Find a market for our Nepali woolen products
Status: 
Step:
1
There is currently an order of 500 pieces of the woolen products for the women who passed the first skills training. However, there is no perspective yet for what will happen after the 2 months that the production is ongoing for this order. Fortunately the Association of Craft Producers also said they would put an order. But of course a more stable income would be of great benefit to the women!
Are you a marketing specialist? The first important thing would be to do market research. There are currently 25 knitters who can produce
Knitters can knit 2 hats per day
Gloves 2 pairs per day
Socks 2 pairs per day
1 Sweater per weak (simple design) - if the design is difficult, it will take more time to knit.
minimum price list of woolen products (simple design)
Muffler: $ 6.00
Jumper/Sweater: $ 20.00
Caps with ear: $ 5.00
Gloves: $ 2.00
Socks: $ 4.00
The price may vary as per size, design and patterns.
Hi all,
The ebay option looks great and if things could work out and they place a large enough order that would be great.
The ebay idea reminded me of something I had seen a long long time ago. There is an organisation in Kathmandu, Nepal called Third World craft nepal - a non-profit organization dedicated to empower artisans and disadvantaged women. the website is
http://www.thirdworldcraft.com/EN/third_world_craft.html
They also have an ebay store
http://stores.ebay.com/thirdworldcraft_W0QQsspagenameZMEQ3aFQ3aSTQQtZkm
However they sell limited things on their ebay store.
They sell a lot of things that are handmade by artisans in Nepal. They are also proponents of Fair trade ( So am I, and I would love Yoshinkel to be a part of it).
Their contact info is
Lazimpat, W.N. 2, Kathmandu, Bagmati, 15142, PPC 334, Nepal
Main Contact : Narendra Shahi
Technical Contact : Rina
Phone : 977-1-2090500, 4414670
Email : thirdworld@wlink.com.np
I am pretty sure one of our neighbors in Nepal can easily get in touch with them and talk with them about the Yoshinkhel Project. I am really hoping this works. I won't be in Nepal till August. I wish I was there to help out with this.
BTW, here is a direct link to their woolen products offerings
http://www.thirdworldcraft.com/EN/woolen_sweater.html
Finally, they also provide micro-loans to artisan groups
http://www.thirdworldcraft.com/EN/100027108.html
Hope all this helps.
Regards
Freddie
Dear Angelika,
when you enter Ganji-La’s webshop, you’ll find all the product categories on the left hand side. Woollen products are actually at the end of that list (see file attached for exact web-address and where to find the correct categories).
Considering that the prices you find there include freight and profit for Ganji-La, do you think you’d be interested in selling through them?
Anyway, I’ll send them an e-mail now, to find out whether they are generally interested to source from new suppliers.
Still haven’t heard from ebay yet. Will send them another message.
Best wishes to you all!
Antje
Dear Angelika, for your info please find attached the e-mail I've sent to Ganja-La. Antje
Dear all,
When I was just about to contact ebay Germany again, I realized I was on the wrong trail. Because it really doesn’t matter where you are registered - shipment will always be from Nepal.
But I wondered why it is that when a buyer leaves location unticked or ticks world-wide different products lists come up. I assumed in both cases all products world-wide that sellers are willing to ship to my address will come up.
Therefore, I contacted ebay US. This is much nicer than contacting ebay Germany where you send an e-mail and then wait for an answer for days. In ebay US you can have an online chat directly with hotline staff. I enclose the entire conversation with ebay US for your info. It was pretty confusing and I’ve colored some things in to highlight the main points and make it more readable.
The quintessence of what came out of this conversation is:
• You have to register with your local ebay i.e. India – no chance of registering elsewhere (unless you have an address there)
• Being registered elsewhere e.g. US would help for your products to come up when people search on ebay US. But nothing can be done about it – you can’t register in the US or elsewhere - but only in India.
• If people tick world-wide more world-wide offers come up. If they leave location unticked mainly only local sellers appear. Most people will leave it unticked, I suppose. That is to your disadvantage. But again you can do nothing about this..
• What you have to do to be searchable on all ebay sites is to state under the shipment option that you ship world-wide.
• What you can do to increase your chances beyond that, is
a) to state in your product description which places you are willing to sell to (in addition to the shipment option that states that anyway – apparently it helps – and I’ve seen traders do it)
and b) when selling to Europe to have multi-lingual product descriptions because buyers will search in their own language – or try out to put items up on ebay in only German for the German speaking markets - only French - only Italian etc. - this may produce even better results - you would have to experiment whether this increases your sales or not
Best wishes
Antje
Dear Angelika,
just now the answer from ebay Germany has come in. They say, contrary to ebay US, that since there is no ebay Nepal you can register with whatever ebay you choose.
I enclose their reply for your reference.
