Is Faire worth it for a small CPG brand?

Usually yes, as one channel: the discovery, net 60 terms and payment protection are real value, especially early. The question is proportion. Brands that treat Faire as the whole wholesale strategy pay commission on their entire book and wait on an algorithm for growth.

How do I reduce what I pay Faire?

Three levers: push your Faire Direct link everywhere so your own buyers stay at 0%, mind the attribution trap so those buyers do not re-enter through the marketplace, and open new accounts through direct outreach so the commissioned share of your book shrinks over time.

Do brands ever take Faire buyers off the platform?

Faire's terms route marketplace-sourced relationships through the platform, and buyers often prefer its terms and ordering anyway. The cleaner play is winning NEW accounts directly rather than migrating old ones, and using Faire Direct for the relationships you already own.

Faire fees explained: the real math for brands in 2026

Faire is one of the most useful things to happen to independent wholesale: real buyer traffic, net 60 terms the platform underwrites, payment protection, and logistics a lean team would struggle to build alone. It has earned its place in most CPG toolkits, and nothing on this page argues otherwise.

What this page does is the thing surprisingly hard to find in one place: the complete fee math, worked through honestly, so you can decide what belongs on the platform and what deserves a channel you own.

The fee structure, all of it

Fee	Amount	When it applies
New customer commission	25%	First order from a buyer who found you through the marketplace
Reorder commission	15%	Every later order from that same marketplace buyer
New retailer fee	$10	On top of the first order commission
Payment processing	~1.9% to 3.5% + $0.30	Per transaction, depending on setup
Instant payout	3%	Optional, if you want money next day instead of on schedule
Faire Direct	0%	Buyers YOU invite through your own Faire Direct link

Sources for these figures: Brahmin Solutions' 2026 fee breakdown, Wholesale In a Box's 2026 review and Faire's own published terms. Rates have shifted over the years, so always confirm current numbers in your seller dashboard.

What that means per order

Worked example: a $600 first order from a marketplace buyer

Order value: $600. New customer commission at 25%: minus $150. New retailer fee: minus $10. Processing at roughly 3%: minus $18. You receive about $422, roughly 70 cents on the dollar. If your landed cost of goods on that order is $260, your margin on the order is about $162, versus about $322 selling the same order direct. The reorder math improves: at 15% plus processing, the same $600 reorder nets about $492.

25%

commission on first orders from marketplace buyers

15%

commission on every reorder from those buyers

on buyers you bring through your own Faire Direct link

The three fee facts brands most often miss

1. The commission never expires

The 15% reorder rate applies to every future order from a marketplace-sourced buyer, for the life of the relationship. A store that reorders monthly for three years is thirty-six commissioned orders. When you evaluate Faire's cost, evaluate it per relationship, not per order.

2. Faire Direct is the best deal on the platform, with one trap

Invite your existing buyers through your Faire Direct link and their orders carry 0% commission while they get Faire's terms and tooling. Genuinely great. The trap is attribution: if that buyer later arrives through the marketplace instead of your link, the order can be commissioned. Keep your direct link in every invoice footer, email signature and line sheet so attribution stays yours.

3. The algorithm has running costs too

Visibility on Faire favors active brands: brands adding new products rank roughly 20% higher, and 35 or more five star reviews is worth about a 10% conversion bump. None of that is a fee, but it is real work priced in hours, and paid promotion on top is its own budget line.

When the Faire math is good

Discovery you could not buy. A buyer you would never have found pays 25% once and 15% after. If the alternative was never meeting them, that is a fine price.
Terms and risk you do not have to carry. Net 60 for the buyer, payment protection for you. Early on, that alone can justify the reorder commission.
Small orders that would not cover your own admin. Letting the platform handle a $150 boutique order is often cheaper than handling it yourself.

When it deserves a second channel beside it

The math turns when marketplace-sourced relationships become your whole book. Every reorder carries the commission, the buyer contact lives inside the platform, and your growth rate depends on an algorithm you do not control. Retail consultants and advisors working with thousands of maker brands converge on the same recommendation we give: keep Faire, and build direct relationships in parallel, because buyers you find yourself carry no commission and no platform dependence.

That pairing is exactly the stack we run for brands: Faire as the storefront, outreach as the engine that finds the thousands of fitting buyers who never browse. The math of that split is simple: every account opened directly is commission-free for life.