Bangalore, August 8, 2016: GoCoop, an online Marketplace established with the objective of providing a platform to weaver and artisan co-operatives and community based enterprises in rural India, has received the 1st National Award for outstanding contribution in the field of 'Marketing of Handloom Products (e-Commerce)’.
GoCoop’s Founder & CEO, Mr. Siva Devireddy received the award from Hon. Textiles Minister, GOI Smt. Smriti Irani at the Celebration of 2nd National Handloom Day in Varanasi on August 7th. GoCoop is the first organisation to receive the award in this category.
We are proud of this achievement and take the opportunity to thank our weavers & artisans, customers, partners & team in supporting us through this journey says Siva Devireddy. He also mentioned that he is very thankful to the encouraging leadership of the Textile Ministry and Development Commissioner Handlooms, GOI. This focus on technology and direct linkage of weavers with market should bring in positive change in the handloom industry in the years to come.
The India Handloom Brand was launched on the 1st National Handloom Day last year & GoCoop is an empanelled eCommerce platform by DC Handlooms, Ministry of Textiles, Government of India to provide online eCommerce Marketplace platform to market & sell India Handloom Brand & other handloom products. The platform currently supports weavers & artisans from over 8 states, 40 clusters, 250 co-operatives with over 50,000 artisans selling over 20,000 products.
Mr Siva Devireddy, Founder & Managing Director, GoCoop.com says, India is officially estimated to have over 9 million artisans and we are gradually seeing a decline not only in the livelihoods but also in our traditional arts and crafts in the process. The key challenge faced today by our weavers and artisans is the inadequate demand and unfair pricing for their produce. There is an urgent need to create better market access for our artisans and weavers and make the markets more equitable to the producers.
GoCoop unlike other eCommerce portals actually works closely with the co-operatives & community based organisations in the Handloom clusters to enable them to sell their products online and in the process of packing and shipping the products. GoCoop also supports the artisans in merchandising and product development through trainings & educational workshops. The objective is to not only provide marketing linkage but also improve their design, quality and efficiency in the process.
GoCoop started the #ILoveHandlooms movement last year to celebrate the love for Handlooms. This campaign was an initiative to encourage handloom lovers to share their stories & reasons for their love for handlooms & reinstate pride in wearing handlooms which is indeed the need of the hour.
GoCoop aims to change and enable sustainable livelihoods for weavers & artisans through global marketplace http://www.GoCoop.com