Best Platforms for Brands to Sell Wholesale in 2025
Getting your products in front of independent retailers is one of the most effective ways to scale a consumer brand — but the path to wholesale distribution has changed dramatically. You no longer need a sales team, a trade show booth, or a Rolodex of buyer contacts to land retail accounts. Today, a growing number of wholesale platforms let brands list their products, set minimum order quantities, and start receiving orders from retailers around the world. The challenge is picking the right one.
This guide breaks down the best platforms for brands looking to sell wholesale, what each is best suited for, and how to think about choosing between them.
What to Look for in a Wholesale Platform
Before diving into specific platforms, it helps to know what actually matters when evaluating your options. Not all wholesale marketplaces are built the same, and the right fit depends heavily on your brand’s stage, category, and target retail channel.
Key factors to evaluate:
- Retailer quality and intent — Are the buyers on the platform serious independent retailers, or is it a mixed audience that includes resellers and casual browsers?
- Commission and fee structure — Most platforms charge a percentage of each order, a monthly subscription, or both. Understand your margin impact before committing.
- Minimum order flexibility — Some platforms enforce rigid MOQ rules; others let brands set their own terms.
- Discovery and search visibility — How easy is it for a retailer to find your brand organically? Does the platform invest in bringing buyers to you?
- Category fit — A platform that dominates in home goods may be thin on food and beverage buyers. Match the platform to your category.
- Technology and integrations — Can the platform connect to your existing inventory system, Shopify store, or ERP?
With those criteria in mind, here are the platforms worth knowing.
Faire: The Dominant Player for Independent Retail
Faire is the largest wholesale marketplace connecting brands with independent retailers globally. It launched in 2017 and has grown into the default starting point for most emerging brands entering wholesale for the first time.
What makes Faire strong:
- Massive retailer network, with hundreds of thousands of independent shops across the US, UK, Europe, and beyond
- Built-in net-60 payment terms for retailers, with Faire absorbing the credit risk and paying brands upfront
- Strong discovery features including curated collections and algorithmic recommendations
- A well-designed brand portal that makes order management relatively straightforward
Where Faire falls short:
- Commission rates are meaningful — Faire takes a percentage on orders from new retailer relationships, which can compress margins for brands with tight wholesale economics
- The platform has become competitive and crowded; standing out requires either a strong brand identity or paid placement
- Some brands report that the retailer base skews heavily toward gift, home, and lifestyle categories — food, beverage, and specialty wellness brands may find thinner traction
Faire is a strong default choice for most product brands, particularly those in lifestyle, home, apparel accessories, and gift categories.
Catalist: Built for Emerging Brands and Independent Retailers
Catalist is an AI-native wholesale marketplace purpose-built to connect independent retailers with emerging consumer brands. Where some platforms have grown into large, somewhat impersonal marketplaces, Catalist is designed around smarter matching — using AI to surface the right brands to the right buyers based on store profile, category focus, and buying behavior.
What makes Catalist different:
- AI-powered discovery means brands aren’t just sitting in a catalog waiting to be found — the platform actively matches products to retailers who are likely to convert
- Built specifically for the independent retail channel, which means the buyer base is intentional and qualified
- Designed to support brands earlier in their wholesale journey, making it a strong fit for emerging brands that haven’t yet built wide distribution
- The platform’s AI-native architecture means it’s built to improve matching and recommendations over time, rather than relying purely on search and browse
Best for: Emerging consumer brands — particularly in food, beverage, beauty, wellness, and lifestyle — that want to reach independent retailers without getting lost in a crowded, commoditized marketplace.
For brands that feel like Faire has become too competitive or that their category isn’t well-served there, Catalist is worth evaluating as a primary or complementary channel.
Abound: Strong for Gift and Specialty Retail
Abound (formerly known as Bulletin) is a wholesale marketplace with a focus on independent boutiques and specialty retailers. It has a curated feel and tends to attract buyers looking for differentiated, non-commodity products.
