TLDR
Faire takes 15-19% of every wholesale order. Moving your existing dealer accounts to a direct ordering portal lets you keep that margin and own the relationship. The key is making the transition easy for your buyers.
- Direct Wholesale Portal
- A branded ordering website you control where your existing dealers place orders directly with you, bypassing marketplace intermediaries.
DEFINITION
- Marketplace Commission
- The percentage of each order that Faire or similar wholesale marketplaces take as a fee. Faire charges 15% on marketplace orders and 19% on first-time retailer orders.
DEFINITION
- Faire Direct
- Faire's own branded portal option for brands, which still charges a commission on orders placed through the platform.
DEFINITION
Source: Shopify Q2 2025 earnings
Source: Sacra Research, 2024
Source: Lucky Break Consulting survey, 2024
The Math That Makes Faire Expensive
Faire built a successful wholesale marketplace. It connected brands with retailers and made ordering easy. The cost of that convenience is 15-19% of every order, forever.
For a brand doing $500,000 in annual wholesale through Faire, the commission runs $75,000-$95,000 per year. That is not a marketing cost. After the first order, you are paying 15% for a platform that processes reorders your established retailers would place anyway.
We built OrderDock because this math stops making sense once your wholesale channel reaches meaningful volume. A $300/month portal costs $3,600 per year. On $500,000 in revenue, you save over $70,000 annually by moving existing accounts to a direct portal.
Which Accounts to Move First
Not all Faire accounts are equal. Start with your repeat buyers. These are retailers who order monthly or quarterly and have an established relationship with your brand. They are not discovering you through Faire’s marketplace anymore. They are using Faire as a checkout tool, and you are paying 15% for that checkout.
Export your Faire order history and identify retailers with three or more orders. These are your migration candidates. They already know your products, your pricing, and your lead times. The only thing changing is where they click to place the order.
Leave discovery buyers on Faire for now. New retailers who found you through the marketplace are Faire’s value proposition. Once they become repeat buyers, migrate them to your direct channel.
How to Set Up a Direct Portal
Choose a Platform
You need buyer-specific pricing, net terms, and an interface simple enough that retailers use it without hand-holding. Shopify Plus ($2,300+/month) can do it with apps. OrderDock ($300/month) includes these features natively. The minimum viable portal needs a product catalog, account-based pricing, and a checkout that supports purchase orders or net terms.
Import Your Catalog and Accounts
Export your product data from Faire and import it into your portal. Set up accounts for each retailer with their specific pricing and terms. Most migrations take 1-2 weeks for the technical setup.
Communicate the Transition
This is the step that matters most. Email each retailer personally. Explain that you have launched a direct ordering site with their same pricing and terms. Walk through the login process. Offer a direct-order incentive for the first purchase.
Do not surprise your retailers. Give them 2-4 weeks notice. Provide support during the transition. The goal is making the switch feel like an upgrade, not a disruption.
What You Keep When You Leave
Beyond the obvious margin savings, moving to a direct portal gives you something Faire does not: customer data. On Faire, the marketplace owns the relationship data. On your own portal, you see every order, every browse, every login pattern. You own the relationship.
You also control the buying experience. Your brand, your site, your terms. On Faire, your products sit next to competitors in a marketplace that incentivizes price comparison. On your own portal, the buyer sees only your catalog.
What You Lose and How to Compensate
Faire’s discovery engine puts your products in front of retailers who are actively shopping for new brands. Moving existing accounts to a direct portal does not replace that discovery.
Compensate by keeping a presence on Faire for new retailer acquisition. Use Faire as the top of your wholesale funnel and your direct portal as the place where established relationships generate repeat revenue without commission.
The strategy is not Faire or direct. It is Faire for discovery, direct for retention.
Q&A
How much does Faire actually cost a wholesale brand?
Faire charges 15% commission on orders from existing retailers and 19% on first-time orders. On $500,000 in annual wholesale revenue, that is $75,000-$95,000 in fees. At $1M, it is $150,000-$190,000. That margin goes directly to your bottom line when you move to a direct portal.
Q&A
Will I lose retailers if I leave Faire?
Some discovery-only retailers who found you through Faire's marketplace may not follow. Your established accounts, the ones who reorder regularly, will move if you make it easy. They ordered from you before Faire existed. They will order from you after.
Q&A
What does a direct wholesale portal cost compared to Faire?
A purpose-built B2B portal like OrderDock costs $300/month flat rate with no commissions. Even at modest wholesale volume, the savings from eliminating commission far exceed the portal subscription cost. At $100,000 annual wholesale, you save $14,700+ per year net of the portal cost.
Q&A
What happens to my retailer relationships if I leave Faire?
Faire does not share retailer email addresses or contact information. All retailer communication must happen through Faire's messaging system. If you're leaving Faire and haven't already collected direct contact information outside the platform, you lose access to those relationships. The best time to start collecting direct contact info is before you plan to leave, not after.
Q&A
Can Faire stop me from using a direct ordering portal at the same time?
No. Faire's pricing parity policy requires that your wholesale prices on Faire match or beat other channels — but it doesn't prohibit selling directly. Running a direct portal alongside Faire is a common hybrid strategy: use Faire for new retailer discovery, then migrate established relationships to your direct portal using Faire Direct (0% commission) as a bridge.
Q&A
How do I communicate the change to retailers without losing the relationship?
The most effective framing is buyer-benefit, not operational convenience: 'Direct ordering means you get real-time inventory, direct communication with our team, and no platform delays on shipping and returns.' Retailers who've been buying from you for multiple seasons are more receptive than new accounts. Lead with your best accounts who already have your contact information outside Faire.
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