E-commerce portal for Indian Handicrafts

The pandemic has affected almost all the business sectors, out of which the most affected are the small scale artisans who make handicrafts left with no income.

India Handmade Collective, an e-commerce portal has come to the rescue for these artisans and weavers. The collective describes itself as a 'social enterprise', but works exactly like an e-commerce clothing portal. It offers sustainable, handmade and ethically produced goods by small scale manufacturers on sale.

Malini Kumar along with her husband Suresh Lakshmipathy operates the not-for-profit portal.

Malini shares, "Clothes are not an essential commodity. And during the pandemic, the stores shut down and sales completely dropped. The weavers and spinners who were depending on retails stores were completely crushed. Most weaver groups travel across the country to sell their textiles at exhibitions.

However, the lockdown put a stop to their travels. When the lockdown lifted, demand was still slack and shops were empty. "For these weavers and spinners, bigger online markets were not an option as they ask for a 10% listing fee and a 30 to 40% commission on the products. So that avenue was cut off."

This is when Chennai-based entrepreneur Ananthasayanan, who founded Tula, a small store which works with cotton farmers, suggested launching an e-commerce portal with a difference. He wanted to do something for these artisans, weavers and spinners.

This led to the India Handmade Collective. And what started as an idea in August is now livel with over 25 member organizations 4-5 members in the pipeline, around 1000 listed products and supporting 1800 spinners and 1700 weavers.

Suresh shares, "IHC is providing a common platform for the smaller artisans can put up a fight against the bigger competitors." The India Handmade Collective is primarily women only enterprise. Malini along with two other women; Medha from Ahmedabad is working towards the same cause and has her own enterprise 'Weaverbird' and has been working for this cause since her college days. Another one is a Gandhian called Karunatai she has her own enterprise called 'Gram Seva Mandal' who work towards mainly Khadi.

They do not take any remuneration. From the sales of the products they take only small percent of the amount to manage operation. The artisans are able to earn high margins for the product. IHC does not charge any kind of fee or huge margin to sell the products.

The travel that Malini and Suresh were doing made them meet many weavers who were weaving shawls. They were able to sell them only through their community. There are many different and beautiful products that need to be known by more people and value of these products. Educate people why they should go with slow fashion and not the fast fashion.

Few products that are available in the e-commerce are handmade, while the others are naturally dyed. Natural dyes are again labour intensive, and are more expensive.

Malini shares, "To color 1 kg of yarn with natural dye, it costs anywhere between Rs 400 to 600. But the same thing with chemical dyes can be done with Rs 50 or 60. However, chemical dyes can pollute the rivers whereas natural dyes are sustainable. We are looking at these costs too while promoting natural and sustainable products."