Artisanal products round the globe are the torchbearers of a community's identity in terms of its local culture, history and tradition .The artisans of these indigenous clusters have been marketing their ware directly to the local buyers, tourists and through middlemen to export-markets throughout history. The very fact that the local artisans need to work with the middlemen for marketing their products to the upscale handicraft boutiques, art galleries and import stores, tells upon their financial output. Nevertheless these establishments buy their pieces of arts and crafts at very high prices, at the end of it all the local artisans are left with just a fraction of the profit.
The very implementation of on-line marketing can alleviate the problem of the middlemen and the artisanal clusters can sell their products gaining fairly from their input. This is one of the major contributions of the ICT sector, enabling the local artisans throughout the world to make themselves not only noticeable but also most importantly with a number of sites devoted to providing skills-training and capacity building component with profit as a goal, these artisans can spread world wide. For instance the Ecosandals.com is a handicraft site made by an American and a Kenyan, promotes training programmes to the youths in the slums of Nairobi to make sandals out of used car tires. This has led to a high flow of orders, i.e upto 60000 pairs of tire sandals till date.
The New York Times magazine once covered Mongolia's Snow Leopard Enterprises that combines wildlife conservation and handicraft production. This online store sells handicrafts by Mongolian herdsmen who proclaim to save the endangered snow leopard s. On the other hand there is another site called the Grupo Ebanistas who aim at the North American bed and breakfast market. This website places custom made interior decor in bed and breakfasts throughout the continent and in return the small and medium sized hotels help the artisans in marketing an upgraded furniture to guests, thus making high price markets more accessible to the master craftsmen. Eziba.com, a more traditional e-commerce website focuses on handicrafts from less developed countries .Other such websites serving the less developed communities of the world are eShopAfrica.com, selling artisanal products from Ghana; AfricanCraft providing web hosting and advertising services ; Globalcrafts concentrating on the Kenyan crafts and last but not the least ECOMERZ marketing environment-friendly handicrafts from Columbia. Global Marketplace cater to only the retailers who exhibit handicrafts in speciality boutiques throughout North America.Yet another site SEERVE offers clients fair prices for its close affiliation with the International Federation of Alternative Trade, a leading Fair Trade group. NOVICA specializes in made-to-order goods , thus connecting interested buyers directly with the concerned arttisans.KeralCraft and Naushad Training Company are traditional handicraft exporters who have established an online service off late.Indian artisanal products are easily accessible through the internet. Some of them are Speciality Sandals, Hand-woven Silk and also a Westernized e-commerce store that provides a noticeable platform for the once-remote markets.
Apart from providing the basic e-commerce platform for the artisans , ICT takes initiatives in launching several innovative business projects. For instance the Maryland-based company, PEOPLink is an NGO helping the artisans in several remote countries round the developing world. It equips and trains local artisans to use ICTs for wares-marketing, with latest digital camera usage, allowing them to update the websites with the photographs of their products as well as stories of their work, thus establishing a personal link with the consumers by enlightening them about the craft and its origins.
Another e-commerce platform called the ECom4Dshop is a Singapore based site ,that provides web hosting ,product display and online transaction security software for Asian handicraft artisans .It forms a major link between the local producers and the first-world buyers, by arranging safe shipping and handling customs and logistics issues for member artisans. Another World Bank project, The Artisan Enterprise Network provides the artisans with an easy access to market facts, best practices, business lessons and new technologies, thus helping them participate in the international market, Virtual Souk provides the North African artisans access to craft guides, training modules and international marketing services.
Apart from this a major contribution of a number of handicraft NGOs lies in harnessing the power of ICT to capture markets for artisans from less developed countries. For example, in India the NGO India Social takes initiatives in forming a bridge between artisans on the similar line like woodcarving, and brassware to acquire more and more profit. This leads to a creation of custers and ICT equips the artisans with the knowledge of marketing, advertising and most importantly the very social , historical and cultural set up they work in.
The Foundation of Occupational Development’s Inter-City Marketing Network of Women Micro-Entrepreneurs of India uses cellular technology to link women’s community –based organization. This enables these women to stay connected and make arrangements to buy and sell crafts from all over the country. Many crafts producers are low-income women, whose use of ICTs for marketing and sales allows them to transcend traditional gender roles that often prevent them from leaving their houses. One such program is the Nepal-based HipKnit , which teaches rural, low –income women important business and computer skills, enabling them to market their hand-knitted sweaters and other items over the Internet.
The Bosnian Handicrafts is another such NGO that focuses on enabling the low-income women artisans in marketing their wares in the international market. It started way back in the days of the Yugoslavia’s civil war. Other web sites focusing on the empowerment of women clusters round the globe are Mexico’s Artesans Campesinas and the Rupununi Weaver’s Society which is a women’s cooperative in Guyana producing museum quality silk hammocks using traditional techniques and materials and then marketing through their online store.
Connecticut-based NGO Aid to Artisans is a resource for general information about handicrafts projects in the developing world.Their site includes 'recommended reading' and 'recommended links' pages for those interested in learning more.