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Anna Zietz and Erica Tankesley’s business is twofold: In their store, they sell their signature handmade leather handbags alongside carefully curated products from other brands. What looks like an eclectic mix is actually a strategic approach: Glad & Young operates as both a leather goods brand and a retail destination, serving customers who value social justice, equality, and products that bring joy to everyday life.
This dual identity creates unique challenges. As brand owners, Anna and Erica need efficient ways to get their handmade goods into other retailers’ hands. As shop owners, they need to find fresh products that complement their leather goods while staying true to their values—all without breaking the bank on inventory risks. Over the past several years, Faire has become their solution for both sides of the business, providing the low-risk benefits and financial flexibility that make bold experimentation not just possible, but profitable.
Discovering bestsellers without the risk
Faire’s structure removes the fear from trying new things, opening up a beautiful world of possibilities. When Anna and Erica first spotted Verloop bags on the platform—colorful, hand-woven accessories that couldn’t be more different from their leather goods—the 60-day payment terms made the decision easy. “The net-60 payment terms give us a lot of freedom to be able to test things out and see how they perform,” explains Erica. “It gives us that little bit of leeway to see how quickly something sells.”
The Verloop bags were an instant hit, capturing customers who might never have considered leather accessories. But the real revelation came with their gas station–style Georgia magnets—an impulse discovery that now flies off the shelves. Without Faire’s low-order minimums, testing quirky items like these would have meant committing to more inventory than they could afford to lose. Instead, they could start small and scale up based on actual customer response.
This approach has allowed them to maintain what many retailers dream of: a genuinely diverse price range that welcomes everyone. The same customer who splurges on a $300 leather bag might return for a $4 magnet as a small treat, and both purchases feel authentic to the Glad & Young experience. The free returns policy provides additional peace of mind—if something doesn’t resonate, they’re not stuck with inventory that eats into their margins.
The discovery process itself has become one of their favorite parts of running the business. But it’s more than fun—it’s strategic. Using Faire’s values tags, they can quickly identify woman-owned, LGBTQ+-owned, and socially conscious brands that align with their mission.
“We are happy to pick up a line that we know is supporting social justice and equality for all,” says Anna. “People are desperate to spend money at stores that support the same causes that they do.”
When your retail customers become wholesale leads
While Anna and Erica are busy curating products as retailers, they’re also building their own brand’s presence through Faire Direct. The program has created an unexpected synergy: Tourists and locals who discover their leather goods in the Ponce Market shop often become wholesale customers for their own businesses back home.
“They have such favorable terms to get people on there,” Erica Tankesley explains about Faire Direct. “We’ve trained our team to give our Faire Direct card to people.”
For a small handmade business with tight margins, traditional wholesale relationships typically require expensive sales reps, trade show investments, and lengthy relationship-building processes. Faire Direct eliminates those barriers, connecting them with potential wholesale partners organically. Whether someone scans a QR code in their shop or browses through the Faire Direct widget on their website, the platform handles the logistics while they focus on creating beautiful products.
This wholesale growth happens naturally because customers can experience their products firsthand before placing larger orders.
“Selling wholesale is hard as a handmade small business because our margins are tight,” Anna notes. “But Faire Direct offers us a way to share that money with our hardworking team.”
Eliminating shipping costs and reducing labor through automation
Faire also helps Glad & Young cut expenses in two key ways: Their Faire Insider membership delivers immediate shipping cost savings that get reinvested directly back into inventory, and Faire’s integration with their Shopify point-of-sale system eliminates hours of manual work that would otherwise require staff time.
“Faire Insider is an incredible deal,” says Erica Tankesley. “We’ve saved a lot of money with Faire Insider on shipping.”
Those savings allow them to stock deeper inventory of proven bestsellers or take more experimental bets on emerging brands.
But the cost savings extend beyond shipping. Faire automatically syncs inventory, SKUs, and pricing across both retail and wholesale operations—tasks that would typically require someone to manually update systems, track stock levels, and reconcile data across platforms.
“The Shopify integration has been transformative for us from an operations perspective,” notes Erica Tankesley. “It makes everyone more efficient and effective in their roles.”
This automation gives them real-time visibility into how every product performs without the administrative overhead. When they see a Faire-sourced product taking off in their POS data, they can reorder instantly. When something underperforms, they simply don’t restock—no spreadsheets or manual tracking required.
This data-driven approach, combined with Faire’s low-risk structure, has fundamentally changed how they think about inventory. Instead of agonizing over buying decisions, they can test confidently and scale what works. The 60-day payment terms provide breathing room to see actual sales performance before payment is due. Low minimums mean they can try new categories without major financial commitment. Free returns eliminate the downside of experiments that don’t pan out.
The platform that gets small business
What resonates most deeply with Anna and Erica is how Faire understands the realities of running a business with big dreams and limited resources. Before finding the platform, they spent countless hours researching vendors, negotiating with sales reps, and navigating the traditional wholesale world’s complexities and costs.
“The need that Faire fills for small businesses can’t be overstated,” reflects Anna. “Before Faire came along, we were spending so much of our time and energy finding vendors, working with them or having a rep—there were added costs, and it made success that much harder. But Faire came in and said, ‘We can make that easier for you.’ It really feels like they continue to champion our small business and help us succeed. They’re in our corner, and we’re just so grateful.”
For Anna and Erica, Faire isn’t just a platform—it’s a partner that understands small business realities while providing enterprise-level tools and support. It’s what allows them to focus on what they do best: creating joy through beautiful, purposeful products.
Putting customers first, with the right tools behind them
At the end of the day, Anna and Erica are the most dedicated to their customers’ joy. They’re constantly observing shoppers, noting what catches their eye, and collaborating with their younger staff members on buying decisions to ensure they’re capturing what resonates.
“We genuinely care about the people that come through our doors,” says Anna. “We want them to come in and have an incredible experience. And we know our audience so well and what will bring them joy. When we see it, we know it.”
This customer-first approach shows up in everything from their product curation to their pricing strategy. They prioritize what they call “mood boosters”—products that are joyful and empowering—while maintaining a diverse price range so everyone feels welcome. Whether someone is ready to invest in a $300 leather bag or just wants a $4 magnet as a small treat, both experiences feel equally valued.
The excitement and discovery they experience while shopping on Faire translates directly into the customer experience. “We were just talking recently about how being able to shop on our phones and add to cart has been a real dopamine high,” laughs Erica. That same sense of discovery and possibility fills their store, where customers can stumble upon unexpected treasures alongside carefully curated staples.
Perhaps most importantly, they’ve created a place where customers can shop their values. “We hope that they spend money with us and think, ‘I feel so good about voting with my dollars today,’ ” says Anna.
This customer-obsessed approach is only possible because Faire is handling operations behind the scenes. For Anna and Erica, Faire isn’t just a platform—it’s a partner that takes on some of the business’s complexities so they can focus on what they do best: creating joy through beautiful, purposeful products that make customers feel good about every purchase.
Glad & Young is a retailer featured in our latest brand campaign, Find What’s Next. See how other shops are using Faire to find their next bestseller at faire.com/find-whats-next
