might discount too heavily and end up selling at a loss.  

Pricing on Faire wholesale platform isn’t as simple as your wholesale price: you have to factor in commissions, promotional discounts, and your Cost of Goods Sold (COGS). If you're unsure of how to calculate your wholesale pricing, we’ve created a plug-and-play margin calculator to make things easier. We highly recommend using it before the market kicks off. You can download it for free.

4. Only Reacting to Inbound Messages 

Of course, replying quickly to customer queries is important, especially when retailers are in decision mode. But that’s not enough. You also need to be proactive.  

The Faire CRM tool makes it easy to send personalised messages to different customer segments. Remember, retailers receive dozens of emails during the market week, and Faire marketplace limits those emails.  

That’s why direct messaging inside Faire platform is so powerful. It helps you stand out in a crowded inbox and can be the difference between winning or losing the sale. 

5. Ignoring Seasonal Keywords 

Even if your Christmas stock isn’t physically in yet, retailers are already searching for it along with Halloween, Fall, and Winter themes. Make sure your listings include seasonal keywords and are available for pre-order.  

Retailers want to plan their cash flow and merchandising ahead of time. And yes, Christmas shopping starts earlier every year. In fact, many of our biggest holiday sales actually happen in July during the Faire Summer Market! 

Make sure to add relevant keywords to your product titles, descriptions, and create seasonal collections to increase visibility. Check out our SEO guide to help you with this and other essential SEO tips. 

Final Thoughts 

The Faire Summer Market is your golden ticket to boosting mid-year B2B sales, connecting with new stockists, and launching your next bestsellers. Steer clear of the five mistakes listed above and you’ll be well on your way to a record-breaking week. 

If you need help with managing your wholesale store on Faire or are ready to let experts grow your Faire account for you, reach out to us. Candid Founders is a Faire agency that specialised in helping brands get their best results through strategy and implementation.  

Shoot us an email at hello@candidfounders.com and we’ll book a discovery call to get you started. Otherwise, happy selling and we’ll see you at the Faire Summer Market.