At a time when multi-million dollar deals and plans involving e-commerce biggies such as Flipkart and Amazon are flavour of the day, a Bangalore-based firm is offering an online marketing platform for weaver and artisan cooperatives silently, yet steadily marching ahead.
GoCoop, the portal, enthused by the response for its work in Karnataka, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana is looking to expand. “We are looking at seven more States in two years,” says Siva Devireddy, CEO and one of the promoters.
Explaining the roadmap pursued by the portal, in which seed stage impact investor Unitus Seed Fund and Indian Angel Network invested an undisclosed sum in December last year, he said over 9,000 products of 150 weaver and artisan co-operatives are marketed. The focus was on dealing directly with the producers.
RoadmapGoCoop identifies clusters renowned for handloom and handicraft products, particularly in States where the government intervention is largely through non-governmental organisations. Once identified, it works with the government departments concerned to train, offer operations support, and market the products. An office is established in the State and products from the cluster showcased on the portal, thereby providing an interface for the seller and buyer.
The model revolves around a subscription fee from the cooperatives and also charging a commission whenever a sale happens.
Soft launchFrom bulk buyers, the portal collects a service fee. Around 1,500 transactions, including bulk buyers from Indian and abroad, have happened since the soft launch in March last year, he said.
Noting the community approach was scalable, since the challenges of working with individual weavers involved production constraints and were process based, he said West Bengal, Assam, Jharkhand, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan figured in the expansion plan. For this, GoCoop would be requiring some more funds later this year, he said.
