Indian handloom market stands at around Rs 24,000 core and powered by 630 clusters and 600,000 cooperatives. But the artisans fail to get their true value, which makes them economically weak. GoCoop is a social marketplace addressing this issue by making their products available online and reducing the gap between producer and consumer.

GoCoop is a social marketplace for cooperatives and communities based enterprises to list and sell their produce online has inked an agreement with the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment to provide beneficiaries of NSFDC, NBCFDC, and NSKFDC - the constituent corporations under the ministry - a marketing platform, training, infrastructural and field-level services, and support to help their artisans get market prices for their products.

GoCoop Marketplace is focused on Handlooms and Handicrafts sectors. Its platform is based on a unique method (patent pending) of connecting buyer and sellers. Marketplace brings together these producer organizations of weavers, artisans to collectively market their produce online, thereby significantly reducing cost of marketing.

This move will also help to keep the rich traditional rural skills alive and bring their products within reach to the city consumers.

India has a number of unique and highly specialized art forms and weaves. If they don’t act now with fast changing fashion trends and readily available products, they may soon loss out the rich heritage as the rich designs and weaves will be soon extinct.

According to GoCoop founder Siva Devireddy, an individual weaver in India cannot sustain. There is a large need for marketing intervention for rural producers.

GoCoop launched in 2012, showcases products by 60,000 artisans from 20 clusters in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Orissa. Some big fashion retailers in the US and Europe are among its 6,000 customers

It aims to reach out to 100 clusters over the next three years, eventually supporting 1 million artisans on the platform. Currently, 40% of its sales are from B2B buyers. With the rise of ecommerce, several government agencies are looking to tie up with online marketplaces to boost presence and demand.