Best wishes
Antje
Hi everybody,
Antje, Thank you so much for your research:) I agree with Angelika that Yoshinkhel will benefit from a registered store on Ebay. Sabina, what do you think- do you want to follow the eBay USA advice and seek a way to register in India or do you prefer to register somewhere else? Is anybody in Nepal focusing on the plethora of microfinancing leads we have generated by now?
Is Yoshinkhel past its money troubles?Any updates from the students in Denmark?
Happy Holidays,
Tanja
I contacted Third World Craft with a proposal to carry the woolen products produced by Yoshinkhel. They are a non-profit organization dedicated to empower artisans and disadvantaged women.
http://www.thirdworldcraft.com/EN/third_world_craft.html
They have gotten back to me with this message:
" Hello Freddie,
It would be good to see sample of your products. I would suggest you come with few piece of sample at our office at Lazimpat. And if necessary then we will visit your knitting groups.
Thanks
Surendra "
If Sabina Didi or someone else in Nepal could make the time and effort to go visit them with some sample products that would be great.
Their contact info is:
Contact Name: Surendra Shahi or Narendra Shahi
Lazimpat, W.N. 2, Kathmandu, Bagmati, 15142, PPC 334, Nepal
Telephone: 977-1-2090500, 4414670
Sabina Didi, Please let me know when you can so that I can get back to them.
Regards,
Freddie
Dear Angelika,
We think it is a good idea to take everything into account, but we simply cannot look at every option. Since others have been researching options such as ebay successfully, we will not look at these options and focus on institutions including importers. Right now we are contacting different organisations and we are exploring the possibilities to set up a website and if this works out, we will create the framework of the website.
Kind regards
Dear all,
Thanks for your great fruitful research!!!
Third World Craft sounds great, especially if they also have a micro-loan option...
For ebay I guess it would be great to get someone on board who has experience with online stores...we would need a person to
- take care of the store: registration, keeping photos up-to-date, being in contact with customers, etc.
- take care of the shipping
I could put an ad up on the UN volunteer website for the first...or we could try to find a volunteer for Yoshinkhel who takes care of both.
I'm looking forward to all the fresh ideas Ilona, Leonie and Tim as well :)
Best, Angelika
Dear all,
Thank you so much for your effort. I contacted Third world craft last week to Ms.Rina but could not contact with Mr.Narendra . Definitely I will take some sample to them and let's see if they are interested. I came to know they collect the handicrafts and sell through ebay too.
I will contact them tomorrow for appointment and let you know the development.
Thanks again. Merry christmas and happy new year 2008.
Warm regards
Sabina :-)
Hi all.... sorry its been a while since I joned in on any projects... my husband and I will look into the ebay online store and possibly put our hand up to assist in overseeing this, apart from being an ebay addict my husband also works for a ebay online store part time, they import items completely diferent to woollen goods but the business frame work and import contacts will be similar. Will have a chat to the owner and report back. Otherwise... a smaller scale options there are companies here in Australia that specialise in selling locally produced goods directly to people here thru like party plan A few months ago I went to a party where they were selling jewellry, handbages household goods imported from Laos, Thailand and Vietnam but since i had recently been to all those countries I had no need to buy from them, but my friends just bought the stuff up.
Happy new Year!!
Simone
Dear all,
I visited Third World Craft on 2nd Jan 08 with some samples . They liked our products. Since,off season has begun, we donot have any orders from them for this time.I am sure we will have orders for next time. They also provide micro finance for regular suppliers.They are visiting our Knitting group soon.
Reg ebay, what I came to know from their experience, it is difficult to ship for low price products for few quantity. They have very limit product list in ebay store.
Thanking you all.
Best regards
Sabina
Sabina,
Great news! Do you have any orders from others currently? I have noticed that some suppliers on alibaba.com sell hand made Nepalese products. Would you be interested to contact them? The first two links offer products similar to yours.
http://www.alibaba.com/offerdetail/100116208/Sell_Nepali_Wool_Socks.html
http://www.alibaba.com/offerdetail/13370719/Sell_Handmade_Gifts_From_Nep...
http://www.alibaba.com/offerdetail/100116201/Sell_Nepal_Woollen_Jackets....
http://www.alibaba.com/offerdetail/100370884/Jackets_.html
http://www.alibaba.com/offerdetail/15575467/Sell_Felt_Bags.html
http://www.alibaba.com/offerdetail/100243386/Decoration_Felt_Products.ht...
There are many more suppliers listed on alibaba.com that are actually based in Nepal and sell Nepalese products.
Regards,
Tanja
That is great news Sabina. Too bad we missed the season this time. I will keep in touch with them over the year so we can secure an order for next fall/winter.
Thanks for taking the time out to go visit them.
Hi Sabina didi
Good news for Yoshinkhel and to us also.This year has started with good news so we can hope that everything will be good this year to Yoshinkhel and to us.
Keep up the good work and the spirit
Regards
Anjana