Retail Business Development

Daniela´s experience creating social/economic development strategies and programs for vulnerable groups in the handmade sector led her to founding Jalsuri Foundation for Handcrafts. Jalsuri’s innovative model based on sustainable high-end retail sales and cultural heritage research was created, designed, written and presented by Daniela and her team.

The Project was funded by the Spanish International Cooperation Agency for Development (AECID) and generated a chain of successful stores featuring cultural and signature-collections in museums and hotels in touristic locations as well as high-end exhibitions internationally.

Why is retail business so beneficial for artisans?

The Artisan/handcraft sector now operates in a global environment and is a highly specialized industry. Not only because of the need of sales as in any other industry, the need to sell the products in prices that allow the artisans to live from their crafts has become a global issue as thousands of artisans abandon their trades due to the competition with industrial cheaper goods or other countries handmade products in their craft sectors worldwide.

The dream of exports is not a real option for hundreds of small producers due to their limited production capacity, the lack of young artisans learning ancient mediums and trades and the challenge of developing their small workshops as bigger artisan enterprises. On the other hand, a handmade product inspired in the culture and history can be highly appreciate by visitors in any country.

Exhibition Design – Product Curation

The model aim to create sophisticated exhibitions and are based in a clear understanding of international market demands, so the lines of products are selected and developed with a market driven approach following trends in fashion, home décor and lifestyle. It is also conducted with proper historical and ethnographic research so preservation of cultural values and traditions are a priority and a source of inspiration for designing as well as for marketing the collections. The idea is that handmade work can evolve to contemporary products without losing their original meaning and place in a culture. A signature collection of a country.

The marketing strategy of the model creates a museum-experience for any visitor and has proven to be successfully increasing the sales of artisan´s products and dramatically improving their income as the perceived value of their creations elevates. It promotes a virtuous cycle of generating more value and diverse product development, more artisans interested in being trained, the recovery of abandoned techniques and the preservation of valuable cultural information.

Location, design, quality and marketing are crucial, with other factors such as cultural information, variety, categories of products, brand and customer services.  Production is analyzed and different strategies are implemented.

Artisans can sell in better prices than their original products, the transformation is remarkable. Artisans that once struggle to make sales in the streets or communities, do not need to stop production to look for sales, they focus in developing products in the best quality possible as they sell in the store managed by the organization or enterprise.

Artisans are also trained in business, costing and pricing, trends, understanding markets and entrepreneurship, and acquire skills to be able to develop products with professional designers. Workshops can be benefited with improvement programs, equipment and technical assistance so they can increase their production capacities.

Visitors can have services such as shipping their order to their countries. All these good practices create a virtual cycle where tourists recommend the venue and the organization and re-order. It can be developed for a public or private organization through capacity building and training by craft specialists and there can be follow up programs that keep the collections fresh through the years. The program starts with an assessment and it is based on the successful strategy developed by Daniela and Jalsuri during ten years and successful sales in six stores.