Handicraft Market :Study on "Themes & Dreams” :Himanshu Saini[FT13137]

When we stroll through the streets of Mahabalipuram one thing which distinguishes this place from other towns in india is its tourism, and the more prominently the foreign tourists. To understand their impact on the market I went to the Handicraft store “Themes & Dreams”. Store deals in Hand-woven carpets, Shawls, Stone ornaments, Rajasthani hosiery and statues. All these come from different parts of the country.

This store is owned by 26 year Kashmiri Sajjid Bhatt, who has been running this store from the last two seasons. As it’s not the peak time so he was able to give me some time.

Statues from Rajasthan

Kashmiri work

Hand Woven Kashmiri carpet & Jewelery

The objective of my complete study involves the below mentioned questions:

How these people are able to market their products?

Irrespective of the fact that Sajjid is not very fluent in English, he is able to communicate with his customers in very friendly and cozy manner. He told me that foreign customers are very particular and they give high value to credibility .Once they sense that they are being fooled they drop the deal in middle and will never look back. When I ask him about the prices he smiled and said it depends from customer to customer he can sell the same product at 2,000 or at 10,000.And to know which customer can pay what for the product needs experience. It’s primarily on how you connect and communicate with customer to understand them. He laid huge emphasis on contacts and network.

Sajjid shared with me the card of his customer a German citizen, who is air hostess by profession. She buys hosiery for Casa Moja, guest house in Tanzania.

What is their Market reach ?

Sajjid with his HTC T8585

If someone thinks that business in today’s world is confined within bricks and mortar believe me they are living in La La Land. Sajjid showed me the emails of his clients who have been sending him orders along with designs of handicraft. Sajjid told that’s its sometimes not possible to provide them with the exact design they are looking for but most of the time we make our customer happy. And he proudly showed his HTC HD2 T8585 and how he is connected with his customers through Facebook ,Gmails,youtube etc..He knows that internet has made the world flat and he is just few clicks or more precisely few touches away from his customers.

Scale of business ?

Sajjid told me few weeks back one of his friends who is in same business made a deal of 70,000 Euros with his English client. Such huge deals are not very frequent but they do come once or twice in year.

And contacts play big role.

My Analysis:

I believe there are huge potential in handicrafts and hosiery .They are highly praised and appreciated in western part of the world. It’s not only considered as memoir to the trips but something more substantial. People like Sajjid who are young and tech savvy can make use of internet to boost their business.