Faire

0:00Welcome to the Emerging Brands podcast. Sharing the stories behind brands you'll want to shop next. I'm your host, Kelly Bennett. I am a New York City-based brand strategist for CPG Food and Beverage Brands. In each episode, I'll take you behind the scenes of founders that are building better-for-you products and bringing them to market. Also, I talk to brand builders, retailers, industry experts, and tastemakers who help bring those cool products to your shopping cart. You will hear stories of real-life founders, their launch strategies, and practical advice you could use to grow your own brand or simply discover what's next on shelf.

0:42And the best part is you could shop all the brands featured on the show. This podcast is brought to you by Glimpse. Glimpse is an AI-powered deduction management tool that disputes and recovers invalid deductions, winning brands thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours back to founders so that they can focus on what really matters most. If you're a brand selling in retail, go to tryglimpse.com backslash trial for 30 days free and let them know I sent you. Now, let's dive into the new episode. Hi, everyone. Welcome back to a new episode of Emerging Brands Podcast with Kelly Bennett. Today, I have a very special guest who is part of a platform that I know is on the radar of essentially every emerging CPG brand.

1:37Today, I have Jennifer Burke. She is the CRO of FAIR. And Jennifer, thank you so much for taking the time and joining me today on the show.

1:47Jennifer Burke:Of course, I'm really excited to be here. I'm really excited to have you. As I was sharing before, I was hitting record as an emerging brand strategist for emerging brands working in CPG. Fair is always part of the conversation of a new product coming to market. So if someone is totally new to this industry and they're learning all the platforms and all the names and all the things that they have to put on their radar. What is the best way to describe FAIR and in the context, too, for an emerging brand? Yeah, absolutely. I'll start with what we do, and then I'll go into how we do it, because I think that's a lot more interesting.

2:31Jennifer Burke:So what we do, at its core, FAIR is the largest online wholesale platform now in the world, connecting independent retailers with consumer brands across various categories and sizes. So basically a place where you can go if you're a retailer to buy inventory and a place where brands sell their inventory. But I think what's much more compelling is why we do what we do and how we do it, which really starts with our mission. So if you go on fair, you can read it. But our mission is empowering retailers and brands to strengthen the unique character of their local communities. and everything that we do is in service of how do we help independent retailers and the brands who serve them not just survive but thrive and be more competitive in an increasingly e-commerce and big box world yes and so how we do that i'll like quickly touch upon like the three things we maniacally focus on the first is discovery and connection and so every retailer that joins FAIR actually has a personalized experience based on what they tell us on onboarding, what they're clicking on, what they're searching for, what they're buying, what they're returning.

3:46Jennifer Burke:And the goal is actually to surface brands to them that we think not just that they will convert on, but that will ultimately sell through in their stores to help them be more successful businesses. The second is that we invest a lot in financial value. And our goal is to reduce the costs and risk out of wholesale transactions. And the way that we do that is every retailer gets net 60 terms when they sign up. And they also get free returns on the first time that they're trying a brand. So the idea is that they can actually buy inventory on fare and then hopefully sell it in their store before they owe us a dime.

4:25Jennifer Burke:And we take all of that on on behalf of brands. So we do the underwriting, we take on the default risk, we take on the return risk, we don't pass that to brands. So it's a way for them to offer compelling benefits to retailers without having to do that work themselves. That's major. I didn't realize that. Yeah. We basically guarantee brands every single payment on fare, even when retailers default on us. That's incredible. Okay. Keep going. I'm so intrigued. I love that. Yeah. And then the last is like, we're a technology company. And so we focus a lot on improving operational efficiency. And so our goal is to be this like one-stop shop where retailers and brands can go to not just like find new business, but manage their business.

5:07Jennifer Burke:And so we integrate with POS systems for retailers. So when they place an order on fair, it syncs right back to their systems. We do the same on the brand side. And then it's also just a place where you can do all your order tracking, your fulfillment, your relationship management. We have a free CRM for our brands. And then also like analyze your performance to help hopefully not just inform how you're doing, but improve what you're doing. That is so I didn't realize that you all also cover that gap in taking, removing that risk for brands and for retailers and also the ops, how in depth that was.

5:48Jennifer Burke:Yeah, we actually like rebranded from a marketplace to a platform because of that. Because it's not just a place where you like get new business. It's also a way for you to manage your business. So great. So what was your background prior to joining FAIR? So yeah, so I've been in like commercial and go-to-market roles basically since I graduated college, so 20 years now. I started my career at Disney in marketing and advertising. Then I went to the agency side and supported a lot of actually CPG and retail brands. Then went to business school. And then after that, I spent the last like 10 to 12 years in tech and startups.

