Flipkart launches ‘Samarth’ initiative to empower Indian artisans, weavers, and craftsmen
The initiative by Flipkart will open up national market access for the underserved communities, giving them access to a constantly growing pan-India customer base of more than 150 million, while empowering them to leverage the benefits of the ecommerce model.
India's largest ecommerce portal Flipkart on Wednesday announced the launch of ‘Flipkart Samarth’ – a breakthrough initiative aimed at bringing India’s artisans, weavers, and handicrafts producers onto ecommerce.
The initiative will open up national market access for these underserved communities, giving them access to a constantly growing pan-India customer base of more than 150 million, while empowering them to leverage the benefits of the ecommerce model.
Kalyan Krishnamurthy, CEO, Flipkart Group, said, “As a homegrown company, we are constantly innovating to find new ways to use ecommerce to uplift and empower all sections of society especially MSMEs. These small businesses are the backbone of Indian economy, going back centuries. Through ‘Flipkart Samarth,’ we are helping traditionally underserved communities access a pan-India market and engage with over 150 million customers. The initiative will help us partner with the government and add impetus to various social empowerment schemes. ‘Flipkart Samarth’ will leverage increasing internet penetration in rural India to boost entrepreneurship and we are excited about the shared value we’re adding in the ecosystem with this initiative.”
Flipkart Samarth includes dedicated support for onboarding, cataloguing, account management, business insights, dedicated seller support, reduced commission where eligible, and warehousing support. Under this initiative, Flipkart will work closely with reputed NGOs and government bodies and livelihood missions to reach a large number of rural entrepreneurs, with a special focus on women-led enterprises, differently abled entrepreneurs, artisans, and weavers, who often face obstacles such as lack of access to working capital, poor infrastructure, and inadequate training.
In a drive to empower MSMEs across the country, recently, Flipkart also revamped its seller financing program, ‘Growth Capital’. Through this programme, one lakh-plus sellers listed on the platform will be able to avail credit at competitive interest rates from 10 NBFCs and banks, with an approval time of one day and with disbursal into the sellers’ bank accounts occurring within 48 hours.
Flipkart said that the sellers most benefited by the programme are small scale and a majority of the loans are used to meet working capital requirements and demand spikes.
(Edited by Evelyn Ratnakumar)
