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The Faire Forecast: 2022 marketplace trends

15 December 2022 | Published by Faire

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At the end of a busy year full of milestones, lessons, and macroeconomic uncertainty, it’s important to take a moment to look back and reflect—both to celebrate the achievements and resilience of our global community of 600,000 retailers and 85,000 brands and to learn from the year behind us. That’s why we’re sharing the Faire Forecast, our year-end review of the top product trends on Faire in 2022.

Faire’s 2022 look back

Top products of 2022

To give you a better idea of how our retailer community spent their year on Faire, we took a look around the globe at the products our buyers went crazy for this year—from lip balm and hair accessories to herbal bitters and shaving kits.  

Most popular products of the year

  • in the US
    • Sour candy 
  • in Canada
    • Heatless curlers 
  • in France
    • Insulated water bottles and hydration tablets
  • in Germany
    • Non-alcoholic aperitif
  • in the UK
    • Men’s grooming products

Other top sellers:

🇬🇧In the UK—shaving accessories and fragrance oils 

2022 saw UK shoppers turn their attention to beauty and wellness products, from men’s grooming tools like shave kits and beard trimmers to bath bombs, bath salts, and shower steamers. Wax melts and fragrance oils were also in demand, with the latter ranking among the 10 most popular products for six months of the year.

🇺🇸In the US—lip balm and sweets

This year, US retailers sought all things flavorful, from lip balms to sweet and sour candies. Lip balms in flavours ranging from pomegranate peach to mint and coconut dominated, making for three of the top five most popular products of the year. And, just like in 2021, consumers in the US couldn’t get enough of candy products. Each season was marked with a different take on the sugary snack, with heart-shaped gummies topping the charts for Valentine’s Day, spider gummies proving popular for Halloween, and fruity gummy bunnies filling carts for Easter. 

🇨🇦In Canada—satin bedding and hair accessories

Canadian customers once again set their sights on comfort in 2022, with satin bedding taking over four of the top 10 most popular products in 2022. Calming tea also proved popular, landing among the top five bestsellers in all but one month. Finally, Canada set its sights on hair accessories, from the viral heatless hair curler to trendy claw hair clips.

🇫🇷In France—skin care and hydration tablets

Skin-care products like scrubs, creams, oils, and face rollers were most popular in France, with nine of the top 10 products of the year belonging to the skin-care category. Hydration tablets also proved popular, landing among the top five most popular products for almost half the year. Finally, healthy and fruity beverages made from 100% organic ingredients refreshed French buyers from May through November.  

🇩🇪In Germany—herbal bitters and musical instruments for kids

German retailers spruced up their tonics this year with herbal bitters, elixirs, and seasonal spirits ranking as top products for almost every month of the year. In addition, non-alcoholic aperitifs dominated the top products list in 2022. Buyers in Germany also favoured children’s musical instruments like rattles, drums, and bells. 

Retailers are searching for…

To find out what products and seasons were at the forefront of our retailers’ minds this year, we broke down the top search terms of the year. As is often the case on Faire, buying holidays like Christmas and Valentine’s Day were among the top five searches of the year in every country. We took a closer look at which holidays ranked the highest among our customers—and what people were searching for outside of these larger events. 

Most popular holidays globally

These are the holidays with the highest global search volume in 2022:

  • Christmas
  • Easter
  • Valentine’s Day
  • Halloween
  • Mother’s Day

Top global search terms of 2022

Top searches of the year by country

Candle craze

If there’s one thing that’s remained steadfast with customers around the globe over the years, it’s their love for candles. For the past several years, candles have ranked in the top five search terms globally on Faire, often coming in first or second. This year, candles were a top five search term every month in every country, and over 245,000 total orders were placed for candles globally in 2022. 

Favourite candle scents around the world 

  • US: 
    • Vanilla buttercream
  • Canada:
    • Incense, nag champa, nutmeg
  • UK:
    • Lavender and bergamot
  • France:
    • Agarwood and rose
  • Germany:
    • Rosemary and lavender with a hint of fresh lemon 

Candles as stand-alone decor

The main evolution in the world of candles in 2022 came not with the variety of scents, but with their physical appearance. Candles as decor objects—or “aesthetic candles” as Etsy recently called them—topped charts this year. Candles with phrases like “Happy birthday,” “I love you,” and “Good things will happen soon,” were especially popular in the US, Canada, France, and Germany, while candles in funky designs or shaped like fruit were popular in Australia and the UK.

Shop candles from brands like Queer Candle Co., Zoey Bathlatier, Interlude Candles, and more.

Taking a look down under

In April of 2022, Faire launched to Australian retailers, helping brands from around the world stock their goods in Australian shops. We looked closer at what Australian retailers favoured during their first year on Faire.

