This July Faire held its ninth – and most successful – Faire Market, the wholesale industry’s first online trade show. Since the inaugural Faire Market in August 2020, Faire has facilitated over 2 million brand orders for more than 100 million products, fostering nearly 730,000 new relationships between brands and retailers on the platform through Faire Markets.

Faire Markets have grown into the largest global wholesale buying events, empowering retailers to discover unique products from all over the world, at discounts during key seasonal moments, without having to travel or step away from their businesses. As brands and retailers alike look for ways to streamline their costs and explore efficient channels, Faire Markets will continue to serve the demanding needs of today’s leading retail businesses. 

Breaking records in 2024

This summer’s Faire Market saw record breaking participation. More than 65,000 retailers from around the world placed orders during the market – these retailers collectively have more store locations than six times the amount of Walmart locations in the United States. Retailers placed over 380,000 orders for more than 20 million products at the online trade show, a noticeable increase from Faire’s most recent January market.

Over the course of the three day market, brands and retailers made over 110,000 new relationships, and a total of over 220,000 relationships formed just this year during Faire Markets. “Faire Markets are such a great opportunity for us. It’s when our Faire shop page sees the most traffic,” says Sophie Williams, wholesale account manager at Sweet Water Decor – a home goods brand stocked in over 17,000 Faire retailers with eight figures in volume on the platform.

Bringing trade shows global 

After expanding internationally in 2021, Faire created the opportunity for retailers in the U.K. and Europe to participate in Faire Market events and benefit from the discovery of unique international brands with discounted pricing. Since then, Faire has facilitated nearly 100,000 new cross-border relationships between brands and retailers at Faire Market events – empowering effective global discovery that had previously been cost prohibitive.

Multi-location retailer, Boston General Store, has created lasting relationships with international brands through Faire Markets. “Faire has been helpful in forging relationships between retailers and international brands. We keep going back for all of these amazing products we may not have found otherwise,” said owner April Gabriel.  

One of those products is from Original Duckhead, a U.K.-based umbrella brand that has now participated in four Faire Market events. “Every market gets better and better. Our retailers keep coming back.” said founder Morgan Cros. In fact, the markets are her biggest months. In total, Original Duckhead has been stocked in nearly 1,500 retailers across the U.S., U.K., and Europe through Faire. 

The future of online markets

In-person trade shows will always be a great channel for building community and relationships, but online trade shows have become an invaluable sourcing method and important addition to a retail business’s channel strategy in today’s environment. 

Faire continues to be inspired by the retail community’s ability to adapt to this new way of buying and selling over the past few years and expect to see the digital trade show format evolve further and remain an important facet of the wholesale industry for years to come.