The difference between Faire vs. Tundra Wholesale
As an independent retail business owner, there was a time when your only option to buy or sell your wholesale products was at in-person market wholesale events like AmericasMart, Las Vegas Market, and Dallas Market.
Over the past few years, this has changed drastically.
Now there are platforms that offer you the ability to sell wholesale or buy wholesale – all online.
Faire and Tundra are two of these online wholesale marketplaces.
If you’re a maker you can sell to brick and mortar store owners and if you’re a brick and mortar store owner, you can buy from makers and brands.
Both Faire and Tundra launched within a couple of years of each other. I’ve often wondered what’s the difference between the two. So if I’m wondering, I know all of you are wondering too.
Let’s break down Faire vs. Tundra:
COMMISSION (FOR MAKER/SUPPLIER)
- FAIRE charges commissions of 15-25% to the Maker
- TUNDRA has a Zero-Commission model. Brands with a Gold Badge indicate you get the products at the lowest price online.
- FAIRE offers free returns on first orders with makers. From the date your order is placed, you have 60 days to return the product. This allows you time to try out the product and return what doesn’t work for a full refund. Any reorders from a Maker are not eligible for return.
- TUNDRA does not offer returns – citing their lower prices and low minimums reduce the risk for retailers.
- FAIRE offers an INSIDER Membership ($19.99/mo) where buyers get free shipping on thousands of products and early access to new brands.
- TUNDRA has free standard shipping on most products. All products marked with the blue truck icon have free standard shipping.
TERMS (FOR BUYERS)
- FAIRE – Net 60 payment terms are available for all orders (eligible for brick & mortar businesses) and they occasionally offer Net 90 terms.
- TUNDRA – Approved organizations are eligible for Net 60 payment terms on all purchases on Tundra. Net 60 payment terms are free for qualified buyers; interest and/or penalties only apply if payment is not made within 60 days.
HOW DO FAIRE AND TUNDRA MAKE MONEY?
- FAIRE collects 15-25% commission from Makers/Suppliers. They also offer an Insider subscription program to brick and mortar businesses. Insider is Faire’s exclusive subscription program with free freight — the more you buy, the more you save! Members are granted free domestic freight on all orders from select makers and early access to the newest arrivals.
- TUNDRA does not charge a fee, markup, or commission on orders between buyers and suppliers and never will. Tundra makes money by providing optional services and features. Buyers can purchase expedited shipping, insurance and prepaid duties and taxes for international orders at checkout. Suppliers can pay for faster storefront setup as well as select brand promotion opportunities.
IN SUMMARY
Both platforms have similarities and differences. In the end, I can appreciate that Tundra does not charge it’s suppliers (makers) a commission. Makers work extremely hard at their craft and when they wholesale, their profit margins are cut drastically. So this makes selling on Tundra much more profitable for them.
Faire’s free shipping offers and subscription are appealing but I find it’s a one-time offer and the orders that qualify for free shipping are limited. For small brick and mortar business owners, it’s a nice benefit to test a maker’s products knowing that you can return the items if they don’t sell in your store but Tundra’s lower prices are a nice benefit too!
So, in the end, you choose what’s right for YOU and your business. It doesn’t take much to set up accounts with both Tundra and Faire. Test them out yourself!
OFFERS FOR SUPPLIERS AND BUYERS (Updated 11/12/21):
FAIRE:
- If you’re a BUYER, there are currently no offers
- If you’re a SUPPLIER/BRAND who hasn’t applied to sell on Faire yet, click HERE to apply. If accepted by Faire you’ll have the ability to sell your products in an online marketplace to over 150,000 retail store owners.
TUNDRA:
- If you’re a BUYER click HERE to get 15% off everything you buy on Tundra for the first 30 days and I’ll get 5% back.
- If you’re a SUPPLIER/BRAND, click HERE to apply to sell on Tundra where your products can be seen by thousands of retail store owners.
*Please note that some of the links above are affiliate links or referral codes, and at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you decide to make a purchase after clicking through the link or using the code. I make recommendations because I believe they are useful to shopkeepers. Please do not spend any money on these products unless you feel you need them or that they will help you achieve your goals.
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I look forward to learning from all of you too. Thanks for being here! ~ Kathy
Wow! Was just applying to be on both and thought about this question!
Thanks for the clarification.
You’re welcome! I’m glad it helped.
