Faire DMs Are a Dead Channel
Every brand on Faire is using DMs. That's the problem. Retailers get dozens of them per day, and most get ignored. Faire caps how many you can send per week, and even the ones that land are competing with 50 other pitches in the same inbox.
Email is different. You control the cadence, the content, and the relationship. It reaches buyers on a channel they actually check. And the numbers prove it works — one brand generated over $500,000 in Faire sales directly from cold email flows. Another attributed 150,000 GBP in revenue to email marketing alone.
This isn't theory. It's a repeatable system.
Where to Find Leads (Ranked by Quality)
Not all leads are equal. Here's where to source them, ranked from hottest to coldest:
1. In-person leads. Trade shows, gift markets, walking into shops. These are your best contacts because you have context — you've seen their store, you know what they carry, and they've seen your product. Use that context in every email you send them.
2. Online research. Retailer websites, Instagram, Google Maps. You've verified the fit before reaching out. These are warm because you can reference specific things about their business.
3. Purchased lists. The worst option. Low quality, outdated information, and a real risk to your Faire account. Never upload purchased email lists to Faire's marketing tools — you can get banned from them entirely. If you use purchased lists at all, run them through a third-party email platform only.
Pre-Qualify Before You Send
Retail has high turnover. Before you email anyone or upload contacts to Faire, check the basics:
- Is the business still open?
- Is your product actually relevant to what they sell?
- Are they in the right geography for your shipping and pricing?
- Would your product realistically fit in their range?
Skipping this step wastes your time and tanks your sender reputation. A list of 200 pre-qualified retailers will outperform a purchased list of 5,000 every time.
Cold Email Cadence That Works
Start with one email every 5-7 days. If your open rates and reply rates are strong, you can tighten that to every 3 days. Test and adjust.
Seasonal timing matters more than most brands realize:
- Start Christmas outreach in July. Retailers buy 2 months ahead. By September, many have already placed their holiday orders.
- Increase cadence during Faire's seasonal markets — Summer Market in July, Winter Market in November. Buying intent peaks during these windows.
- Align with relevant holidays. Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day — if your product fits, your outreach should hit 8 weeks before.
- Go quiet in late December. The second half of December is dead. Retailers are fulfilling orders, not placing new ones.
What to Write (and What Not to)
Keep it short. These are B2B emails going to busy store owners, not consumer newsletters. Three rules:
Lead as the founder. Introduce yourself as the person behind the brand. Retailers on Faire buy from people, not companies. "Hi, I'm Sarah, I started this brand in my kitchen in 2019" beats "Our company offers premium artisan products" every time.
Focus on their needs, not your features. Don't tell them your candles are hand-poured with organic soy wax. Tell them your candles are the highest-reorder product in their category on Faire, and here's why their customers will come back for more.
Include proof. Faire reviews, Trust Pilot ratings, press mentions, bestseller badges. Social proof does the heavy lifting in cold outreach. If you have 500 five-star reviews on Faire, that belongs in your first email.
Two more tactics that separate good outreach from great: behind-the-scenes content builds trust faster than any sales pitch, and video emails get opened at dramatically higher rates because almost no wholesale brand is doing them.
Subject lines deserve their own attention. Study the emails that get your highest open rates and figure out why. Test constantly. Keep them curiosity-driven, not salesy. "Quick question about your spring lineup" beats "20% off our bestselling collection" in wholesale every time.
The Weekly Newsletter Machine
Cold email gets them in the door. Newsletters keep them buying.
Send weekly to your existing Faire contacts, but understand who newsletters are really for. Your top sellers — the ones reordering every month — don't need a newsletter. They'll buy anyway. Newsletters are for the middle tier: the retailers who ordered once or twice but need reminding.
What to send:
- Marketing assets. Photos they can use on their social media, display ideas for your product, seasonal merchandising tips. This is genuinely useful content that makes their job easier.
- New product launches and seasonal collections. Give them first access or early pricing.
- Restocking reminders. "Your bestseller from last quarter is back in stock" is one of the highest-converting email types in wholesale.
Don't fear unsubscribes. They're healthy list hygiene. A retailer who unsubscribes was never going to order from you anyway — and a clean list means better deliverability for the people who actually want to hear from you.
Faire's Tools vs. Third-Party Platforms
You have two options, and the best brands use both:
Faire's built-in email tools signal to the algorithm that you're an active, engaged seller. Uploading pre-qualified leads to Faire Direct also trains the algorithm on what your ideal buyer looks like. The tradeoff: lower deliverability and more restrictions on what you can send.
Third-party platforms like Klaviyo or HubSpot give you better analytics, better deliverability, and full control over your campaigns. Use these for broader outreach and your weekly newsletter.
The play: pre-qualified, high-intent leads go through Faire to feed the algorithm. Everything else runs through your third-party platform.
Persistence Wins
It takes roughly 7 touchpoints before a retailer seriously considers your brand. One cold email is never enough.
Retailers are busy. They might open your email, genuinely like your product, and forget about it 30 seconds later. Or the timing might be wrong — they just placed their orders for the season, and your email arrived one week too late.
This is why the newsletter matters. Even if your cold email sequence doesn't convert immediately, keeping a retailer in your weekly flow means you're there when the timing is finally right. They can always unsubscribe. Most won't — because if your content is genuinely useful, they want to hear from you.
The brands that win on Faire aren't the ones with the best product photos or the lowest prices. They're the ones that show up consistently, on channels that actually get read, with content that actually helps.
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Smoothed helps Faire brands build the outreach systems that drive real revenue — from lead sourcing to email flows to buyer retention. If you're ready to stop waiting for the algorithm and start building direct relationships, [let's talk](/contact).