Our platform is open to anyone selling handmade products: Karma Bhutia

The handicraft is one of the largest employment generating sectors in India and accounts for a significant share in the country’s exports. According to the provisional data available from the exports of Handicrafts, it shows an increase of 2091.26 crores from 16989.51 to 19080.77 crores, which is an increase of 12.31%.
Finding an opportunity in the handicraft sector, iShippo was founded by Karma Bhutia. This startup is aimed at connecting people who want to sell and buy hand crafted goods.
Retailer Media had a candid conversation with Karma Bhutia to know more about his startup.

How was the idea of your Start-up conceptualised?
I’ve been in the IT industry for over 2 decades and have been observing tremendous transformation in these years. In 2004, I co-founded an IT services company and by March 2015 my company got acquired. We had built a reputation for ourselves by building a lot of cool stuff for many established companies like Apple, HP, SAP, Dell & startups like Cleartrip, HolidayIQ, TaxiForSure etc. My team and I had been providing IT services for over a decade and creating high voltage value for everybody else.
I wanted to create something valuable and sustainable & that’s how iShippo started. Initially we started out trying to solve the logistic challenge that prevails in our country, but we quickly realised that there were many security & regulatory hurdles that needed to be resolved. Hence, we pivoted into a marketplace for hand crafted products because we observed that it was completely underserved market and we had the right skills, tools and the execution process to service this market.

What is the need that you are addressing to?
iShippo.com is an online eCommerce marketplace where people from around the world connect to make, sell and buy handcrafted goods. At iShippo, we began a fascinating journey, a humble attempt to bring India a little closer to the world. iShippo was founded in April 2015 and is headquartered in Bangalore, India.
We partnered with artisanal communities, textile designers, and independent artists to showcase their creations. We believe in sharing stories and celebrating how each handmade object can represent something much bigger than itself.
Our mission is to honour & support artisans/craftsmen, create a sustainable way of doing business/commerce, while using the power of Internet & eCommerce to bring together communities and empower people. iShippo is recognised as one of the top 5 eCommerce startups to look out for in 2016 - by TechNewsToday - USA.
As a marketplace, we curate unique products from fun jewelry and cool accessories to creative home decor and kitchen items. Everything we carry is handmade and often one-of- a-kind that provides aesthetics and function. These products have an element of individual craft, manual skill and handwork.

How much potential do you observe in the handicraft industry?
The states and regional clusters contribute significantly to handicrafts export. The Indian handicrafts industry is fragmented and has more than 7 million regional artisans and more than 67,000 exporters/export houses promoting regional art and craftsmanship in the domestic and global markets.
Our current path is to continuously improve our platform, our technology, our outreach to designers, artisans, sellers & buyers.

Can eCommerce uplift the handicraft industry and the talent of local artisans to a new level? How?
In India, there are more than 2000 traditional skill-based clusters covering various skills from textile designing, handicrafts, glass, leather and brass goods to wooden industries. However, most of those working in the sector are suffering from exploitation, poor living conditions, extremely low wages and inaccessibility to direct market.
Keeping this in mind, iShippo.com, a startup, offers a marketplace to buy/sell creative handcrafted products that supports local makers, artist, craftsmen, self-help groups, NGO and other businesses. Its mission is to support local artisans by connecting them with designers & buyers from across the globe.
iShippo.com will work to bring due recognition and economic prosperity to these communities of weavers, craftsmen and local makers. We are transparent with our dealings and measure our success with that of our sellers and our community. We admire the unconventional and cherish the bold.

What have been the major challenges in the journey that you have traded so far?
One of the biggest challenges was dealing with an unorganised sector on the supply forefront, which was patronised by folks who don’t purchase unless they can touch or feel the products.
As a startup, there are many moving parts when venturing out on your own: acquiring customers, acquiring sellers, balancing the marketplace (supply/demand), customer satisfaction, social media, marketing, etc.  In my opinion, having basic knowledge on best practices in these is crucial to running your business on a day-to-day operation but you still have to hire A players who are dedicated to their craft.
There are just so many variables at play that it is impossible to create a winning formula right out of the gate. But it is really up to you on what you feel are the best ways to approach it, how you build, how you plan and how you execute to scale.

What is the selection procedure for choosing the right artists/craftsmen and products for your platform?
Our platform is open to anyone selling handmade products. We have a team that is responsible for the selection, curation and audit process. Once a seller registers to sell products on our platform, our team will get in touch with him/her for on further boarding process. All products are verified for quality and authenticity by the team.

How do you manage the logistics part and what is the total run-time for delivering a product?
Finding providers who can offer the service levels required at a competitive price is challenging when you don’t have historic volume to rely on. We have partnered with some of the best logistics companies like Delhivery, FedEx and Ecom Express.

How has been the product response in tier II and tier III cities?
The response has been good overall. Tier II and III cities today are no more restricted to their geographical area of business, with the online marketplace giving them a national platform to expand their market.
The growth opportunity is massive as the purchasing potential is going to be huge from these areas.

Kindly share your expansion plans in terms of Pan India presence?
Having launched the operations and having partnered with Ministry of Textiles - Government of India, we have been tasked out with a huge mandate and will start raising a Series A round to spruce growth and build fulfillment capacity.
Investors are attracted primarily towards the business and what we are trying to do in the space that we operate in.  We are an ambitious, motivated and gritty bunch of people, who are creating a business that will provide value to our stakeholders, sellers, buyers, artisans, designers and investors.