A social commerce digital platform, Yes!poho has over 200 artisans and the social platform has over 1.50 lakh clients from North America, Europe, West Asia, Australia and South Africa. The handloom and handicrafts trade, the second largest sector after agriculture when it comes to offering employment, engages about 10-20 crore artisans.
According to trade estimates, the dimensions of the sector is alleged to be anyplace between ₹15,000-25,000 crore. However, it falls below the class of casual sector for which there is no such thing as a tangible knowledge accessible.
In 2015, when Visakhapatnam-based Raghuram Kuchibhatla toured the distant pockets of South India, he realised the problems plaguing the handloom sector: poor wages, out of date know-how, poor infrastructure and an enormous disconnect between artisans and in the present day’s patrons.
It was to deal with this downside that Raghuram based Yes!poho in 2017, together with Meenakshi Dubey, to instantly join weavers with patrons, leveraging on know-how.
A social commerce digital platform, Yes!poho’s major goal is to enhance the livelihood and socio-economic situations of artisans by facilitating engagement between clients and artisans by way of using know-how.
“The only way to improve livelihood is by working at the grassroots level. Yes!poho’s partner relationship team spends months living in the artisans’ villages in providing training and bringing artisans onboard, says Raghuram.
He adds, “We also provide analytics on customer’s changing taste and preferences so that they can cater to the current demand.”
Technology first
Once artisans are onboard, Yes!poho ensures that stock is managed, orders are catered to in a well timed method and funds are processed.
When an order is acquired, the weavers are notified by way of operational hubs situated near their villages. Once the saree is prepared, an agent is distributed to examine the product earlier than it’s shipped. “On Yes!poho platform, the buyers also have the option of virtually trying on the saree and sharing the experience through our social network, thereby transforming the physical shopping experience online,” says Raghuram.
Yes!Poho gives its know-how platform for all artisans to show their merchandise and identify their very own worth; interact with clients instantly. As a part of product coaching, the startup’s associate relationship workforce helps installs the app and prepare the artisans on methods to use the app. Elaborating on the best way know-how is built-in within the functioning of Yes!poho, Raghuram says: “We work with built-in patented technology tools such as TryMe – which is a virtual tryout for customers to try and share products; CreateMyDesign- a way for customers to create their products based on their taste and preference; Chat with Weaver- that creates direct engagement between like-minded people and artisan community. Our platform is a language sensitive-based easy to use app for artisans to upload and manage their digital inventory, track and process orders, manage and view payments and notifications.”
The startup started its journey with the handloom clusters of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and expanded throughout the Northeast, North, West and Northwest of India. Currently, Yes!poho has over 200 artisans and the social platform has over 1.50 lakh clients from North America, Europe, West Asia, Australia and South Africa.
Since inception Yes!poho has been rising over 80% 12 months on 12 months. “Our plan is to have 2,500 artisans by the end of 2021. In the next two to three years, we plan to expand into other verticals and venture into North America, Europe, and African markets. In addition, our plan is to build an experience centre providing customers the ability to not only create their own products but also have it readily available instantaneously,” provides Raghuram.
