The Faire Paradox
Faire is one of the best things to happen to wholesale. Buyers love it — one portal, easy terms, simple logistics. For brands, it's a gateway to thousands of retailers you'd never reach on your own.
But there's a catch that every successful Faire brand eventually hits: you can't contact your own buyers.
Think about that. A retailer finds your product, loves it, places an order, reorders three times — and you still can't send them an email about your new collection. You can't text them before reorder season. You can't call to check in.
The DM Channel Isn't the Answer
Faire's built-in messaging was supposed to solve this. In practice, it's become a graveyard. Every brand is blasting the same inbox. Your carefully crafted message sits next to 50 others. Buyers have tuned out.
The data backs this up. Response rates on Faire DMs have been declining steadily. It's the same dynamic that killed cold email for consumer marketing — when everyone has access to the same channel, no one stands out.
What the Best Brands Are Doing
The brands that are winning on Faire aren't just optimizing listings and training the algorithm. They're building a relationship layer outside the platform.
Here's what that looks like:
- Building a direct contact database of their Faire buyers — emails, phone numbers, purchase patterns
- Reaching out on channels buyers actually check — personalized email, text, even phone calls for top accounts
- Timing outreach to buying cycles — new product launches, seasonal reorder windows, lapsed buyer reactivation
The key insight: this doesn't replace Faire. Buyers still place their orders through the platform because that's where they prefer to buy. But the relationship — the reason they come back — that's built outside Faire.
The Math That Matters
Consider two scenarios:
Brand A relies entirely on Faire's algorithm and DMs. When the algorithm changes or a new competitor enters their category, their orders drop. They have no way to proactively reach their buyers.
Brand B has direct contact info for 80% of their Faire buyers. They send a personalized email when new products launch, a reminder before peak reorder season, and a check-in when a buyer goes quiet. Their reorder rate is 2-3x higher because they're not waiting to be found — they're staying top of mind.
Same products. Same platform. Completely different growth trajectory.
Getting Started
Building direct buyer relationships doesn't require a massive investment. It starts with three things:
- Recover your buyer data. There are ways to build contact databases for your existing Faire customers without violating any terms.
- Start with your best buyers. You don't need to reach everyone. Start with your top 20% — the ones who reorder, who buy your full line, who you'd want to keep no matter what.
- Be genuinely helpful. This isn't about spam. It's about being the brand that tells a buyer about a new product before they have to go searching, or reminds them to restock before they run out.
The brands that build this layer now will own their buyer relationships. The ones that don't will keep renting access from a platform that can change the rules anytime.