The Faire Top Shop program is changing. Here’s what to do.

The Faire Top Shop benchmark recognizes brands that consistently deliver exceptional quality and service. Since its launch in 2021, the program has undergone some changes. The Q1 ’24 changes are significant. Here’s a breakdown, and how they affect Faire brands.

The Faire Top Shop “Reorder Rate” Metric Has Been Removed

Maintaining a certain reorder rate is an appropriate metric for brands that are great at cultivating strong relationships with a small number of resellers. But, newer tools like Faire’s Promoted Listings (in limited beta testing at the time of writing) encourage aggressive growth strategies. Growing your reseller network can have the consequence of fewer reorders, because the simple fact is that some retailers who discover your product with a promoted listing won’t reorder.

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It’s been replaced with a requirement that at least five orders are fulfilled per quarter. In other words, Faire still rewards you for order volume, but it’s no longer counted per customer. It’s not hard to get at least five orders per quarter, and we don’t anticipate this to be a challenge for most Faire brand owners reading this (but if it’s been a challenge for you, let’s talk).

Perfect Order Rate Goes Away

The “Perfect Order Rate” metric has been split into three measurements:

  • The percentage of late shipments must be 10% or less
  • Avoidable order cancellations must be 3% or less
  • No more than 3% of orders can have reports of missing items

These are straightforward and reasonable, and if you’re running a tight ship on your operations, this shouldn’t be a problem.

Average Order Rating

A metric that may be a challenge to more makers is the average rating requirement. It’s been raised from 4.5% to 4.8%. That’s a lifetime average which is not reset each quarter. So, for instance, if you’ve been operating on Faire for a year with an average 4.6% rating, it may take you several new orders to grow that to 4.8%.

A rating of less than five stars can happen for a number of reasons. The best way to avoid poor ratings is to ensure that your listings are as good as they can be. This includes clear photography that accurately conveys the product’s size, color, and other key details, and an accurate product description that takes into account any misunderstandings the customer may have before they make a purchase. Ultimately, you don’t want somebody buying an item that they don’t like or can’t resell.

If you’ve had trouble with malicious negative reviews, or violate Faire’s review policies, we can help get them removed. Not all negative reviews will violate Faire policy, but we can help with the ones that do.

Attack of The Catalog Check

The Merchandising metric remains, with a requirement to earn at least 100 points (up from 60 points). But the Golden Snitch here is the mandatory Catalog Check, which earns you 80 points.

Catalog Check is an audit performed by Faire, in which they confirm that the entirety of your catalog is listed on Faire. So, you’re selling a particular item on your Shopify site or on Amazon, it must be available to purchase on Faire, as well.

In Summary…

The new Faire Top Shop requirements are, in our opinion, tough but reasonable. They promote Faire’s goals of providing a great experience for buyers, a wide catalog, and collecting revenue through promotions and the new Promoted Listings feature.

Parker-Lambert is a full service branding and eCommerce agency that works with brands of all sizes, with a focus on Amazon. But unlike most Amazon agencies, we have Faire experts on our team who’ve driven remarkable growth for Faire sellers. Need some help? Let’s have a quick intro phone call to see if we’re a good fit for your needs.

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