The Business of Fashion: Wholesale Marketplaces, Vegan and Sustainable Marketplaces

With the Coronavirus Pandemic taking away some of the largest and most prominent trade shows for brands to meet retailers, we started to look 

We've long been receiving marketing emails from Faire but we were put off by the excessive 25% they ask for from your first wholesale order with a retailer. Subsequent orders require 15% of sales. It's hard to match up the founders' story of wanting to help small businesses when the margins are so high. From what we've been told, Faire has received venture capital funding and is able to do massive amounts of outreach.  We may eventually join Faire simply because they're outreach may make it so that all of the buyers flock there. However in the meanwhile, we are about to sign up on Fashion Go as they only take 5% of an order.  25% or 5%?  It's a huge difference. What troubles me is that over time, VC backed companies like Faire are able to market harder and as a result,  unapologetically demand a much higher percent of sales.  It's basically cornering the market and charging a premium.

Summarize: Faire: 25%

FashionGo: 5%... not bad!!!

Now this only makes sense if you find buyers at FashionGo but we'll try the less expensive option first and hope that we aren't penny wise and pound foolish.

Vegan and Sustainable Marketplaces

While there are several fledgling marketplaces looking to become mini Amazons for the vegan and sustainable worlds, we have not yet found one that brings in a substantial amount of business.  That leaves us with the giants: Amazon, where we currently list products and Walmart which has been a challenge to get started.

More updates as we proceed.