Faire for Boutique Owners: Plan a Smarter First Wholesale Order
Faire is an online wholesale marketplace for retailers. You can browse independent brands, compare products side by side, and decide what actually fits your store before you spend anything.
This page does three things: helps you decide whether it fits your boutique right now, walks you through opening a retailer account, and gives you a first order plan you can defend. What you are offered — pricing, terms, shipping — depends on your store, the brand, your location, and Faire's current policies, so always confirm the details shown in your own account.
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Is Faire a good fit for your boutique?
A wholesale marketplace is a tool, not a strategy. It tends to earn its place when you already know who you are buying for.
It may be useful when
- You are a new boutique building an opening assortment.
- You have a store and want to test a new category.
- You run a gift shop and need independent, giftable product.
- You are adding seasonal merchandise.
- You want to compare brands without attending a market first.
Slow down when
- You have not chosen a customer or a niche yet.
- You do not know your available inventory budget.
- You have not worked out retail prices and margins.
- You are buying things simply because you like them.
- You already have slow-moving stock you have not cleared.
If you are still deciding on a niche, the how to start a boutique guide is the better first stop. If the niche is settled, open the account and start building a list.
What to check before you place an order
Terms vary by brand and can change, so treat this as your own pre-order pass and confirm the current details in your account before you check out.
| Check | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Wholesale price | Cost per unit before shipping. |
| Planned retail price | Decide it before you order, not after the box arrives. |
| Gross margin | Retail minus wholesale, divided by retail. |
| Opening minimum | Each brand sets its own — confirm it in your cart. |
| Case packs | Some items only ship in fixed multiples. |
| Shipping cost | Check it before you spend the whole budget. |
| Expected delivery date | Late seasonal stock is markdown stock. |
| Dimensions or sizing | Bulky product eats display and storage space. |
| Competition nearby | Who else in your market already carries it? |
| Assortment fit | Do these pieces work together on one table? |
| Realistic sell-through | How many units can you honestly move this season? |
| Reorder availability | Can you restock if something sells out? |
| Seasonal timing | Order dates for a season come earlier than most owners expect. |
Choose a first-order budget
These are planning illustrations, not Faire recommendations, and they say nothing about what any brand's minimum will be. Use the example allocation that matches the money you can genuinely afford to tie up.
One category, one customer, enough to learn something.
- ~60%
- Main category you are testing
- ~25%
- One complementary category
- ~15%
- Shipping, price changes, or a small add-on
One customer, one selling story, a little more depth.
- ~55%
- Core product category
- ~25%
- Add-on category
- ~10%
- Checkout-area or giftable products
- ~10%
- Shipping and budget protection
A fuller opening assortment or a controlled expansion.
- ~50%
- Proven core products
- ~25%
- Complementary products
- ~15%
- Seasonal or test products
- ~10%
- Shipping and budget protection
Calculate the retail opportunity
Before anything goes in the cart, run one line of math on it.
Wholesale cost: $12 per unit
Planned retail: $28
Gross profit before expenses: $16
Gross margin: about 57%
That $16 is not yours yet. Shipping, transaction fees, packaging, advertising, payroll, rent, markdowns and damages all come out of it. If you want to pressure-test your pricing properly, use the profit margin calculator or read the retail pricing guide.
How to build a cohesive first order
A good first order has one customer and one selling story. If you cannot describe the display in a sentence, the order is not finished yet. Examples that hold together:
- Western gift assortment
- Boutique self-care display
- Teacher gift collection
- Holiday hostess collection
- Resort or travel edit
- Checkout-area giftables
Common first-order mistakes
- Ordering a pile of unrelated products.
- Spending the whole budget before checking shipping.
- Ignoring case-pack quantities.
- Buying too many sizes or colors without a plan.
- Choosing products purely on personal taste.
- Forgetting to set planned retail prices.
- Ordering seasonal merchandise too late to sell it.
- Assuming a brand-new category will sell as fast as your best one.
- Opening an account, filling a cart, and never going back to finish the order.
Carina's first-order checklist
- I know the customer for this assortment.
- I have a fixed maximum budget.
- I checked the total after shipping.
- I calculated planned retail prices.
- The products work together.
- I know where and how I will display them.
- I have a launch or merchandising plan.
- I can explain why my customer would buy them.
- I reviewed current order terms in my Faire account.
- I am comfortable with the number of units ordered.
Work through it inside the free first-order planner — it does the budget and margin math while you build the list, and it prints.
Frequently asked questions
- Faire is an online wholesale marketplace where retailers browse independent brands, compare products, and place wholesale orders in one place instead of contacting every brand separately.
Ready to build your first Faire order?
Open your retailer account, set a firm budget before you browse, read the current terms shown in your account, and build the order in the planner first. The owners who do well with their first wholesale order are almost always the ones who decided what they were buying before they started shopping.
About the author
Carina Hatton, MBA, is the founder of Knitted Belle Boutique, a boutique owner since 2013, a Shopify Partner, and a coach for product-based business owners. More about Carina.