6:33Early stage to later stage, helping grow the supply side of marketplaces, the demand side

6:40Jennifer Burke:of marketplaces. And then at FAIR, I've been here now for seven years. So it started when we were about 100 employees, and now we're about 1 ,000. Incredible. And what does your role look like day to day? Yeah. So I basically oversee all of our customer-facing commercial functions. So the sales and account management teams on both sides of the marketplace. Okay. So teams that onboard brands, help get them set up for success. And then we have a team that helps manage their business once they're live. So like, how do you grow your business on FAIR? What are the programs to participate in? How do you optimize your shop page to make sure you're getting the most impressions and highest conversion?

7:19Right.

7:19Jennifer Burke:And then we have a similar team on the retailer side that helps onboard retailers, educate them on the site and the benefits, help them discover their first few brands, and ultimately set them up for success. Very cool. It sounds like you get to see the best of both sides of the street and making sure that they're all in sync and talking to each other, which I'm sure is very rewarding too of seeing how you do need both sides to connect and resonate and to be working in lockstep with each other. It sounds like a cool job. Yeah. I love my job. That's why I've been here so long. But I love working with small businesses and I really believe in the power of technology to help them, like I mentioned, like scale and compete against businesses that have more resources.

8:12Jennifer Burke:Right. And I think what's been amazing to see is the brands and retailers that we've onboarded over the years, like growing their businesses with us and through us. And that is extremely rewarding. But also I've learned so much from them. And we've invested in a lot of product features that they've asked for because they're like, this is how things work off of FAIR. And I'd like that to work the same way on FAIR. And so I just like that I'm customer facing every day. And then, yes, I balance the retailer and brand side with my teams. Very cool. I would love to dive into the brand side because primarily the audience listening are those emerging brands, brands that are scaling, brands that are still an idea right now, but they're getting ready to take those next steps.

9:01what are some of the nuts and bolts that you've seen really helps a brand set up properly on fare? Because I think some people just think they're just copying, pasting maybe from their Shopify store or they put up a picture and a little description and then, okay, I set up my fare. But I know that's not the case. And I would love if you could walk us through really tactile steps that we should be aware of to make sure that a brand is setting themselves up correctly to make the most out of joining FAIR.

9:37Jennifer Burke:Yeah. This is such a core component of what our brand success team does. Right. But I actually think it starts like off of FAIR. So like the first and most important thing for a brand is know your positioning. So know who you are, what types of customers you serve, what your values are, what they are not, and stand behind that. Because I think for retailers, particularly retailer shopping on fair, they're looking for brands that meet certain criteria and align with their values too. And so I'll just give like a quick example here in the beauty space. But right now there's like a trend towards both like clean products and science forward products, very different.

10:23Jennifer Burke:It's like a barbell. Um, and we have some brands like True Botanicals who are just so good at like natural ingredients. Their packaging almost looks like it comes from the earth. Um, very like premium looking, but they're very focused on natural ingredients and they would never steer from that. And then on the opposite side, you have brands like Symbiotica, very science forward, you know, like retinol, they have a lot of like dermatology claims. So I'd say first start with like knowing who you are and ensuring everything you do from your messaging to your packaging to the customers you're targeting is aligned with that.

11:00Jennifer Burke:Once you know that down, then you're ready for FAIR. And the important things on how you are successful on FAIR, it starts with setting up your shop page. The shop page is like your face to retailers on the FAIR platform. And so what we tell brands is like, if you're onboarding on FAIR, you have to have a great page on day one. And that means your full catalog, every product that you sell off of FAIR to wholesale should be on FAIR, pricing parity, so like the right prices. Retailers are looking for like 50 % margin, if that is helpful. right your listing quality needs to be good so every product we say should have at least four images okay those images should show different like flavor profiles of that product so think one is maybe the product itself the other should be like the product in its packaging or alongside its packaging and then there should be some sort of lifestyle photo where you can actually get a sense of like the size and dimensions of the product because retailers need to know like where would this even fit in my store?

12:09Jennifer Burke:Right. That's a great point. Something on the floor. Yeah. I'm very different than direct to consumer, right? Like you don't have to think through those things. The next would be like product descriptions and making sure they're extremely thorough and that they're inaccurate because I know a lot of brands that will put like keyword stuffers in because they're like, oh, I'm going to put Christmas so that I show up. But ultimately that hurts you because if you show up on a Christmas search and you're not a Christmas brand, no one's going to convert on you. That tanks your conversion, which then tanks your ranking.