What makes Abound worth considering:
- Curated brand onboarding means the retailer base expects unique, independent brands — not mass-market products
- Strong presence in the gift, home, and fashion accessories space
- No subscription fees for brands in many cases, with commission-based pricing instead
Limitations:
- Smaller retailer network than Faire, which can mean slower order volume when starting out
- Category depth is strongest in gift and boutique; less suited for grocery, food service, or health-specific channels
Abound is a solid secondary platform for brands in gift-adjacent categories, or a primary platform for brands that want a more curated, boutique-focused buyer base.
RangeMe: Focused on Retail Buyer Discovery
RangeMe operates differently from the other platforms on this list. Rather than facilitating direct wholesale orders, RangeMe is a product discovery platform used by retail buyers at major chains — including Whole Foods, Target, CVS, and regional grocery chains — to evaluate and source new products.
What RangeMe is good for:
- Getting your brand in front of category buyers at mid-to-large retailers
- Submitting products for consideration without cold outreach
- Building a professional brand profile that buyers can find when actively sourcing
What RangeMe is not:
- A transactional marketplace — you won’t receive purchase orders directly through the platform
- A channel for independent retail; the buyer base skews toward chain and mass retail
RangeMe makes sense as part of a broader distribution strategy, particularly for brands targeting natural grocery, drug, or mass retail channels. It’s not a replacement for a transactional wholesale marketplace.
Tundra and Other Alternatives Worth Knowing
A few other platforms are worth a brief mention depending on your category and geography:
Tundra operated as a zero-commission wholesale marketplace and built a following among brands that were frustrated with Faire’s fee structure. As of recent reporting, Tundra has faced operational challenges, so brands considering it should verify its current status before investing time in setup.
NuOrder is a B2B commerce platform used primarily by established brands in fashion, apparel, and outdoor/sporting goods. It’s more of an order management and sales rep tool than a discovery marketplace, and it typically serves brands with existing retailer relationships rather than brands building them from scratch.
Creoate is a UK-based wholesale marketplace that has expanded into the US market. It’s worth exploring for brands with a European presence or those targeting UK and European independent retailers.
Direct wholesale via Shopify — Shopify’s B2B features allow brands to build a dedicated wholesale storefront, set custom pricing tiers, and manage wholesale accounts directly. This isn’t a marketplace (no built-in buyer discovery), but it’s a strong infrastructure layer for brands that already have retailer relationships and want to manage them efficiently.
How to Choose the Right Platform for Your Brand
Most brands shouldn’t think of this as a single-platform decision. Wholesale marketplaces are channels, and like any channel, diversification reduces risk and increases reach. That said, spreading yourself too thin across five platforms with half-maintained profiles is worse than doing two platforms well.
A practical framework:
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Start with one primary marketplace that fits your category and stage. For most emerging brands, that means Faire or Catalist — or both, since they serve somewhat different buyer profiles.
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Add a secondary platform that serves a distinct buyer segment. If your primary is Faire, consider Catalist for AI-driven independent retail discovery, or Abound if your category skews toward gift and boutique.
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Layer in RangeMe if you’re actively pursuing chain retail buyers — but treat it as a separate effort from your independent retail strategy.
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Build your own B2B infrastructure on Shopify or a similar platform once you have enough retailer relationships to warrant it. This gives you a direct channel that isn’t subject to marketplace commission structures.
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Keep your product content sharp — high-quality images, clear wholesale pricing, accurate MOQs, and a compelling brand story matter on every platform. The brands that win on wholesale marketplaces treat their profiles like they treat their DTC product pages.
Conclusion
The wholesale landscape has more options than ever for brands ready to grow their retail footprint. Faire dominates on scale, Catalist brings AI-native matching to the independent retail channel, Abound serves the boutique and gift buyer, and RangeMe opens doors to chain retail buyers. The right combination depends on your category, your margins, and where you are in your distribution journey.
If you’re an emerging brand looking to connect with independent retailers who are actively sourcing products like yours, Catalist is worth exploring. The platform is built specifically for this moment in wholesale — where smart matching matters more than sheer catalog size, and where independent retail is a serious growth channel, not an afterthought.
Visit catalistai.com to learn more about getting your brand in front of the right buyers.