StartupTalky

Tag: Home made Brands

  • Barriers Faced by Rural Businesses | Different Ways to Sell the Products Made by Villagers

    The article is contributed by Mr. Mahesh Choudhary, Founder & Chairman, Saraswati Global.

    Selling a product is not an easier task. It is an art to convince people to buy their products. While selling the products the buyer has to face barriers, must know about the strategies to sell, and the most significant is to know the differences between selling a product in a rural market and in a global market.

    What is the global market? The goods and services and labor can move freely across the globe. To establish good marketing in the global market a good knowledge of business must be the expertise of the person. Being a good business person we must know how to get consumers hooked with the products. Although it is difficult for all to sell their products and make it a well-known brand. But for villagers it is a demanding practice for them. There are a lot of barriers which they have to face before and during selling their products.

    The Barriers Villagers Face in Selling Their Products

    Reach/Access

    Access is one of the major barriers for the Villagers. It is difficult for the small entrepreneur to reach the consumers, give the information and Sell their products. With the limited electricity and little access to mass media, it is a challenge to reach consumers.

    Transportation

    Rural business people face a lot of lags due to lack of support and services. One of them is transportation. Transportation helps in movement of goods and services which ensure access according to customers, and act as a link between the producers and consumers. Transportation challenge factors include, lack of road maintenance, hike in fuel prices and vehicle services.

    Capital

    Capital, the most mandatory for business, acts as a barrier. The investment, capital amount, and money are significant for the commencement of business. But for rural entrepreneurs, it is the first barrier that they have to face to execute any business idea. Insufficient profit to cover overhead expenses can result from a lack of capital.

    Technology

    Entrepreneurs in urban cities generally use technological methods two manufacture their goods, because it cuts cost and time and gives a complete finish to the goods. But lack of proper knowledge in rural entrepreneurs affects the growth of their entrepreneurship. So they are completely based on labour work and handmade products, which take a lot of time to manufacture.

    Digitalisation

    Along with the lack of technology knowledge, rural entrepreneurs also don’t have a proper understanding of digitalisation which is hitting the global market vigorously. But improper knowledge of digitalisation adversely affects their entrepreneurship development.

    Competition

    One of the key successes to be a good entrepreneur is to beat the competitors in the market. This is the toughest key for the rural entrepreneurs to face existing competitors for their establishment. The existing competitors have good quality of resources and rural competitors lack them.

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    Lack of knowledge creates excessive fuss for rural entrepreneurs. Selling their manufactured products is a challenging task for them. So how can they deal with these? To tackle them rural entrepreneurs need support from NGOs and government as they can help them to promote rural enterprise.

    NGOs can help entrepreneurs by counselling them. By consulting rural entrepreneurs we can get to know resources and the requirements they need for the procedural activities. NGOs can help with their sources by providing them with enough resources to use for their activities.

    Government can help by providing a capital amount to small rural entrepreneurs. So that they could afford the requirements they need. Rural consumers nor rural entrepreneurs are able to operate smartphones which ultimately affects rural entrepreneurs. A counselling program can help them to train in it. Government can also arrange a counselling program to train them in every aspect of entrepreneurship. This can also lead them to digital and technological literacy.

    Lack of support and services can cause no profit in selling the products in the global market.

    Let’s find out the different ways where we can sell the product made by the Villagers.

    Ways to Sell Products Made by Villagers

    Personal Selling

    Face-to-face interaction selling is the best method for the rural marketer. Consumers search for reliable marketers. Here the customers can trust completely because they buy the products with their personal checks. This can lead to gaining trust and the buyers can also become regular consumers.

    Fairs and Exhibitions

    Fairs and exhibitions are like the part of the rural people. This is a great opportunity for entrepreneurs to launch and sell their products. A Lot of people come for entertainment. Through the different entertainment selling methods, consumers can easily attract to watch. With this method sometimes they also get convinced to buy them.

    E-COMMERCE

    E-commerce is on the rise as the trend of online shopping has become a trend in the last few years. E-Commerce is the marketplace where anybody can sell and buy their products. The online platform is not restricted to urban or rural people. Amazon, Flipkart, Etsy, craftvilla, etc are one of the E-Commerce platforms for buying and selling goods and services.

