Faire puts your products in front of independent retail buyers who order in bulk. Amazon puts your products in front of individual consumers who order one at a time, at a scale Faire can’t match.
Get More Platform Comparisons
New comparison guides, straight to your inbox. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Table of Contents
- Why This Comparison Matters
- Faire Overview
- Amazon Overview
- Head-to-Head: Pricing & Fees
- Head-to-Head: Features
- Head-to-Head: Ease of Use
- Who Owns the Customer Relationship?
- Who Should Choose Faire?
- Who Should Choose Amazon?
- Can You Run Both at the Same Time?
- Frequently Asked Questions
- The Bottom Line
Why This Comparison Matters
A maker or small brand with inventory to move usually hits the same fork in the road: sell in bulk to stores that will resell your product, or sell one unit at a time directly to the person who’ll use it. Faire and Amazon each represent one of those paths, and they’re built on almost opposite business models.
This article breaks down exactly what each platform charges, how orders actually move through each system, and which one fits a given seller’s inventory, margins, and growth plan. Neither platform is “better” in the abstract. They solve different problems.
Here’s what we’ll cover: real commission and fee numbers for both platforms, how payment timing differs, who keeps the end-customer relationship, and a clear answer for who should pick which.
Faire Overview
Faire is a B2B wholesale marketplace that connects independent brands with retail stores looking to stock new products. A brand lists a wholesale catalog (case packs, minimum order quantities, wholesale pricing), and boutique owners, gift shops, and other retailers browse and place bulk orders.
Key strengths:
- No monthly subscription or listing fee to join as a brand
- Faire covers the credit risk on approved net-60 orders, so brands still get paid on schedule even if a retailer pays late
- Faire Direct lets you invite your own existing wholesale accounts to order through Faire at 0% commission
Key weaknesses:
- 15% commission on marketplace-discovered orders is a meaningful cut for brands running thin wholesale margins
- A $10 one-time new customer fee applies on a retailer’s first order, on top of commission
- You’re selling to stores, not consumers, so total order volume depends on how many retailers stock you, not how many individual shoppers exist
Pricing summary: Faire charges brands a 15% commission on orders from retailers who discover them through the Faire marketplace, plus a one-time $10 new customer fee on that retailer’s first order. Orders placed through a brand’s own Faire Direct link from retailers they already had a relationship with carry 0% commission, only payment processing costs of roughly 1.9% to 3.5% depending on how fast the brand wants to be paid out (Faire Help Center).
Amazon Overview
Amazon is a direct-to-consumer marketplace where individual shoppers buy one item at a time. Sellers list products (their own brand or resold goods), fulfill orders themselves or through Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), and compete for visibility in Amazon’s search and Buy Box.
Key strengths:
- Enormous existing buyer traffic; shoppers are already searching with purchase intent
- FBA hands off picking, packing, shipping, and customer service for a per-unit fee
- Professional accounts unlock advertising, bulk listing tools, and Buy Box eligibility
Key weaknesses:
- Referral fees plus FBA fulfillment and storage fees stack up fast, especially in Q4
- Amazon controls the customer relationship; sellers rarely get direct contact info for buyers
- Price competition on non-branded listings can push margins down quickly
Amazon also competes for consumer attention with other high-traffic marketplaces sellers weigh against it, such as in TikTok Shop vs eBay.
Pricing summary: Amazon offers two seller plans: Individual at $0/month plus $0.99 per item sold, and Professional at $39.99/month with no per-item fee. On top of the plan cost, Amazon charges a referral fee per sale that ranges from about 5% to 45% depending on category, with most categories landing around 15% and a $0.30 minimum (Amazon Seller Pricing). Sellers using FBA also pay per-unit fulfillment fees plus monthly storage, and Amazon has a history of layering additional surcharges (fuel, inflation, peak-season) on top of base FBA fees (Amazon Selling Partners); confirm the current surcharge schedule on Amazon’s seller pricing page before budgeting.
Head-to-Head: Pricing & Fees
| Fee Type | Faire | Amazon |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly/membership cost | $0 (brands) | $0 (Individual) or $39.99/mo (Professional) |
| Per-order commission | 15% on marketplace orders, 0% on Faire Direct | Referral fee 5%-45% by category (~15% typical) |
| New customer fee | $10 one-time, first order only | None |
| Per-item fee | None | $0.99/item on Individual plan only |
| Fulfillment cost | Seller ships wholesale case packs directly | FBA: roughly $3-$11+ per unit depending on size, or self-fulfill |
| Storage cost | None (seller warehouses their own inventory) | FBA monthly storage, standard rate lower Jan-Sep, higher Q4 rate; confirm current per-cubic-foot rates on Amazon’s seller pricing page |
| Payment terms to seller | Payout the day after shipment or 30 days after, seller’s choice | Standard Amazon disbursement schedule |
| Payment terms to buyer | Eligible retailers get net-60 | Consumer pays at checkout |
Disclaimer: fees change frequently on both platforms. Confirm current rates on Faire’s and Amazon’s official seller pages before setting wholesale or retail pricing.
