Women on Wings and GoCoop, an online Social Marketplace for artisans, started collaborating in their joint mission to increase employment for women in rural India. Early February, Women on Wings and GoCoop worked on the Business to Business marketing strategy of GoCoop in Bengaluru.
Unique business model: connecting artisans directly to buyers
Edwin van den Brand, expert for Women on Wings, and Ronald van het Hof, MD Women on Wings India, worked three days with the team of GoCoop. The first assignment was finding answers to the question: “Why should anyone buy from GoCoop?” Siva Devireddy, founder and CEO of GoCoop: “GoCoop is India’s first social online marketplace for weavers and artisans. It’s based on a unique method of connecting buyers and sellers, skipping the local traders. They usually make the most profit, not the artisans. GoCoop is a one stop buying place without worries, creating social impact at the same time.”
From an international buyers perspective
There is an increasing global demand for hand-made textiles and major global brands and retailers introduce new categories or collections of these unique fabrics. GoCoop has been working with international buyers and major brands and has the ambition to be the best “ethical sourcing platform”. Edwin, a buyer in textiles for an international buying house: ”We took the GoCoop team on a journey to innovation, quality, lead time, market info and social compliance. And what is required to start procuring, like sampling, product-catalogues, swatches, quality standards, collections etc.. And all of this can’t do without a perfect back-end process with time and activity monitoring. I am very impressed by the ambition and drive of Siva and his team.”
Women on Wings and GoCoop also worked on the organizational structure which is needed to make it happen