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    Social Media

    Along with e-commerce social media such as Instagram and Facebook are the best marketplace to create, sell and grow a brand. People mostly spend their time on social media. Since these platforms would have a wider reach to consumers.

    Channel Sales

    By channel sales, we know that it is the process of distribution of products to the market. It means the person can sell the product through the collaboration of another company.

  • The Pathbreaking Work Done iTokri Catering to the International Market for Handcrafted Fabrics & Artwork

    Insights shared by Mr. Nitin Pamnani, Co-Founder, iTokri

    iTokri as a brand believes in taking away the burden of sale from artisans and encouraging them to focus on their craft, ensuring that the artisans get due credit for their art by selling products under the artisan’s name on our platform. We should not forget that the artisans are the real creators and they must always have the freedom to create and grow themselves as an artist. Companies should aim to conserve and upgrade their traditional lifestyles. Artisans are an integral part of our social structure. Today, this is the responsibility of every entrepreneur and other business in India. Nowadays many brands use the technique of using the Stock & Sell Model where the goods/products physically remain with the brand when they are sold to make the best of the opportunity by connecting many artisans with their consumers where every product is quality checked.

    iTokri Team
    iTokri Team

    Working with the artisans through conducting consulting sessions where the brand’s purchase team explains the demand type from the international customers and buyers provides better analytical insights to them. Regulating the market performance and sharing them with the artisans give them an idea of various types of product categories, prices, etc. At the same time, putting in a lot of effort to understand the business demand and try to balance the consumer expectations and artisans’ work helps a lot. Focusing on art coming from across the country and not limiting it to only one or two geographical regions of India increases the worth of the collection and maintains the diversity that brands always look for which also remains a huge challenge in today’s time and age. Developing a propriety tool that helps with data modulation and building a machine learning module works well for many small businesses catering to international markets which in return helps improve purchase forecasting. This approach not only helps in forecasting demand and managing inventories but as a part of the value chain, helps the artisans to produce and understand the market demand better. It optimizes the purchased quantity leading to enhancing the production process.

    The ultimate goal is to create artisan-led crafts that support traditional artworks through restructuring and create better job opportunities for the rising generation paving the way to the international markets. An entrepreneurial approach should be taken for sustainable growth where groups, individual initiatives, and decisions do not get limited, making the collectives flexible enough to respond to market realities. To grow internationally, brands should focus on developing their e-commerce strategy to become multichannel brands, and to continue to create and introduce new products which are sustainable, modern yet comfort-driven. Also, women-led businesses are an added incentive to our economy. The increasing demand for Indian handicrafts resulting in an increase in women’s participation in a variety of roles, primarily from underprivileged strata of our society making significant contributions to the industry, has led them to become socially and financially self-independent. They get all the recognition and a fair amount compared to the market rate which helps the sellers sell their products efficaciously that builds their brand in a unique light in the process.

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    The D2C route has greatly helped current brands get a toehold across the markets where well-established brands have ruled. Long-established players, who have marked their presence over the time in offline retail and have intimidating distribution clout, are now starting to take the expeditiously growing online channels seriously to defend their overall market share. Moreover, the Aatmanirbhar Bharat movement has exhilarated Indian entrepreneurs to put made-in-India products on the global map, and this is where Indian brands are engraving a niche for themselves in the international market. The mission is to enable artwork communities to sustain their culture with systematic indoctrination and ecosystem building to create modern designs with traditional techniques for sustainable livelihoods through their craft.

  • Homegrown Fashion Brands Being Embraced Outside of Metropolitan India

    The article is contributed by Shivaani Jain – Co-Founder, TAGGD

    In this age of ‘new kind of fashionable’, it’s no longer uncool to sport homegrown labels. Back in 1991, the Indian economy opened doors and flooded the market with foreign goods. These were mostly lifestyle brands that Indians had long heard about, but never got to sample. Liberalisation also created the conditions for—maybe even inspired—indigenous creators to later prosper at home and also abroad.

    More than 30 years later, from those watershed weeks and months, Indian fashion designers – to name just one creative niche – are now making waves, among local as well as international clients. Once restricted to those with money to spend, fashion has become democratised as it has penetrated non-metropolitan India. And because it is online, it is widely available, accessible and affordable. No wonder it is being endorsed and embraced by millions who reside off the beaten metro track, who crave the same apparel and attire – casual, formal and informal – as their megalopolis-living counterparts, and also the same comforts and indulgences.

