E-commerce marketplace Flipkart has signed a memorandum of understanding with Himachal Pradesh State Handicrafts and Handloom Corporation Ltd (HPSHHCL) to bring local artisans, weavers, handicraft, and handloom makers into the e-commerce fold.

The partnership comes as National Handloom’s Day is observed on Saturday to celebrate and honour India’s rich community of handloom weavers.

Under the Flipkart Samarth programme, the partnership will enable Himachal Pradesh’s master craftsmen, weavers, and artisans to showcase their hallmark products and provide them with market access training and support.

Himachal Pradesh is known for its traditional crafts work such as Kullu/Kinnauri shawl weaving, carpet weaving, Chamba and suni embroidery, thanka paintings, wood carving, metal and stone crafts among many others.

Rajneesh Kumar, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at Flipkart Group, said that this will seek to break entry barriers for the under-served communities and will extend incubation support and benefits in the form of seamless onboarding, cataloging, marketing, account management, business insights, and warehousing support.

Flipkart works with three lakh sellers on its marketplace platform who are able to unlock the true potential of technology to reach their end consumers. The Flipkart platform has mastered innovations like voice and vernacular meticulously to solve both the sellers’ and consumers’ needs.

The MOU was signed in the presence of Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on 7 August, 2021. Chief Minister, Jai Ram Thakur said that the Covid-19 pandemic has badly hit the economy of the rural artisans and local manufacturers. He said the MoU would provide an e-Commerce platform for over 20,000 artisans associated with handloom and handicrafts in the State. Jai Ram Thakur said that the MoU would also help in promoting the Brand Himachal at international level and people throughout the world would have access to the State of the art products manufactured by the Himachali artisans. 

Consumers on Flipkart can shop in 11 Indian languages and the marketplace sellers can cater to their unique and localised needs as they aim to bring the next 200 million consumers to the digital commerce fold.