Owning A Handicraft Store: How Challenging Can It Get?

Since time immemorial, India has been a hub of traditional, handcrafted items made by skilled artisans. The country also has many people who think of craft making as their passion, and have opened stores to share their craft, all of it which is handmade with love.

But as every business has its challenge, this industry is no exception. The handicraft sector has its own set of challenges that one must overcome while running a business. These challenges need to be known, acknowledged and dealt with accordingly.

Listed below are few of the many challenges that handicraft store owners face while earning out of their products —

Obsolete technology:

Although we're speaking of handmade articles, the issue of new technology not being used still comes into play. This technology isn't full fledged machines that produces the entire product. It acts as a means by which a product is definitely handmade, but in a better way. Most store owners do not know about these inventions and end up making their articles in the traditional way that may consume time, decrease volume of production and increase the cost of production. The result being that these articles lose their market to machine-produced items.

Competition:

The competition challenge isn't new. In fact, it is prevailing since the 1600s, since the establishment of the EIC by the British. Commercially produced articles are cheap and fancy looking, hence they attract the public. It is difficult for handicraft store owners to compete with these items, especially from the Thailand, Korean and Chinese market. Competition is a consequence of poor technology. The location of the store also matters - a store in a popular area may sell its products quickly, while a store located in a remote area with the same products may not be able to make profit.

Costly Raw Materials:

People often fail to see why a particular handcrafted item costs so much. A thing to be understood is that the margin received for these articles is very less, due to the rise in costs of raw materials. The fluctuations in the value of the US dollar affects the value of the Indian Rupee hence causing cost problems. Handicraft store owners are often not able to secure enough funds to buy the raw materials and make the products, hence causing a halt in production. The US dollar value fluctuations on the other hand does not affect the Chinese market much and hence Indian products, especially handmade, lose their market due to high price tags.

Business Continuity:

It is completely possible that handicraft store owners may have a flourishing business at one point, and no customer at another. Various factors could be the reason behind this. The articles made and sold by them could be a particular festival oriented, seasonal availability of raw materials, people switching to another product, lack of skilled artisans and labour etc. Continuity of business is required to have a steady income, in the absence of which the store may fail to function well even if it was popular once upon a time. The possible solutions to curb this problem would be constantly keeping checks on the changing needs of people and adopting use of new technology.

Running out of artisans:

An article to be sold must be appealing to customers and only a skilled artisan has the talent to make that work. Even if handicraft making is present in a family, the new generation chooses not to venture into the business. That's how the skill is eventually lost. Even if skilled artisans are available, they're reluctant to work since the wages given to them are inadequate. Sometimes they prefer working as unskilled labourers in an establishment different from the handicraft industry out of curiosity, in search of experience and recognition. When there are lack of artisans, production decreases, quality of the articles fluctuate and it ultimately results in loss of revenue.

Marketing skills:

It is found that handicraft store owners do dream of becoming great entrepreneurs, but the lack of marketing skills keeps them at bay. They often fail to attract customers because they are not able to explore into people's needs, customisation of their products, adopting new technology, online marketing and keeping up with the trends. The reasons for this could be a lack of education on how to go about these things. Most entrepreneurs also lack on knowledge about exporting their products, the procedures and prospects of the same.

Lack of practical implementation of government policies:

Handicraft making can be said to be the cultural heritage of India, and the government has taken steps to preserve the local art since independence. However these policies only exist on paper. Very less practical implementation of these policies has led to India having a low share in the global crafts market. Most handicraft store owners are not aware about the initiatives/policies of the government that provide reliefs, subsidies, insurance, research and developmental opportunities for them. Life in the handicraft sector is much easier when one is fully exposed to these schemes of the government.

If carefully noticed, most of these problems are interrelated to one another, indicating that the handicraft industry is an unorganized sector. The workers in the sector use old techniques that are nowhere close to their competitors in the world market. It is necessary to upgrade the skills of the artists with quality raw materials at subsidised rates and financial assistance with low or no interest rates. Handicraft store owners are paving their way to become successful entrepreneurs, they must be assisted through workshops, orientations, marketing lessons and training sessions.

All of this, clubbed with active implementation of government policies will definitely improve the life of people in this sector and put our handicraft industry in the forefront.