    Indeed, the bigger transformation is happening outside of Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore. Today, it is small-town India – small in size but certainly not in aspiration – that is shaping the India of the future, in terms of what it buys and even the lifestyle trends to come. So, what a Moradabad, a Coimbatore, a Nasik and a Cuttack thinks today, India will likely think the same tomorrow.

    The changing face of lifestyle

    This is not entirely unexpected, but it has been hastened by COVID-19, a process quickened by families being confined indoors and thus relying on e-commerce to take care of their desires as much as their needs. The pandemic brought home to us that life indeed is short, and we might as well make the most of it while we’re at it. So, if wearing that funky outfit, or that sexy one-piece (designed by one of us) allows us to feel good, why not indulge?

    Unsurprisingly, it’s the digital revolution that has made e-commerce accessible to Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets, thanks to the government’s Digital India initiative. This has enabled fashion and other brands alike to target the country’s non-metro towns and cities as future growth areas while giving the clientele here options besides the tried-and-tested names, and the opportunity to stay in touch with the latest trends in the fashion domain.

    Because, when it comes to fashion, brands and collections are the same almost everywhere, and online shoppers are not guaranteed any exclusivity when they go looking to add to their wardrobes. Hence, now, they are more than willing to try out – and accept – labels that don’t come with the big-city tag, and to experiment with brands that are new to the market, and of which little is known.

    In fact, the very thought of helping homegrown brands from locations off the fashion radar, in towns and cities away from the major urban centers, has empowered patrons in these places to own and wear such labels with pride. And while the brands may lack the staying power and cachet of the top-of-the-line labels, they do understand the power and magic of digital. So, assisted by on-off lockdowns and a population habituated to virtual shopping, they are evolving by adapting to the digital savviness of the consumer as well as the changing face of the industry.

    The success of homegrown brands has been further driven by the ubiquity and high impact of influencers. Alongside, the rise of influencer marketing has given small-city youth a platform to leverage their presence on social media and earn a decent living. Fashion offers rewards as much as it lifts spirits and boosts confidence.

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    At home with fashion

    The well-heeled and well-travelled may still opt for high-street chains such as Zara, Marks & Spencer or H&M (among many others) but a growing number of Indians are much less hung up about the ‘name’ than their predecessors once were. And the reason behind this change is the fact that there are many more indigenous designers and labels out there, a majority of them boasting creations of great standards, and more than capable of giving British, European and American brands a good run for their money.

    Moreover, these made-in-India brands are nowhere near as overpriced as some of their international counterparts are. In fact, they are very reasonable on the average middle-class pocket, offering fashion and lifestyle that is affordable for you and me.

    The metros may be where all the action is, but hidden from the eyes of many metro denizens is what’s happening in India’s Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. Already, girls and boys from these urban spaces form a sizeable chunk of service economy across the country. This is a demographic that is growing, and it is one that will constitute a greater part of the workforce of tomorrow’s India. And, as their profiles grow, so do their ambitions. These confident Indians seek nothing but the best—in clothes and accessories, in gadgets and cars, in holidays and experiences.

    There are e-commerce marketplaces and e-retailers successfully catering to and answering this swelling demand. Yet, while women’s wear and menswear might make up the bulk of the sales, Mrs and Mr are just as interested in jewellery, cosmetics and home décor—and when it comes to clothes, their junior or teen daughters and sons don’t want to be left behind.

    It really is a whole new ecosystem – of hip and homegrown fashion and lifestyle brands, and their customers who are looking to keep themselves up-to-date with the latest trends. And in this ecosystem, the fashion influencers are key facilitators, playing an important role by sharing styling ideas and tips—to bring out the best in you, to make you look good.

    Thankfully, gone are the days when fashion in India was a preserve of the elite and the wealthy, and that is surely for the better. Because its increasing inclusivity has exposed the majority of Indians to lifestyle choices they never had. It’s of little surprise, then, that homegrown brands are making a beeline for Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, for it is here that cash registers are ringing at their loudest. When it comes to fashion, there’s no more happening place in the country than the small-town India of big dreams.