Govt textile units tie up with e-commerce to get a wider customer base globally

Government units, especially textiles as one of their major brand building exercise and with India high on digitalization are tying up with ecommerce platforms to get a wider customer base globally. Many weaves from different states will now be made available on ecommerce platforms like Flipkart, eBay, Amazon, Snapdeal and others.

While most of the state handloom bodies already have a website of their own to sell their produce but they are now opting for e-commerce platforms. Department of Industries, Government of Bihar has signed MoU with IndianRoots.com for a period of five years. Under the agreement IndiaRoots would be exclusively selling products from Upendra Maharathi Shilp Anusandhan Sansthan and Banka Silk, a handloom brand from Bihar.

According to IndiaRoots CEO Rahul Narvekar such tie ups give the weav er’s produce an edge over what they would put up for direct selling. Just a couple of months back a Bhaglapuri artisan was selling a hand painted sari with the complete tale of Ramayana for just Rs 4000 but IndianRoot got in touch with the weavers and gave the product their expertise of commercial viability and sold the same saris for Rs 26,000, he said. This is possible as ecommerce sites also come in with their existing loyal clientele.

Narvekar is also getting the department of textile and handloom of Government of Odhisa on board to market and sell their ikkat and bomkai silks.

Andhra Pradesh State Handloom Weavers Cooperative Society (APCO) has tied up with Snapdeal, with a MoU signed a fortnight back. All the products that they sell on their own website will be available on Snapdeal alongside a special range of products before Dussera, said Johar Basha, MD, APCO.

Basha who is also in talks with Flipkart and ebay said tht these initiatives are targeted towards getting more international clients who may not be savvy with APCO’s own website.

The state government is also driving the e-commerce bandwagon and has launched programmes targeting the festive season rush.

Hand painted Bhagalpuri silks, traditional ikkats from Orissa, Gadwal silks from Andhra and many more such weaves would now be made available on platforms like Flipkart, Amazon, eBay and others.