9         Appendices

 

9.1      Overview of selected e-commerce craft sites

 

As part of this research project, interviews were conducted with a number of e-commerce businesses and organisations selling craft goods. This overview of selected sites concludes with a summary of lessons learned in the last two years (section 9.1.9).

 

9.1.1      Viatru (USA)

In 1999 Derek and Michelle Long founded the US e-commerce site www.world2market.com ‘to promote the products and talents of artisans around the world’. A limited range of craft products was sourced indirectly via US fair trade importers, and directly from selected producer groups, with stock warehoused in Seattle.

 

Although they secured significant media coverage, and generated a growing number of hits to their e-commerce site, sales were insufficient to support a self-sustaining business. Moreover they faced stiff competition from other new US craft e-commerce stores, notably Eziba (www.eziba.com, section 9.1.5) and Novica (www.novica.com, section 9.1.4), who had attracted significant funding (Eziba, for example, received a capital injection from Amazon and others of $40 million).

 
 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


World2market’s backers recognised that the company was unlikely to reach sales targets, and requested the founders and their team to find a new business model. The result, in 2000, was ViaTru: a digital media services company set up to advise retailers, companies and other organisations on how to incorporate principles of fair trade, environmental sustainability and transparency into their business activities.


 

‘Viatru was founded to provided specialised retail services supporting sustainable products. It is our philosophy that transparent access to information should be available to anyone, anywhere. Consumers deserve to know where products are made, by who, and under what condition.’

 

(Viatru information sheet Everyone, everywhere shares the dream of a better life).

 

Viatru has been involved in a number of activities to promote its aims:

 

·        starting the ‘Visible Commerce Forum’: the first stage of a portal to share information to help craft producers export fairly traded craft goods to the USA. Other organisations who provided information and data included: Body Shop International; Oxfam International; the US designer Docey Lewis; and the US ATO SERRV. The aim was to develop the forum into an interactive exchange for producers, with constantly updated market information (such as design, colour and seasonal trends).

 

·        ‘Digital story-telling’: developing demonstration on-line multimedia presentations to communicate the stories of products and producers to end consumers. ‘By creating web-based, digital windows into the communities where the product came from, consumers are able to see the journey of the product, and the people that stand behind it, giving consumers their first ‘digital window’ in the products’ source.’ Such presentations could be made on a web-site, cd-rom or shown on a point-of-sale multimedia kiosk.

 

·        continuing to develop relationships with craft producers, local ngos and other organisations to act as a ‘broker’ to US retailers, helping them identify sources of sustainable products (such as coffee, timber or handicrafts)

 

Although Viatru was in discussion with the major coffee-chain Starbucks, and had worked with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, to help them source linen from India (woven using a 17th century design in the museum’s collection) the company could not find sufficient clients, and was unable to secure funding to continue operations. Viatru ceased operations in April 2001, with its web site and office operations ceasing immediately.

 

Founders Derek and Michelle Long hoped to develop a non-profit organisation, the Sustainable Enterprise Portal, to continue promoting fair and transparent trade, environmental sustainability, and corporate citizenship.

 

As at April 2002, they and some other former staff members of Viatru had had set up the Seattle-based non-profit Transparency Centre (www.transparencycenter.org).

 

Some of the information resources from the former Viatru site are included on the accompanying cd: see section 9.9.3.

 

9.1.2      PEOPLink (USA)

PEOPLink (www.peoplink.org) has been instumental in training many IFAT producer groups in digital media skills, and gave a series of workshops and presentations at the IFAT conference in Tanzania in June 2001. IFAT and their members have been highly appreciative of their work, which has helped many groups to create digital catalogues of samples, set up their first web pages (often published on the PEOPLink site), and use digital photography to enhance the process of product development (see section 8.3).

 
 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


PEOPLink was established as a non-profit organisation in 1996, founded by Daniel Salcedo. Dan Salcedo had experience helping artisans in Central America market their products, and was Peace Corp Country Director for the Dominican Republic. PEOPLink was established with support from the World Bank, USAID and others. It continues to receive support from international donors and company foundations, such as the Skoll Community Fund (set up by Ebay founder Jeff Skoll).[1]

 

Their web site features details on many hundreds of products, with images and descriptions, from over 100 artisan groups from 30 countries. Products can be ordered over the Internet, paid for by credit card. The site also links to the homepages of many producer groups: though these are not always well-maintained.

 

Sales of craft products from the PEOPLink web site have been generally disappointing: no craft producer we spoke to had sold products from the site. The site itself has not changed markedly during the course of this research (April 2000-March 2002).

 

However PEOPLink has developed a new second-generation e-commerce site for artisans, CatGen, at www.catgen.org. This is a sophisticated ‘catalogue generator’, developed as an XML-enabled open source application for use by craft producers and other businesses to promote their products. The software can be downloaded free of charge, and can be used to create a searchable catalogue of samples which can be posted to the CatGen site, or indeed to the producer’s own web site. On the CatGen site, catalogues can be searched by keyword, country and region, displaying results as small jpeg images with product specifications. (In March 2002 the site was under development, with demonstration product catalogues only.)[2]

 

In response to feedback from users, refinements have been added, such as the facility to password-protect pages, enabling them to be viewed only by selected contacts (eg known wholesale and retail buyers).

 

CatGen software version 2 was introduced in December 2001, and is described to be in use by 40 artisan groups to promote 3,000 craft products. According to the site CatGen is expecting to add e-commerce facilities, such as shopping cart and credit/debit card processing by the end of March 2002; as well as consolidation of orders to save on shipping costs.

 

Although it remains to be seen if CatGen will be any more successful than the PEOPLink site in terms of promoting and selling craft goods on-line, there is no doubt that PEOPLink have been instrumental in helping many craft groups discover the Internet and to promote their goods on-line. Their free catalogue-generating software catgen, and accompanying regional training, has also helped many groups organise and catalogue their products more efficiently than previously: enhancing the service they can provide to existing buyers and contacts.

 

Extracts of an interview with Surendra Shahi, formerly with Mahaguthi Handicrafts, Nepal, responsible for PEOPLink’s Trading Partner Liaison, is included in section 9.9.3.

 

9.1.3      OneNest (USA)

OneNest, founded in Spring 2000, is an on-line market place, bringing together craft producers and retail and wholesale buyers. Sellers include importers and exporters, and artisan groups; buyers include boutiques, department stores, ‘etailers’ and catalogue companies.

 

OneNest therefore focuses on the b2b market (business to business): and requires buyers to register before they can access the searchable marketplace. The main content is not accessible by individual consumers.