iShippo.com, an online marketplace dedicated to promoting Indian food, culture & heritage through handcrafted products has joined hands with Development Commissioner Handloom of the Union Ministry of Textiles. Under this partnership iShippo will educate, train and empower weavers to directly sell their products on the ishippo.com online portal.
The partnership allows iShippo.com to initially engage with weavers in Bagalkot and other clusters hubs in the state of Karnataka. The products will carry government certifications ‘India Handloom Brand’ and ‘Handloom Mark’.
The global demand for Indian Handloom is increasing. According to Handloom Export Promotion Council, India exported handloom worth US$ 350 million for the FY 2014-15. We have 2.4 million looms with significant production capacity in the country. Indian handloom sector employs 4.3 million handloom weavers. The Handloom Industry is open to innovation and has the ability to adapt to changing requirements. In the past 2 years - spruced by the #MakeInIndia campaign the evolution within the Indian Handloom Industry is visible.
“It’s opening up to change, focusing on sustainable growth & welfare of the weaver communities. These are omnious signs for agile startups in the space like iShippo.com to come in and contribute with our technology, expertise and skills whereby we disrupt the status quo and introduce better - more efficient ways of connecting buyers, sellers, artisans, weavers and the designer’s community. We are literally bringing the global market to our weaver’s doorstep. We can take an idea from design to finished goods and deliver it to the hands of buyers in one seamless transaction.” informed Karma Bhutia - Founder & CEO of iShippo.com
Promotion of marketing of Handloom products through e-commerce is one of the priority of Ministry of Textile. In order to promote e-marketing of handloom products in a transparent competitive and effective manner Textile Ministry has partnered with iShippo.com
On this Occasion Alok Kumar, Development Commissioner, Handlooms Ministry of Textiles said, “India Handloom Brand is a major initiative of Government of India to reposition premium and good quality handloom products for the benefit of consumers as well as weavers. We are promoting e-marketing of genuine and authentic handloom products so as to reduce intermediaries and increase the gains both for consumers and the weavers."
With the support of Union Textile Ministry iShippo aims to allow technological enablement of artisans to bridge the digital divide, bring the global market at the doorstep of weavers, help weavers transform into entrepreneurs from daily wagers, initiate capacity building of the artisan community and ensure self-sustainability of clusters.
iShippo.com is a marketplace where people around the world connect, both online and offline, to make, sell and buy handcrafted goods. Its mission is to support local artisans by connecting them with designers & buyers from across the globe. iShippo is recognized as one of the top 5 e-commerce startups to look out for in 2016 - by TechNewsToday – US.