12:42Jennifer Burke:So make sure that your descriptions are actually accurate to your brand and to the product that it's associated with so that it's retrieved in search and that you actually have higher conversion. And then the last thing I'll say on the shop page, and then I'm happy to talk about other programs and things. No, this is great. is like invest in your about us like independent retailers want like I said to buy from a brand where they feel aligned on the value and they know who that brand is and how to represent them in store and so whether that's like adding a video or just a lot of text or even a picture of yourself goes a long way and ensuring that you use our value tags so if you are a woman-owned business that matters and retailers filter for that.

13:30Jennifer Burke:Or if you are eco-friendly or organic, like all of those things, make sure that you're using them in the product descriptions and then the tags that are available to you in the portal. So that's like the shop setup. No, that's super helpful. And I appreciate you breaking that down because again, this is like the nuts and bolts I love to capture because these are the things that sometimes people overlook and then they get frustrated or they get overwhelmed. It's like, no, if you just slow down a little bit and set it up properly, you're giving yourself that momentum just going in the correct way.

14:05Yeah.

14:05Jennifer Burke:I think a lot of brands join fair with this idea of I'm going to try it. Right. So I'll put a couple products on, I'll see how they sell, and then I'll decide if I want to go all in. And I think that is the worst thing you could do for yourself because if you have a catalog of 50 SKUs, you only put two or three up. It's limiting the amount of searches you're in. And they get to your page and it looks kind of empty. And if the listing quality isn't good, no one's going to convert. And then you're just like in this doom loop that's hard to get out of. And so when you start on FAIR, which I encourage all of your listeners to do, but just be ready to like put the effort in on your page and then managing that business thereafter.

14:47That totally makes sense. And you mentioned programs and resources for brands to really leverage FAIR. Can you walk us through what that looks like? Yeah.

14:57Jennifer Burke:So I'd say the other difference between direct-to-consumer and wholesale is wholesale is a relationship business. And so you have to think about not just that first order, but how do I earn the reorder? And we have a lot of like organic ways to do that and tools that we offer brands for free. And then we have some paid programs. I'll kind of talk through both. Yeah, please. So first we have a CRM. So every customer that buys from you on fair gets loaded into the CRM and you can actually see what they've ordered in the past, additional details about them in terms of their location and store type.

15:35Jennifer Burke:And we're increasingly like adding more. So you could see what else they actually stock. and we really recommend both letting them know when you add new products, letting them know when you're running promos, using our email system, or even like using our one-to-one messaging feature, checking in with that retailer after they placed their first order, seeing how it was sold through. And then the brands that like really stand out are the ones who are adding a handwritten note in the box when they're sending it to the retailer, or maybe even like giving them a free sample of another product that they think they should add the next time they buy from that brand.

16:14Jennifer Burke:So just being extremely thoughtful, not just on how you shop on the page, but how you interact with that retailer thereafter, I think is like really important and will lead to reorders and relationship spend. The second thing I'll talk about is we have a tool that allows you to actually facilitate your existing relationships through the fair ecosystem. So you can invite any retailers that were buying from you off fair to order from you on fair. They get all of the benefits, so net 60 terms, the free returns I was talking about, but we don't take any commission on those orders. Oh, interesting.

16:56Jennifer Burke:Yes, our philosophy is that we only earn a commission when we bring you new business. We do not earn a commission when you've fought for that business. But our hope is to be this platform where you can manage both sides, like the new business you're getting through the marketplace and your existing retailers as well. And so it's a great way to not just try to convert prospects or like grow your existing retailers because of the benefits, but also then to consolidate and improve operational efficiency by having all of the customers in one place. So we recommend using that tool. So that's essentially if you're reaching out to say a cool independent shop that's been on your dream board to be sold at, if you're sending them your fair link, you're not getting a cut from that because there are shopping from your link that you sent out.

17:52That's right.

17:53Jennifer Burke:It's a program called Fair Direct. So any retailer that you're reaching out directly to with your fair shop page, everyone has a unique link, gets coded at 0%, and then all of their orders flow through to our systems. And you could use all of our tools to engage with them just the same way you would do with retailers on the marketplace. That's a pretty powerful program. And I see also why you're shifting from a marketplace to platform, because that also speaks to, even if you're not getting business directly from us, we want you to manage your business with us. That's right. And we have a lot of established businesses who had, you know, hundreds of retailers that they were transacting with off the fair who've now consolidated that business on fair.

