FAIRE REVIEW - Etsy Jewelry Seller Perspective After 1 Year of Selling

I am a year late to this video but thank you for great information. I’m on the fence about faire for now. I’ve done well on Etsy but I guess what I can’t get over is the commission. I don’t speak for everyone, but for the most part, we learned in the beginning that you take the cost of goods and multiply that by four to get the retail price. Normally with Wholesale we will sell at a 50% discount and actually make 25%. 25% is because we have to subtract the original 25% it takes to make the product to purchase more material. When you sell on fair it sounds like to me unless you get a return customer, (which is not guaranteed) you make absolutely zero dollars on that sale. So even if you have a 50% customer return rate you are actually working for nothing the other 50% of the time. Am I wrong on this? I don’t like being negative but the numbers to me seem so clear.

I’m planning on starting an Etsy store doing POD. But I believe in the need to diversify as well. Thank you for this video

We have been selling on Faire for the past three years. For us, Faire is very cyclical as we tend to get more orders in the fall as retailers look for stuff for guy stuff to stock in their stores. Our biggest challenge is trying to plan for the fall. We want enough inventory to sell on Faire (as well as our own retail), but not too much which will leave us sitting on excess inventory.

Yes, the 25% Faire commission does seem high, BUT if you identify and establish a relationship with a boutique, then you pay 0% commission because they are YOUR customer, not Faire's. You brought them to Faire instead of the other way around. I always point potential wholesale buyers to our Faire store and I try to remember who they are so I can tell Faire that I established a relationship with them first so that I can save those commission fees.

Lastly, the seller on Faire does not pay shipping costs. That is the responsibility of the buyer unless Faire is running a free shipping sale, discount, or special.

That really makes sense. An advantage of selling on Faire is that the retail shops are an alternative advertising avenue that reaches out to customers who are not already habitual Etsy buyers. Then if Etsy were smart, they would tie up with Faire....as you suggested.

I could be wrong but I think the customer pays for shipping but perhaps I'm wrong!