E-commerce options for craft
producers is a
research project funded by the UK Government Department for International
Development (DFID).
The study is being conducted
during August 2000-March 2002 to determine if and how craft producers in less
developed countries can take advantage of the Internet and e-commerce to sell
their goods and so benefit their families and communities.
There has been much hype and
exaggerated claims regarding the Internet and its likely impact on all our
lives. Recent history has shown that while some companies and organisations
have successfully created new ways of working and conducting business, many
companies to date have found that e-commerce, for a variety of reasons, has
failed to deliver actual sales of their products or services in any significant
quantity. Even the largest and best known Internet companies, such as the
bookseller and general trader Amazon (www.amazon.com) and the portal Yahoo! (www.yahoo.com)have yet to make a profit.[1]
Given this background, the study
looked at both new business opportunities created by the Internet for craft
producers, as well as how Internet and related technology can enhance existing
supply chains, making key stages more efficient.
The research project aimed to focus the main part of its activities on capturing the experiences to date of actual producers in India and Bangladesh; to assess their felt needs, and to present groups with options to enable them to use the Internet and e-commerce for sustainable development of small businesses. While the research necessarily also involved a number of existing 'Northern' UK/US trading organisations, the research was not focused on their institutional needs, but on those of the producers themselves.
The research plan allowed producers to feedback at key stages. The research intended to be enabling of these groups, and aimed to present options to empower them with appropriate and locally-owned technology.
The project followed the following timetable:
|
Literature survey |
Sept - Nov 2000 |
|
Collaborative setting of terms of reference |
Sept – Dec 2000 |
|
Research and interviews with key US/UK organisations ATOs (Alternative Trading Organisations) |
Oct 2000 – Mar 2001 Visit Mar 4-13 |
|
Consultation/workshops 1 with collaborators and producer groups in India and Bangladesh |
April – May 2001 |
|
Collaborators survey producers India: research email options Bangladesh: research design options |
May – October 2001 |
|
Workshop at IFAT (International Federation for Alternative Trade) conference, Tanzania to present draft options |
June 2001 |
|
Consultation/workshops 2 for dissemination with collaborators and producer groups in India and Bangladesh. Dissemination of final report. |
Sept 2001 – March 2002 |
Figure 1 Research project timetable
The first consultation/workshops in India and Bangladesh were conducted with a representative sample of individual artisans to gather producers own perceptions of the Internet and e-commerce, and their business needs. As part of the consultations, focus groups were used for producers to map out their own business activities and models, as a way of capturing how they perceived the Internet could bring benefits to them. The details of this process are recorded in section Error! Reference source not found..
[1] For the first three months of 2002, Yahoo reported a net loss of $53.7m (£37.4m), its sixth straight quarter of losses. BBC News report April 10 2002. See: http://news.bbc.co.uk/low/english/business/newsid_1922000/1922246.stm. Amazon lost $23 million in the period Jan-March 2002 (compared with a loss of $234 million in the same quarter in 2001). BBC News report April 23 2002. See: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/business/newsid_1947000/1947069.stm.