Faire is a wholesale marketplace — a platform where retailers can discover new brands and vendors alongside dozens or hundreds of competitors. It's an acquisition channel for companies that want new retail accounts. It's a less obvious fit for distributors who have existing relationships they're trying to serve better.
Wholesail is a private branded portal: a custom ordering experience built for your specific accounts, with your branding, your products, and your pricing. Existing accounts log in and see their account — not a marketplace of competitors.
Here's the full comparison for distributors evaluating both options.
The Marketplace Model vs. the Private Portal Model
Faire lists your products alongside competitors in a public marketplace. Retailers browse Faire the same way a consumer browses Amazon — they compare vendors, read reviews, and make discovery-based purchasing decisions. This is great for brand discovery, but it means your existing accounts can see your competitors on the same platform. You're competing for attention every time they log in.
Wholesail creates a private environment. Your accounts log in to your portal — branded with your name and logo. They see only your products. There's no marketplace browsing, no competitor discovery, no comparison shopping. They came to your portal to order from you. That's the only thing they can do.
Commission and Pricing
Faire charges a commission on orders placed through its platform — typically 15% on first-time orders from new retailer connections, and ongoing fees on repeat orders. For new customer acquisition, this may be reasonable. For serving your existing accounts — customers you've already acquired and have relationships with — paying a per-transaction commission is a significant margin hit.
Wholesail charges a flat monthly fee for your portal, regardless of order volume. As your order volume grows, your cost per order drops. There are no transaction fees and no commissions. You keep your full margin on every order.
Customization and Control
Faire is a standardized marketplace. Your product listings follow Faire's format. Your checkout follows Faire's process. You can customize within the constraints of the platform, but you can't control the experience the way you can with a private portal.
Wholesail builds a portal that's configured specifically for your business — your pricing tiers, your product catalog structure, your billing terms, your order cutoff rules. If your distribution business has specific operational requirements (allocation management, compliance documentation, standing order automation), these can be built into your portal.
Who Should Use Which
Faire is a useful tool for brands that want to acquire new retail accounts through marketplace discovery. If you're looking to reach buyers who don't know you exist, Faire's discovery infrastructure has real value.
Wholesail is the right choice for distributors with established account bases who want to give those accounts a better ordering experience — reducing phone volume, automating invoicing, and capturing orders 24/7. If you have 20+ active accounts and you're still processing orders by phone, Wholesail pays for itself fast.