The structural difference matters more than the headline percentages. Faire’s 15% commission applies to a wholesale order, meaning one transaction might be a $500 case-pack order to a single boutique. Amazon’s referral fee applies per unit, meaning the same $500 in revenue could come from 20 separate $25 consumer orders, each carrying its own referral fee, and potentially its own FBA fulfillment fee if the seller uses FBA.
Head-to-Head: Features & Automation
Faire’s tools are built around the wholesale ordering cycle: a brand portal for managing a wholesale catalog, case-pack and minimum-order-quantity settings, and a retailer-facing storefront that functions like a B2B catalog rather than a consumer shop. Faire also runs its own marketing to retailers, which is how new stores discover brands without the brand paying for ads directly.
Amazon’s tools are built around consumer conversion at scale: Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands advertising, A+ Content for product pages, Brand Registry for trademark protection, and detailed analytics on search terms and conversion rates. Professional sellers get access to bulk listing and repricing tools that Individual sellers don’t.
Neither platform’s tooling transfers to the other’s model. A brand cannot run wholesale case-pack orders through Amazon’s consumer checkout, and Amazon’s advertising stack has no equivalent on Faire, since Faire’s retailer acquisition is Faire’s own job, not the brand’s.
Head-to-Head: Ease of Use
Getting a Faire storefront live takes setting up a wholesale catalog: photos, wholesale unit pricing, case-pack quantities, and minimum order values. There’s no product approval gate for most categories, and a brand can typically start receiving orders within days of listing.
Amazon’s onboarding is heavier. New sellers choose a plan, verify identity and banking details, and in many categories submit to gating or approval before they can list (this is especially true for restricted categories like health, beauty, and grocery). Sellers using FBA also need to prep inventory to Amazon’s packaging and labeling requirements before shipping to a fulfillment center.
For a brand-new seller with no existing wholesale relationships, Faire is generally faster to get a first sale, because Faire’s own marketplace traffic surfaces new brands to retailers. Amazon requires either existing brand recognition, advertising spend, or significant SEO/listing optimization to get discovered in a sea of competing sellers.
Who Owns the Customer Relationship?
This is the single biggest structural difference between the two platforms, and it should weigh heavily in the decision.
On Faire, the retailer is the customer, and the retailer’s own customer is the end consumer. A brand selling on Faire never has direct contact with the person who eventually buys the product off a boutique’s shelf. What a brand does gain is a repeat business relationship with the retailer, and that retailer can be moved to Faire Direct at 0% commission for future orders.
On Amazon, the end consumer is the direct customer, but Amazon owns the account, the order history, and (in most cases) the ability to market to that customer again. Sellers get delivery and order data but rarely a usable email address or the standing ability to re-market outside Amazon’s own ad system.
Neither model hands a seller a durable, exportable list of their own customers the way an independent storefront would. The practical difference is whether a seller is comfortable building repeat revenue through retail partners (Faire) or through Amazon’s own repeat-purchase and subscribe-and-save mechanics (Amazon).
Who Should Choose Faire?
- Brands producing physical goods in case-pack or bulk-friendly quantities (home goods, apparel, beauty, food and beverage, stationery)
- Sellers who want fewer, larger transactions instead of many small consumer orders
- Brands willing to trade some margin (15% commission) for retailer discovery they’d otherwise have to generate themselves through trade shows or cold outreach
- Sellers who already have some wholesale accounts and want to move them to Faire Direct’s 0% commission tier over time
Sellers weighing a marketplace against an owned storefront elsewhere in their sales mix can see a similar trade-off play out in TikTok Shop vs Squarespace.
Who Should Choose Amazon?
- Sellers whose product fits a single-unit consumer purchase, not a bulk case pack
- Brands with the margin to absorb referral fees plus FBA fulfillment and storage costs, or the operational capacity to self-fulfill
- Sellers who want access to Amazon’s existing consumer search traffic rather than needing to build discovery from scratch
- Sellers comfortable investing in advertising (Sponsored Products) to win visibility against other listings in the same category
Can You Run Both at the Same Time?
Yes, and many brands do. The two platforms don’t compete for the same order, they serve different sales channels: Faire moves inventory into stores, Amazon moves inventory to individual buyers. A brand can wholesale case packs to retailers through Faire while separately listing the same product for direct consumer sale on Amazon, as long as pricing between the two channels doesn’t undercut retail partners in a way that damages those relationships.
The practical challenges of running both are inventory allocation (deciding how much stock goes to Faire wholesale versus Amazon retail) and pricing discipline (Amazon’s consumer price generally needs to sit meaningfully above wholesale unit cost, so Faire retailers aren’t undercut on their own shelf price). Sellers who run both usually keep separate inventory pools for wholesale versus FBA rather than trying to draw from one shared stock number.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Faire cheaper than Amazon?
