Social Commerce & Enterprise 2017

Initiative: Unstring a story
Organization: Jaipur Rugs
Facebook: @jaipur.rugs
Twitter: @jaipurrugs
Website: www.jaipurrugsco.com

Pulling a yarn of stories

Unstring a Story is an initiative to bring a traditional connect to untraveled India. In the arid region of the Great Thar Desert, nestles a beautiful village named Kakku, which is home to thousands of women spinners who make some of India’s finest hand spun yarn. Jaipur Rugs celebrates the efforts of these women, strives to sustain the age-old craft, and bring in the true essence of one-of-a-kind in handmade carpets.

Started in 2017, the concept of Unstring a Story was based on the theme of ‘charkha’. Under this project, an Unstring wall has been built to spread and share happiness with an objective to connect both ends: artisans and the customers. Further, customers have been educated on the lifestyle and hard work of women spinners at the grassroots. An activity called ‘Gift a Pom-Pom and Get One Back’ has also been crafted where beautiful handmade pom-pom keychains, created by the spinners from Kakku, are gifted to the customers who buy the rugs.

Unstring a story has been recognised as a Winner for the year 2017 in the category Social Commerce & Enterprise for promoting hand-spun textiles by small scale artisans

Initiative: ishippo.com
Organization: iShippo
Facebook: @askishippo
Twitter: @askishippo
Website: www.ishippo.com

Building an online community of craftmakers

iShippo is a marketplace and a craft-makers’ community where people from around the country come together to buy, sell and interact. The marketplace offers a creative online destination that supports local makers and indie businesses. Their mission is to support local artists and artisans by connecting them with customers across the globe. iShippo believes that their partners are their users, and so they strive to ensure that it is constantly evolving to fit their buyers’ and sellers’ needs.

With the goal to sustain a marketplace that artists can call their own, iShippo also tackles poverty by providing a market linkage platform for creative artisans, craftsmen, manufacturers from rural India to showcase and sell their handmade products to a global customer base, helping traditionally skilled communities develop products that appeal to modern markets and creating consistent demand for sustainable businesses. The iShippo website offers products for sale ranging from home decor and apparel to accessories and food products. The website also provides information on the crafts from different parts of the country, with details about the place of origin, artisans, regional culture and social significance of the product.

iShippo has received a Special Mention for the year 2017 in the category Social Commerce & Enterprise for providing an online platform for local artisans to sell their products to a global customer base.