Are the prices on Tundra in USD or CAD? That makes a big difference when looking at items if I will end up paying more at the checkout. I know that Faire gives the option to choose between the two but I don’t see an option on Tundra.
Good question, Barb, and I’m not sure what the answer is but every time I have sent Tundra a question via their website they replied within 24 hours.
Can you shop for “samples” on tundra or Faire prior to purchasing volume orders? I hope I didn’t miss this somewhere in your article. Thank you for sharing this information.
Hi Shar, I don’t think so but you can reach out to Tundra or Faire’s support team on their website – they have always been responsive when I ask questions.
A friend sent me info on Tundra. This past January I participated at American Handcrafted Wholesale Show in Philly. I was new to wholesale, and did very well at the show as a new maker. It looks like there will be no shows next year, so hence, Tundra. I’m confused about the shipping costs. Currently my customers pay the shipping, which they have NO problem with since they are used to paying for it. Are the buyers buying from Tundra, and then they send me the info on the sale? Then I send it to the customer? Tundra takes the payment and sends me the sale $$? I’m confused…..
Tundra’s support team responds to me every time I ask a question, I would recommend reaching out to them to ask about the shipping.
Can you sell on both?
Hi Diane, thanks for asking. Yes, you sure can!
I am a retailer and prefer Tundra. I hope they get more wholesalers added. Faire wanted me to send my personal banking statements after spending well over $10,000 on their site. So I decided not to give them anymore business.
I’m a retailer and have been buying from both Faire and Tundra. I thought they were somewhat similar, except that Faire has more products and with Insider, all shipping is free. But if you have a problem with any item on Tundra, good luck! Twice now I’ve had to jump through hoops to get defective or broken items replaced. They make you send detailed photos and descriptions before they will even contact the vendor. Faire seems to get it that orders sometimes contain broken or missing items, and their reporting of such issues is seamless and you get an immediate refund. Tundra doesn’t trust its customers, no matter how much you’ve spent on their site, whereas Faire treats you as a valuable client.
I would like to leave a comment for all CANADIAN buyers that might be using Faire.com. Be sure what you are ordering is what you want if it’s coming from outside of Canada. Yes they offer your first return free with each brand but what they don’t explain to well is that the return itself goes back to a CANADIAN Warehouse with a Canadian address. Returns on Faire.com do not involve the brands and instead go to the Faire warehouse. Products that are returned are then resold on their Sale redistribution channel. Because of this, you lose out on getting your duty and taxes back on the items returned. Essentially Faire.com is making a better profit on that brand then you are, as the duty and taxes that you cannot get back, have reduced your profits!
Also, they have an order threshold of $2,500 so it made me divide my order into 2 orders, but they never communicated with the wholesaler to let them know that, so the wholesale vendor issued 2 commercial invoices and of course when it came across the border I had to pay the additional UPS clearance/broker fees on the second invoice.
Lessons Learned!
We have used both Faire and Tundra and there are much bigger differences here than the author has described. We first started with Faire we were sold a subscription called “Insider” which promised you early access to new vendors and free shipping on all orders for $20 a month. We later found out that the free shipping option was only for a few vendors of their choosing and the early access was no more than a few hours, so we canceled the subscription. We did find two of our favorite vendors on Faire, however, Faire began telling the vendor that they would no longer be allowing certain items on their platform. As one of the items was one of our best sellers, we now work directly with that vendor without involving Faire. In developing a relationship with another vendor, our order was suddenly frozen, or “on pause” as they described it. Again we believe Faire disapproved of the product and decided not to carry it any longer and once again we went directly to the vendor. Due to these instances, we have the impression that the Faire organization is run a bit more conservatively than we run ours so no longer the right fit. Coincidentally, we began using Tundra to fill the gap that Faire had created for us by pulling some items from its offerings. Tundra not only had similar items, but better quality, a broader range within our niche, and basically help fund the growth of our offering new items to our customers. In short, each time we order from a vendor, Tundra will match up to $150.00 of products from a new vendor of our choosing. This has allowed us to try several new products and develop relationships with new vendors we had never thought of trying in the past. Tundra has really stepped up and helped small businesses this month with this program. To date, we have utilized $450.00 of free merchandise courtesy of Tundra. So for us, it was a no-brainer as to where we would shop for products and continue to work with going forward. I encourage both buyers and sellers to sign up today with Tundra to take advantage of this program that I believe runs through the end of October.