Please forgive any typos; Finn is sleeping on my right hand, so I am typing one handed with my left. (If you have cats, you understand this. It's against natural law to disturb a sleeping cat!)
After reading of a few people's good experiences with them, I decided to give Faire a try. Faire is an online wholesale marketplace, where buyers can find makers. It makes sense to me as an alternative to wholesale shows, that require you to haul your ware sometimes thousands of miles, stay in hotels, pay thousands in booth fees, etc. The same for the buyers! This seems like a better option.
Unlike many potters, I like to do wholesale! My favorites are the buyers who come & choose from the inventory I already have, but orders are good, too - they let me plan a bit, knowing when I can expect payment & how much.
(Oh! There's my hand back. Thanks, Finn! I was starting to lose feeling in it.)
I have a dim recollection that I considered this once before & decided against it, but I'm not sure I am thinking of the same site, because while I bumped on a couple of things - we'll get to those - nothing jumped out at me as unacceptable right out of the gate. Wait! Was Faire the one that I didn't know I had to apply to & got rejected anyway? Can't remember. I hope not! If I get rejected from something I didn't know I had to apply for a second time that will be a discouraging way to start the New Year!
You pay nothing on Faire unless you sell, in which case you pay a commission of 15%. This is a little steep, considering wholesale price is traditionally 50% of retail, and Faire asks sellers - well, requires sellers - to agree not to charge more on their site than elsewhere; or rather, it sounds a little steep, until you compare it to the costs I outlined above: booth fees, travel, time out of the studio. In the case of those costs, you pay whether you get orders or not! 15% only on actual orders is starting to sound a little more reasonable.
Speaking of costs, though, the other thing I bumped on was pricing: I see a lot of items that I can't imagine how they are making money. Someone was offering mugs at a suggested retail of $5, which would make their wholesale price $2.50! That was just one, but there were several on the first page of the search offering mugs at a suggested retail of $25, which I also could not do. I did a big more poking about, though, and found some sellers at more reasonable price points, including one who told me Faire is about 30% of their business.
There is an algorithm to learn; the seller I chatted with, Gravesco Pottery, suggested starting with 8 - 10 items, then adding new listings in groups of three; that seemed to keep their shop on the front page for up to a week at a time.
Right now my shop is being "reviewed," so not yet live. I plan to offer only one slip-trail design - flax blossoms - as that is the quickest & easiest, so the lower price I'll be getting won't be unsustainable. I only have one listing, because I need to photograph some items in that design & I need to make a few more. In addition to making cornbread (for prosperity in the new year) I will be doing those things today.
I know I have mostly potters reading this blog; have any of you used Faire? What has your experience been?
PS! The December photo dump is up (free!) on my Patreon page!
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