Most popular products: 

Edible flower seeds, natural sunscreen, to-go wine coolers, and kid’s bath-time products 

Top search terms: Candle and crystals 

Favourite candle: Unscented candles in the shape of fruits like apples, lemons, and oranges

The year in food and drink

2022 was a big year for food and drink customers on Faire. In the past year alone, grocery and specialty retailers shopping on Faire have grown by 130%. Let’s take a look at the top food and drink products of the year. 

Top food products globally

  • Sour candy, gummy candy, sweet candy
  • Cheesy garlic bread 
  • Cinnamon swirl bread 
  • Sea salt chips
  • Hickory beef jerky 

Top beverage products globally

  • Old-fashioned cocktail kit 
  • Lavender cucumber sparkling water 
  • Sangria 
  • Instant champagne cocktail kit 
  • Lavender honey cocktail mixer

Shop food and drink products on Faire.

Top non-alcoholic products globally

We noticed a big uptick in sales of non-alcoholic beverages this year, inspiring us to uncover the most popular non-alcoholic flavours of the year. This is a trend we expect to continue into 2023—discover what’s next for the sober curious here <link to “sober curious” section below>.

  • Zero-proof gin
  • Alcohol-free hibiscus aperitif
  • Zero-proof whiskey
  • Zero-proof tequila
  • Zero-proof rum

Shop non-alcoholic beverages from brands like Dr. Jaglas, Three Spirit, Ritual Zero Proof, and more.

Candy, candy, candy

Much like candles, candy products have a timeless presence on the Faire marketplace. For two years in a row, candy products have landed among the top two most popular products globally. In 2022, retailers purchased over 75,000 candy products across the globe, and the word “candy” was searched almost 18,000 times. Given the global popularity of candy, we decided to find out the exact flavour of each country’s sweet tooth.

Top candy flavours by country:

  • US: Sweet and tart rainbow sour belts
  • UK: Classic gummy bears
  • Canada: Fresh raspberry gummies
  • France: Sour strawberry apple candies
  • Germany: Gummy lemonade rings

Shop candy from brands like A Secret Forest, Candy Club, and more.

All eyes on apparel 

This year, crop tops ruled the streets, runways, and the shopping carts of Faire customers. In 2022, crop tops and bralettes were among the top five apparel products globally on Faire, followed closely by the favourite wardrobe staple—the shacket. In addition, as predicted by WGSN, knit sweaters and cardigans proved popular this fall and winter, with sweaters landing as one of the top five most popular apparel categories. 

Finally, 2022 shoppers prioritised fashion for the feet, with cosy socks in all colours, patterns, and textures coming in as the most popular apparel product globally. 

Top apparel product by country:

  • US—Crew cut socks 
  • UK—Sloth socks 
  • Canada—Slouchy pullover sweater
  • France—Graphic tees
  • Germany—Raincoats

Shop apparel products on Faire.

What our customers value

Consumers continue to be steadfast in their dedication to prioritising value-based shopping, and on Faire, customers favoured brand values like Women Owned. Purchases from brands with the Handmade value tags increased about 45% since 2021, Eco-Friendly brands saw around a 40% increase, and brands using the tag Not on Amazon saw an increase of over 50%. 

Top global brand values of 2022

TikTok takeover 

TikTok has rapidly become one of the biggest drivers of consumer shopping behaviour. All it takes is one viral TikTok video to take a product from obscurity to bestseller, sending retailers scrambling to stock their shelves with the latest craze. Retailers on Faire were no exception to that cycle this year, and we saw several TikTok viral trends show up on the marketplace in 2022.

Heatless hair curler

2022 also ushered in the viral heatless hair curler—a tool that allows users to wake up with bouncy curls without having to use a curling iron. Today, there are over 3 billion views (and growing) on TikTok videos with the hashtag #heatlesscurls. On Faire, searches for “heatless hair curler” grew by over 2,000% between 2021 and 2022, and heatless hair curlers climbed to the top 10 most popular products globally in the Beauty & Wellness category. 

Disco decor

The traditional shiny nightclub furnishing made its way into our everyday decor this year as disco balls spiked in popularity on social media. As of this writing, there are over 225 million views on videos with the hashtag #discoballdecor on TikTok. On Faire, we saw a 300% year-over-year increase in searches for “disco ball,” and “disco” saw a 250% year-over-year increase.

Crystals and stones

The popularity of crystals has been steadily growing over the past few years, with TikTok videos using the tag #crystalobsession totaling over 6 billion views, and videos using the tag #crystals totaling over 14 billion views. We first reported the rise of this trend ahead of spring 2022, and it has only grown since. The term “crystals and stones” was searched over 30,000 times globally in 2022 alone on Faire, and year-over-year searches grew over 6,000% since 2021. 

Shop crystals and stones from brands like Pebble House, Sea Gypsy California, Peach and Pixie, and more.


Stay tuned in 2023 as we continue to keep you up to date on what’s trending on Faire throughout the year. 

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