In 2023, we built an efficient brand growth engine and enhanced our tracking of key marketplace dynamics at Faire. In 2024, we shifted focus to unlocking brand potential by improving shop readiness, quality, and discoverability within the critical first 30 days.

At the time, less than half of new brands receive orders in their first 30 days, and 14-25% of high-potential brands (predicted $40K+ FYV) don't secure a single order. This impacted both brands and retailers—brands struggled to gain traction and visibility, while retailers missed out on discovering relevant new brands and products.

We identified two key issues:

1. Brands launch with underperforming shops (low product count, poor listing quality).

2. Brands are promoted to retailers prematurely before shops are optimized.

To address this, we decoupled "featured" status from "active" status in the brand portal, incentivizing brands to enhance shop quality for greater visibility. This shift allowed us to educate brands on achieving excellence from day one, positioning them for long-term success.

As the sole product designer, I partnered with product and engineering leads to deliver this feature, which is currently in experimentation. Early results show an 8-10% lift, trending toward our 15% goal.