Show retailers your shop’s quality and service with new Top Shop criteria

Top Shop is our way of recognizing brands that raise the bar for quality and service. Brands that meet all the Top Shop criteria in a quarter earn a badge for the following quarter, helping them stand out to retailers in the marketplace.

When retailers are deciding among brands, seeing the Top Shop badge can make them feel more confident placing an order—especially with a brand they haven’t purchased from before. If you become a Top Shop, you can also use our customizable social media templates to publicly share your Top Shop status and celebrate your team.

We launched the first version of Top Shop in 2021, and many brands have seen very positive results from the program. We’ve also received thoughtful feedback on our qualification criteria—namely that our criteria were not always easy to understand and some of the requirements, like reorder rate, felt outside of a brand’s control and didn’t truly reflect excellent service.

To increase retailers’ confidence in the badge and give brands a better experience, we’re updating our Top Shop criteria starting with the next review cycle, from January 1 to March 31, 2024.

Read on for more detail about what’s changing with Top Shop—and how you can qualify moving forward.

What are the new Top Shop criteria? 

We considered the experiences, perspectives, and preferences of our customers to land on the updated Top Shop criteria. Overall, the new criteria are designed to better recognize top brands that give retailers a great experience and to make it easier for you to track your progress. 

We’re making five core changes:

1. Eliminating the reorder rate requirement. We heard your feedback that the reorder rate criteria was limiting and hope that removing it enables you to grow on your own terms. 
   
2. Checking that your catalog is complete. Retailers want to shop your full selection on Faire, so we’re introducing a catalog check where you’ll confirm you’ve added all your products on Faire and that they’re listed at the same prices as other places you sell wholesale. This includes preorder items, new and seasonal collections, all different options such as colors and sizes, and any other items that are also for sale to independent retailers off the platform. 
   
3. Requiring a consistent order history. As a replacement for the reorder rate, Top Shop brands must now have at least 5 orders in a quarter. Orders are counted when the order is fulfilled, not placed.
   
4. Raising the bar for ratings. Since we know retailers often look for higher ratings when they shop, we’ll be celebrating exceptional quality and service with a new rating requirement of 4.8 (up from 4.5). 
   
5. Simplifying our customer service criteria. We’ve split up the “perfect order rate” requirement into three customer service metrics that are easy to understand and that our retailers really care about: late shipments, canceled orders, and missing items. 

You’ll be able to track the new full set of six Top Shop criteria in your brand portal starting January 2. To qualify as a Top Shop, you’ll need to hit these criteria by the last day of the quarter: 

1. Merchandising score: A merchandising score of 100+ points (this is earned through specific tasks to improve your shop, such as adding details to your product listings or running a promotion). The catalog check is a required task within the merchandising score and will earn you 80 points.
   
2. Orders: 5+ orders fulfilled during the quarter. 
   
3. Rating: Maintain a lifetime average rating on Faire of 4.8+ stars 
   
4. Late shipments: The percentage of orders shipped after the expected ship date during the quarter must be 10% or less.
   
5. Canceled orders: The percentage of orders you’ve canceled for avoidable reasons during the quarter must be 3% or less.
   
6. Missing items: Your percentage of orders missing items during the quarter must be 3% or less. 

Just like before, we’ll look at your performance every three months to see if you qualify. We’ll review your criteria on the last day of each quarter, and you’ll need to meet all six criteria on that day in order to qualify for Top Shop. There are four times you can qualify throughout the year, on the last day of each quarter: March 31, June 30, September 30, and December 31. Your progress toward the criteria may fluctuate throughout the quarter as you get orders or add products, so it’ll be important to keep track of your current status and make any improvements you need by the last day of the quarter.

If you qualify, we’ll send an email on the first day of the new quarter to let you know you earned your Top Shop badge. You can also check your Top Shop status on the homepage or the Top Shop page of your brand portal. 

When you qualify for Top Shop, you’ll keep that status until we check your criteria on the last day of the quarter. If you don’t meet all the criteria in any given quarter, don’t worry! Your core Faire experience won’t change, and you’ll still be eligible to qualify again the following quarter.

What steps can I take to meet the criteria?

Starting January 2, you’ll see personalized tips in your brand portal that highlight how to meet the updated Top Shop criteria. Here are a few ways you can start making progress today:

1. Orders: To ensure you get 5+ orders next quarter, you can start sharing your Faire Direct link to bring customers to your Faire shop, or encourage reorders from your existing customers by sending a targeted campaign with a special promotion.
   
2. Merchandising score: Just like today, you can meet this 100-point requirement by doing tasks that help make your shop attractive to retailers. You’ll need to confirm you’ve added all your products on Faire and that they’re listed at the same prices as other places you sell wholesale (80 points). To earn the remaining 20 points, you can select from a series of additional tasks, such as adding at least four videos or images to your product listings or running a promotion on your shop or certain products. Learn more about the merchandising score on your Top Shop page.
   
3. Ratings: To improve your ratings, keep your quality and service levels high and make sure that customers leave reviews. Leverage tools within the Faire app to offer faster customer service or message customers after they receive an order to ask for a review.
   
4. Late shipments: Most orders are considered late if they are shipped one or more business days (not including weekends or regional holidays) after the expected ship date. Lean on the Customer Service page in your brand portal to track your shipping performance and review order issues. If you’re having trouble reducing late shipments, you may want to adjust your shop lead times to be more accurate.
   
5. Canceled orders: Avoid cancellations by keeping your inventory up to date and reviewing your product offerings every few months to ensure they’re current. 
   
6. Missing items: Printing pick lists (and checking every order before shipping) can help your team avoid missing items in your shipments. Note that your missing items percentage for Top Shop does not include anything related to damaged items—those are two separate metrics.

As always, striving to meet each criterion can help grow your business on Faire, even if you don’t earn the Top Shop badge. Taking actions to merchandise your shop, earn high ratings, and fulfill orders smoothly can help attract customers and make them more likely to reorder over time. 

Stay tuned for the updated criteria live in your portal on January 2, and if you have any questions about these updates in the meantime, feel free to reach out!