ShopClues partners with USTTAD to promote traditional crafts

E-commerce player ShopClues has joined hands with government’s scheme for minorities, Upgrading Skills and Training in Traditional Arts/Crafts for Development (USTTAD). The scheme aims at upgrading skills and preserving traditional ancestral arts and crafts of minorities. ShopClues would assist artisans in understanding consumer demand in e-commerce market and help them create products matching demand.

Under USTTAD, craftsmen would be mentored to run their businesses successfully and reach a wider audience through online retail. Recently, the company began retailing products made by craftsmen and artisans living in Mumbai's Dharavi, one of the largest slum area in the world. The company has partnered with Dharavimarket.com, a startup that promotes products made by the slum-dwellers.

The company also plans to increase the number of its fulfilment centres across the country to 20 from existing seven this year, while strengthening its infrastructure, technology expertise and adding 10 million merchants on the platform by 2018 from 125,000 merchants, listed on its website. The company will also initiate ways to increase awareness with television commercials and marketing.