Walmart-owned Flipkart on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Uttar Pradesh Khadi & Village Industries Board (UPKVIB) under its Samarth programme launched in July this year to onboard Indian artisans, handicraft makers, and weavers on its platform to sell. Through the MoU, Flipkart will collaborate with the UPKVIB registered affiliates working in the arts, textile and handicrafts space in the state to sell khadi fabrics and other village industries products online, Flipkart said in a statement. Under the Samarth initiative, artisans onboard are given incubation support along with help in cataloguing, account management, dedicated seller support, warehousing etc.
Through online channel or e-commerce, “the current generation has great opportunities to market their products across India and make a better living,” said Dr Navneet Sehgal, CEO, UPKVIB.
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Working with local communities and government bodies in small cities has been in focus for Flipkart as it envisions to bring onboard next 100 million customers from India’s tier-II cities and beyond. The company, which is the midst of its annual sale — Big Billion Days had in September announced onboarding close to 27,000 kirana stores based in 700 cities to help them sell their products to its 160 million users.
Flipkart competes with Amazon in India’s e-commerce market even as Reliance would soon be launching its own e-commerce portal. The company had also signed a similar MoU in September with the Jharkhand government to help the state’s artisans, weavers and craftsmen sell on its marketplace platform under its Samarth programme.
Amazon too in August this year had launched its programme Amazon Karigar, as part of the Make in India programme, for handcrafted and handmade products by engaging with government and handicraft bodies, training craftsmen and getting them on its platform to sell. The Karigar store according to Amazon in August showcases more than 55,000 products from 20 states.
