Uncommon Goods is the retailer a lot of makers dream about: a well-known online store built entirely around unusual, well-made, giftable products, most of them from small brands and independent artists. It is also one of a growing group of curated online retailers that buy the way a good boutique does, but with a national audience. Learning how to sell to Uncommon Goods, and to the other curated sites like it, is a different skill from selling to a chain. The buyer is a merchandiser with taste and a story to tell, and your job is to give them one.
This guide covers what "curated" means for you, what Uncommon Goods looks for, the other curated retailers worth a look, the two deal structures you will be offered, pricing and margin, photography and story, and how to submit.
What "curated" means for you
A chain buys to fill a planogram. A curated online retailer buys to tell a story: a small assortment, chosen product by product, presented with editorial photography and copy, often with the maker's name and face on the page. That has three consequences:
- The buyer is looking for products that are genuinely different, not products that are cheaper.
- Your brand story, materials and process are part of the product, not a footnote.
- Sales depend on how well the product photographs and how well the page explains it, so the retailer wants assets from you, not just inventory.
If you sell handmade or small-batch goods, how to find buyers for handmade products covers the broader landscape; curated online retail is the most scalable piece of it.
What Uncommon Goods looks for
Uncommon Goods is based in Brooklyn and has long been open about sourcing from independent makers and small brands, with a public product submission process on its site. The details change, so read their current page, but the pattern has been consistent for years. Their merchandisers look for:
- Originality. Products that do not exist elsewhere, or a genuinely new take on a familiar thing.
- Craft and materials. Handmade, small-batch, recycled or sustainable materials, made in the US where possible. These are selling points on the product page, so they are buying criteria.
- Giftability. The site is heavily used for gifts. Products that solve "what do I get for..." questions do well, and personalization is a strong plus.
- A maker story. They feature the people behind the products. If you have a story, tell it; if you have a face, show it.
- Sensible price points. Gift budgets cluster at modest round numbers, so the product has to land at a retail price a gift shopper will pay while leaving margin for both sides.
- Reliable fulfillment. Curated does not mean casual. They need consistent quality and on-time shipping, especially in the run-up to the holidays.
If your product is built on sustainable materials, how to sell eco-friendly products wholesale will help you frame that story in a way merchandisers respond to.
Other curated online retailers worth a look
Uncommon Goods is the best known, but the same approach works with a wider set of editorial retailers, each with a specific customer:
- Kitchen and home sites with a strong editorial voice, where the merchandiser writes about the product as much as sells it
- Men's lifestyle and outdoor curators that feature small gear and grooming brands
- Design-led stores attached to museums and cultural institutions
- Wellness and beauty sites that vet ingredients and feature founders
- Subscription boxes, which are effectively curated retailers that buy in batches; how to get your product into subscription boxes covers that variant
Build a list by asking one question: which sites already sell products like mine, to a customer like mine, with an editorial page for each product? Those are your targets.
Wholesale versus drop-ship: the two deals
Curated online retailers commonly offer one of two structures, and sometimes both:
- Wholesale. They buy inventory at your wholesale price, hold it, and ship it themselves. Bigger commitment from them, simpler for you.
- Drop-ship. They list your product, take the order, and you ship it to the customer under their standards and packaging rules. Lower risk for them, more operational work for you, and often a different margin split.
Drop-ship is common for new or untested products and for personalized items that have to be made to order. Wholesale vs dropshipping walks through the trade-offs so you can decide which you will accept and at what price.
Pricing, exclusivity and margin
Curated retailers expect a wholesale price that lets them at least double it at the retail price, and drop-ship arrangements are often structured with their own split. Because your product is unusual, you have more pricing power than a commodity item, but the retailer will still compare your suggested retail to what a gift shopper will pay. Exclusivity is often requested on a specific design or colorway; decide in advance what you will offer.
Run a wholesale order and a drop-ship scenario through the wholesale margin calculator before you fill in a submission form, and keep your own site and marketplace prices consistent with the retail price you propose. Merchandisers check.
Photography and story do the selling
On a curated site, the product page is the store. The retailer will often shoot their own photography, but they will ask you for high-resolution images, process shots, a maker photo, materials details, dimensions, care instructions and the story. Have all of it ready before you submit. A submission with a strong story and good images gets read; one with a single flat photo does not.
How to reach the merchandiser
- Use the retailer's submission form first. For Uncommon Goods and most curated sites, this is the official front door, and merchandisers do review it.
- Identify the merchandiser or buyer for your category and send a short, visual email in parallel: three images, one paragraph of story, price point, and a link to your line sheet.
- Be findable. Merchandisers at these sites scout Instagram, craft fairs and gift trade shows. A brand that looks the part gets discovered.
- Offer a sample. Curated retailers usually want to hold the product before they list it. How to offer wholesale samples without losing money covers how to do that sensibly.
- Follow up once or twice, spaced a few weeks apart. Submission queues are long.
What to send
A line sheet with lifestyle and product images, wholesale and retail prices, minimums, lead times, personalization options if any, materials and origin, and a short maker bio. Add production capacity and holiday cutoff dates; these retailers plan the fourth quarter carefully and want to know you can keep up.
Common mistakes
- Submitting a product that is available on every marketplace. Curated means uncommon.
- Sending one photo and no story.
- Refusing drop-ship outright when it is the only way to get a first test.
- Quoting a wholesale price that leaves the retailer no margin at a gift-friendly retail.
- Missing holiday deadlines. Curated retailers lock their holiday assortment well before fall.
A short worked example
Say you make a personalized walnut cutting board that sells for 60 dollars on Etsy, with a landed cost of 18 dollars including engraving. A curated retailer lists it on a drop-ship basis at a 64-dollar retail, and you receive 32 dollars per order, netting about 14 dollars after the extra shipping. In the holiday quarter they send you 400 orders, roughly 5,600 dollars of profit, from a channel you did not have to build or advertise. If it performs, they move it to a wholesale buy the following year, and the page stays live year-round.
Finding the merchandisers at these sites, and the hundreds of boutiques and gift shops that buy the same kind of product, is the part that eats weeks. WholesalePilot does it: paste your product link and it finds the curated retailers and specialty buyers that fit, verifies their emails, and sends the outreach in your name.
A curated retailer is buying your story as much as your product. Give them both, ready to publish.
Paste your product link and see which curated retailers fit it, free.