18:44Jennifer Burke:So directing their website traffic to fair, doing all of their email prospecting with a fair link, and then even taking orders at trade shows through our fair app. Ooh, that's really interesting too. Okay. So when you're at the trade show and you're, okay, I would love to, someone wants to place in product order. They are able to do that through the FAIR platform. Yes, that's right. And the feedback that we've gotten is it's much more efficient than the other alternatives. It's basically a retailer would just take a picture of a QR code, verifies the retailer, the brand can build the cart and they can check out right there.

19:21Jennifer Burke:And because a lot of retailers aren't FAIR, we have their credit card information saved. You don't have to do that back and forth of getting the credit card. Maybe you write the number down incorrectly and then you can't actually process it later, it makes that much more seamless. We love removing friction from making a transaction, especially when you're an emerging brand. So something that you touched upon as far as brands that are scaling and moving their business on fair managing, what about the brands who are just starting off? Maybe they have one skew or three skews, like super, super new to the scene.

19:59Do you have any advice for them on maybe some best practices on fair, some tips or tricks, anything that you think is impactful for those really, when I say emerging, like fair is probably one of their first stops of getting their business off the ground. Yeah.

20:20Jennifer Burke:So I'm going to go back to fair draft because Because I think actually it's not just a great tool to consolidate, but it's a great prospecting tool. And if you're a new business, you don't have a ton of capital, so you can't do a lot of like marketing yourself. That's why you're joining FAIR. Right. But what we encourage a lot of new brands to do is go on Google, try to identify a couple of retailers that you think are a good fit for your business. Maybe it's a retailer down the street from you and you're a local brand. Maybe it's some specialty grocery stores. that do more like organic stuff if you're an organic brand and prospect them on your own, send them emails, call them and facilitate those orders through FAIR because you don't get charged for them.

21:06Jennifer Burke:And again, the benefits for conversion. But the third thing is that it actually helps boost your performance on the marketplace. And the reason that's true is because the number one indicator or input to ranking is conversion. And so when you're reaching out to retailers that are maybe higher intent, right? They said they're going to buy from you and then you send them the link so they order. Right. That boosts your conversion and helps get you in front of more new retailers. So it's like a very virtuous cycle of new brands coming on using Fair Direct to get a couple of orders. And then it helps boost your ranking to new retailers.

21:44Jennifer Burke:You use Fair Direct again. That totally makes sense. That was my second question of what are some also piece of advice for someone who's super new to the platform, super new brand coming to market to boost their rankings and just get in front of more retailers. So it's doing that outreach themselves, having those higher conversion rates, and that will help push them out because they are seen as like a hot item that is making transactions. That's right. Yeah. There's a couple other things they can do as well, but briefly, one free and then two are more paid. So first is we have a program called Top Shop.

22:26Jennifer Burke:It's a badge that we put on brands pages that lets retailers know that they meet certain customer service criteria so that they're shipping their products on time. if they have a lead time of like three to seven days that they're shipping in that window, that they have a low damaged and missing rate. So when they're shipping things to the retailer, that all of the items that that retailer ordered are in the box. Yes. That they have strong reviews. I can't remember the exact, I think it's 4.8 or higher, but no, it's good customer service. And so people are reordering. So I'd say, make sure like you're connecting with your customers, You're sending things on time.

23:06Jennifer Burke:You're sending things accurately to get that Topshop badge because it helps just build credibility for you as a brand, especially if you don't have a ton of brand recognition yet. And then the two paid avenues, we do have an advertising program. It's called Promoted Listings in the portal. What's great about it is you can set your budget. We'll utilize that budget if you actually get an order. So there are some programs where like you could spend a ton and it's like a pay for click model and you can spend all this money and never get an order. We only charge you when a retailer actually buys. And it's a great way to get boosted in searches that you would have maybe normally been like hidden in like on the third, fourth or fifth page.

23:52Jennifer Burke:And now you're going to be on page one. And you can decide how long you want to run those campaigns for. You can increase or decrease your budget just based on new products that you launched or how you're performing organically. And then the last program, we have something called Insider, which is the equivalent of like an Amazon Prime. But for retailers or retailers, they pay us a monthly fee and then they get free shipping on a subset of brands. brands can choose to pay free shipping on their fair direct orders. So the ones where they're not paying commission, but they can fund free shipping.

24:30Jennifer Burke:And in return, we actually boost their free shipping coverage on the marketplace for new retailers. And we fund that. So it's another way to just improve your conversion because retailers love free shipping. And so if you're willing to fund it for your zero commission orders, you get a lot more coverage on new retailers as well. Do you have any advice or best practices of minimum quantity orders that help an emerging brand get some traction, but also make sense that it makes sense financially for both sides of the street, but anything that helps with driving trial of an independent retailer taking a chance on a new brand?