India has a long and unique history of art, with several indigenous crafts and practices passed down across generations of artisan communities. It has nearly 3,000 unique arts and crafts, many of which are as old as the Indian civilization itself, and are an embodiment of India’s intellectual and aesthetic properties. However, propelled by loss of markets, declining skills, and difficulty catering to new markets, the number of Indian artisans has been rapidly decreasing. They have the potential to be revived quite quickly, leveraging and adapting existing skills to suit both traditional and modern markets.
We buy what we mostly see on the internet. The reason why local artisans are unable to grow revenue-wise is their low or no online visibility. Several initiatives have been set up to enable artisans to go online with their products and become competitive which will eventually help them build better infrastructure – digitally and otherwise.
If you are an artisan or craftsman, you work hard and you take pride in your work. More than that, you don’t accept anything less than perfection in your pieces. To best showcase the time and effort put into each of your pieces, you need a website as beautiful, functional and visually appealing as your work.
Booking clients online
With a well-designed website, you can book clients online. A small seller can now showcase its products worldwide through its website. Through websites, the artisans, and craftsmen, can sell their fine work products to a large number of customers while operating comfortably from their hometowns. The craftsmanship of India can gain global reach and demand, increasing the revenue of the country and improving the lives of many artisans.
Equally important to booking clients, your website needs to be visible online. If your small business website doesn’t show up on local search engines like Google, Yahoo! and Bing for relevant search terms, your clients simply won’t find you. Without effective SEO, your potential clients will have no choice but to look to your more visible competitors.
On the other hand, if your website is visually appealing, user-friendly, highly informative and visible online, you have a unique opportunity to reach out to your clients like never before. With professional website design and SEO, your business website could become a trusted resource for several potential long-term clients.
Spreading awareness about rural art and craft
By using a website, you can spread awareness about the lost traditional artistry and craftsmanship. Through blogs and marketing, we can educate our customers about different forms of art and craft from different regions of our country.
Conducting online workshops and skill development programmes for artisans
By organizing and conducting online skill development programmes and workshops, we can help the artisans learn modern art techniques that can be applied to traditional methods to increase their expertise and competence. Such programmes are necessary to upgrade the skills of artisans to today’s standards.
Initiate collaborations between artisans and designers through your website
The online awareness programmes will also initiate collaborations between the artisans and the urban designer and brands to explore the opportunities together. Through these kinds of initiatives and activities, you can save your crafts and promote traditional crafts nationally and globally with the various art and craft forms to find a place in the dynamic art culture of the world.
Understand the global market
To keep the traditional craft alive, artisans need to understand how trade fairs work and participate in the same with an all-around understanding of the profit and loss and pros and cons involved in the global market. A well-designed website can help you with this.
With the help of a website, craftsmen and artisans will be able to understand the modern market and its promotional strategies. They will understand their space in the global market and then fix the price of their products.
Increase interaction with the consumers:
Artisans need to interact with the consumers and tell them all about their work and the meaning behind it. Now, they don’t have to go to places to do the interaction. They can do it by using the website. This inspires the customers and establishes a connection between art and buyer. This also helps the artisans know what the consumers want or need.
Final Words
Each product is unique as each craftsperson applies their strength differently, owing to which every product has distinct qualities. They play a vital role in the economic development of a country as they are a prominent medium for foreign exchange revenue, require low capital investments and offer employment opportunities. In addition, these items are perceived as a symbol of status owing to their uniqueness, quality, usage of natural materials, and the essence of vibrant art and culture.
In recent years, with the emergence of the online presence of products of artisans through their website, the accessibility to these items has become more convenient for consumers. The websites have played an important role in reviving the business of local artisans and craftsmen.
