Faire
Faire exists to level the playing field for independent retail — giving small brands and local shop owners the same tools, terms, and insights that large retail chains have always taken for granted. When Openers took on the DACH communications brief in 2024, the mission was clear: turn a platform with a powerful purpose into a brand with a powerful presence in the market that needed it most.
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Independent retail is under pressure. Across Germany, local shop owners and independent brands are navigating a landscape reshaped by e-commerce giants, shifting consumer habits, and the slow hollowing out of inner cities. Faire — the world's largest online wholesale marketplace — exists precisely to change that equation: giving independent retailers access to the data, tools, payment terms, and global brand connections that were previously the exclusive privilege of large retail chains.
The Starting Point
When Openers began working with Faire in early 2024, the platform had the product and the mission. What it needed in the DACH market was a story — and an audience that believed in it. Faire was not yet a known name among the German retailers and brands it was built to serve, and the media landscape had no established frame for what it was trying to do. The challenge was to build that frame from scratch, in a market that is both deeply sceptical of new platforms and genuinely hungry for solutions to the retail crisis playing out on its high streets.
What We Do
Building a Communications Foundation for DACH
From the outset, our work went beyond media relations. We developed a comprehensive communications architecture for the DACH market — aligning closely with Faire's global and UK teams to ensure message consistency across markets, while localising every angle for the specific demands and sensitivities of German-speaking media. Corporate news, product updates, and platform milestones were never pitched in isolation; each was embedded in a broader narrative about the future of independent retail, making Faire's story relevant far beyond its product category.
Data-Driven Storytelling & Thought Leadership
One of the most powerful tools we deployed was original research. Through a consumer survey on retailing in Germany, we generated proprietary data on the future of German inner cities — sparking genuine editorial conversations about the structural challenges facing local commerce and positioning Faire as a company with both a stake and a perspective in that debate. This data-driven approach gave media a reason to cover Faire that went well beyond a product announcement: it established the brand as a source of insight and a credible voice on one of the defining economic stories in German retail.
Alongside the research programme, we developed an ongoing thought leadership strategy — identifying the moments, topics, and media conversations where Faire could contribute meaningfully. From digital transformation pressures on independent retailers to the competitive dynamics between local commerce and e-commerce giants, we built a sustained presence in the verticals that matter most to Faire's B2B audience.
Brand Humanisation & Ambassador Positioning
A wholesale marketplace can easily feel abstract — a platform, a transaction layer, a set of tools. Our work deliberately pushed against that. We developed a brand humanisation strategy centred on the retailers and brands that use Faire every day, amplifying their voices as ambassadors and letting their experiences tell the story of what the platform actually means in practice. These were not testimonials — they were fully developed profiles and expert commentaries that gave Faire a human face within the retail ecosystem and built credibility through the people the brand serves rather than the brand itself.
Strategic Event Presence & Media Engagement
Recognising the importance of in-person engagement in building relationships with German trade media, we developed Faire's event strategy for the DACH market — aligning activations with key industry moments and cultural calendar dates. At TrendSet in Munich, one of the most important trade fairs in the German retail calendar, we adapted our approach to maximise impact: transitioning from a standalone event format to a targeted press breakfast that concentrated the right journalists in the right setting, generating high-quality media engagement without unnecessary overhead. Each activation was designed not just for coverage, but for relationship-building with the editors and journalists who shape the retail conversation in Germany long-term.
Campaigns Tied to Cultural & Seasonal Moments
Throughout the partnership, our media campaigns have been carefully timed to coincide with the moments when retail conversations peak — seasonal trading periods, industry events, and broader cultural debates about the future of German high streets. This calendar-driven approach ensured Faire was consistently present in the media at the moments of highest relevance, rather than competing for attention in a vacuum.
What We Move
Nearly two years into the partnership, Faire has gone from an unknown quantity in the DACH market to a recognised and respected voice in the German retail conversation. The brand is now regularly present in the trade and business media that matter to its audience — not as a company announcing features, but as a company with something to say about the future of independent commerce.
What makes the communications work particularly notable is its reach beyond the expected. Despite Faire being a purely B2B business, our data-driven storytelling and research-led campaigns have consistently earned placements in consumer media — a rare crossover that speaks to the broader cultural relevance of the independent retail story we've helped Faire tell. When a wholesale marketplace starts appearing in the publications that everyday shoppers read, the narrative has moved well beyond the industry press.
What the work has built is something more durable than awareness: a communications infrastructure, a media network, and a narrative that positions Faire as the ally independent retailers in Germany didn't know they were missing — and now can't imagine working without.
