Textile ministry brings in Flipkart an online marketing platform to boost handloom sales

The Ministry of Textiles to provide marketing support has taken initiatives such as organisation of domestic marketing events, participation in international fairs and buyer-seller meets etc. But, in the present scenario of online marketing and net savvy consumers, there is a need to provide an online marketing platform to handloom industry so that exquisite handloom products from remote villages are made available to discerning buyers.

The Ministry of Textiles decided to bring in Flipkart to boost the handloom sector, empower the weaver and boost manufacturing in India. Flipkart will provide an online marketing coverage to the handloom sector. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) has been signed between Ministry of Textiles and Flipkart India Pvt Ltd.

The MoU was signed in the presence of the Minister of State (Independent Charge) Textiles, Santosh Kumar Gangwar and Ankit Nagori, VP, Marketplace, Flipkart and other officials of the Ministry of Textiles.

This partnership will connect the artisans directly to the buyers and the guidance by Flipkart in packaging, collecting and delivering to the buyer will motivate the artisans in rural India.

Flipkart’s aim is to provide an online marketing platform along with infrastructural support in data analytics and customer acquisition to help the handloom sector get remunerative prices for their products and scale up their business.

The main advantage of this tie-up is that this kind of coordinated effort has been planned and executed for the first time with Flipkart for handloom weavers, which will bridge the missing linkages of market intelligence, market access and logistics, and help the Indian weavers in getting better remunerative prices for their products.

Flipkart will provide an online marketplace for sale of the products made by weavers, master craftsmen, national and state level awardees, and others as advised by the Development Commissioner for Handlooms. Towards this end, they will go to the doorsteps of those mentioned previously, since they do not have the brand and the financial wherewithal to have a store, forget the town, but not even in their village, and no wherewithal to travel to market their products. Flipkart or their business partners will also have collection centers to collect their products.

Flipkart, with its access to the largest customer base in the country, aims to help weavers make optimal use of the available data to guide entrepreneurs and artisans on areas such as deciding on the right selling price, payment automation, proper packaging, transportation, and brand building etc.

According to officials from the Ministry of Textiles, Flipkart will help the weavers focus only on producing better saleable product ranges. This, in turn, will help them plan their production and inventory, and expand their business, thus revolutionising manufacturing in rural India and encouraging entrepreneurship.