It depends on order structure, not just the percentage. Faire’s 15% applies to a full wholesale order; Amazon’s referral fee (roughly 15% for most categories) applies per unit sold, and FBA sellers add fulfillment and storage costs on top. A brand selling in bulk case packs often nets more per unit through Faire; a brand selling single units at higher retail markup can still come out ahead on Amazon.
Which is better for beginners with no existing customers?
Faire tends to get new brands their first sale faster, since Faire’s own marketing surfaces new brands to retailers actively browsing for new products. Amazon requires either advertising spend or strong listing SEO to get found among established competitors.
How long does it take to start selling on each platform?
Faire brands can typically list a wholesale catalog and start receiving orders within days. Amazon onboarding takes longer, especially for gated categories requiring approval, and FBA sellers need inventory prepped to Amazon’s specifications before it can be shipped in.
Are there hidden fees on Faire?
The main cost beyond the 15% marketplace commission is the one-time $10 new customer fee on a retailer’s first order. Faire Direct orders drop commission to 0%, leaving only payment processing fees of roughly 1.9% to 3.5%.
Are there hidden fees on Amazon?
FBA sellers should budget for fulfillment fees (roughly $3 to $11+ per unit depending on size), monthly storage fees that rise in Q4, and periodic surcharges (fuel, peak-season) Amazon has added on top of base FBA fees in the past; check Amazon’s current seller pricing page for the active schedule. Self-fulfilling sellers avoid FBA fees but take on their own shipping and returns handling.
Can you sell wholesale and retail on the same product at once?
Yes. Many brands wholesale through Faire and sell direct-to-consumer through Amazon simultaneously, as long as retail pricing stays high enough above wholesale cost that Faire retailers aren’t undercut.
Which platform is better for handmade or small-batch goods?
It depends on batch size. If a maker can produce case-pack quantities for retailers, Faire opens a wholesale channel. If production is closer to one-off or small-run items sold direct to a single buyer, a consumer marketplace or a craft-specific platform, like the ones weighed in Depop vs Etsy, is usually a better fit than either Faire or Amazon.
Does Faire or Amazon own the customer data?
Neither hands sellers a fully exportable customer list. On Faire, the retailer is the direct customer, not the end consumer. On Amazon, Amazon retains most order and contact data, with sellers getting shipping details but limited ability to market to buyers outside Amazon’s own ad tools.
What happens if a Faire retailer doesn’t pay?
Faire covers approved net-60 orders, meaning brands are paid on their chosen payout schedule (day-after-shipment or 30 days) regardless of whether the retailer pays on time. This shifts credit risk away from the brand.
Which platform has better support for scaling internationally?
Both operate internationally, but their fee structures for cross-border selling differ by seller location and are not identical to the base U.S. numbers cited in this article. Sellers based outside North America should confirm current rates directly with each platform before committing.
The Bottom Line
Faire and Amazon aren’t really competing for the same sale. Faire is a wholesale channel: sell in bulk to retail stores at a 15% commission (or 0% for Faire Direct), let a boutique carry the inventory risk and mark it up for resale. Amazon is a direct-to-consumer channel: sell one unit at a time to individual shoppers, at referral fees around 15% plus FBA costs if you outsource fulfillment.
If you produce in bulk and want retailers to discover and stock your brand, choose Faire. If your product sells well as a single-unit consumer purchase and you can absorb per-unit fees, choose Amazon. Many brands with the production capacity for both eventually run them side by side, treating Faire as the wholesale channel and Amazon as the direct-to-consumer channel, rather than picking one over the other permanently.
Compare more marketplace platforms to find the right sales channel mix for your inventory and margins.
Related Articles
- Faire vs Etsy: Bulk Wholesale or Retail Storefront (2026), a wholesale marketplace compared against a handmade-focused retail storefront
- Mercari vs eBay: Low-Fee Resale or Legacy Reach (2026), another look at fee structure versus buyer reach trade-offs
- Facebook Marketplace vs Etsy: Reach vs Craft Buyers (2026), free local reach compared against a curated, purchase-ready audience
About This Research
CartCompare Editorial Team is the organizational byline behind CartCompare, an independent research site that compares e-commerce platforms, store builders, and online marketplaces side by side.
This comparison is based on Faire’s and Amazon’s published seller-facing fee schedules and pricing pages, cross-referenced against third-party seller fee trackers, current as of August 2026. Pricing on both platforms changes periodically; always confirm current rates on the official seller pages linked above before setting wholesale or retail pricing.
Content reviewed and updated: 2026-08-23
Connect With Us
CartCompare is an independent e-commerce platform research site. Have a platform we haven’t covered yet, or think we got a fact wrong? Reach out via ecomcartcompare.com/about.
Found This Useful?
Subscribe for more unbiased platform comparisons.