venture lab technology entrepreneurship 2 - assignment 4 (partnerships and distribution)
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Venture Lab Technology Entrepreneurship 2 - Assignment 4 (Partnerships and Distribution)TRANSCRIPT
-Artistii-
Partnerships and Distribution
What we offer – Value Proposition
“Get access to unique and hard to find, culturally connoted and ethically sourced handmade pieces of arts and crafts from local
artisans across the world.
By purchasing these products, you actively support small scale artisans that often struggle in making a living with their crafts in
preserving their traditions and cultural particulars as well as enhancing their lives, that of their families and that of their
communities.”
For more details of our operation plans, please refer to our VL Artistii Team page
Identified Partnerships
Artisans
Agents
Marketing Partners
Other Business Partners
Legal Advice
Web Hosting
Payment Solutions
Identified Distribution
Website
Affiliates
Online Shops
Marketing Partners
Couriers / logistics advice
Mode of Operation
Artisan
Legal advice
Couriers / logistics advice
Website
Ethical players / …
Web hosting
Marketing partners
Agents
Artistii Customer
Payment solutions
Legal advice
Couriers / logistics advice
Web hosting
Payment solutions
Getting visibility
Artisan
Website
Ethical players / …
Marketing partners
Agents
Artistii Customer
Everyone benefits / bi-directional relevance
Artisan
Couriers / logistics advice
Website
Agents
Artistii Customer
Legal advice
Ethical players / …
Web hosting
Marketing partners
Payment solutions
Business partners
Marketing partners
Artistii
Identified Partnerships
Artisans
Artisans are at the core of our business and hence central business partners we
need to establish and nourish long-term relationships with
Artisans provide us with original hand-made crafts – we provide them with a global
customer base
We perform necessary services for artisans (logistics, payment processing etc.)
Some of our current artisans approached us out of interest in our concept – to us this
proofs the value we can create for them
One of our team members reached out to artisans across Morocco and received very
positive feedback; they mainly require support in reaching out to a larger customer
base and export their products, which are exactly the areas Artistii will support them
in
Siri Ram Kaur Kalsa
Producing malas with semi-precious stones choosen in a customized way after a
numerologic consult based on the date of birth. Established international business; she
is interested in new sales channels.
Simona Lombardo - Arte nelle Mani.
Hand-weaving. International customers gathered with too much effort. Interested to ease
her process, and focus on production.
Antonio Carrillo – Huichole community.
>80 years old, he stopped production. We can sell his last items, which are testimonials
of a deep spiritual culture, made of dreams and visions. Through this contact, we can get
in touch – as the business runs – with a host of 10+ younger huichole artisans
continuing their traditions.
Firdose - Master embroiderer from Kashmir.
He is one of the several masters handling all-natural pashmina along the whole
process, adding textile resistance to unbeatable softness and warmth. He contacted us
to expand their business.
Artisans We Already Promote
Agents
Remote artisans may not have access to internet, may not have bank accounts, and may
live in places difficult to reach. Our agents are the ones who will solve these problems,
they will :
Get paid by Artistii via PayPal, and pay the artisans in cash ensuring all local
taxation and legal requirements are fulfilled
Take pictures of the available crafts, and send them to Artistii
Keep in touch with Artistii, take the orders as soon as possible, and commute to the
artisans to order the crafts
Keep in touch with the artisans to be able to pick up the crafts as soon as they are
ready
Ensure the package is available to be picked up by the courier
One of our team members currently acts as agent for Morocco and we reached out to
one more agent that will be in charge of the Philippines; agents for Malaysia and
Mexico are still pending
Legals
Legal advice is crucial in order to:
Establish our business itself
Sign contracts with business partners
Develop the terms and conditions
Evaluate legal risks of exporting and other business activities
We reached out to a lawyer to join our team; he is currently drafting terms and
conditions for end customers and contracts for other partners
Some advice from field specialists could become necessary in the future. Having a
legal in the team will allow us to understand the advice and make the most out of it
Marketing Partners
Reach out to and build relationships with bloggers that write about sustainable/ethical
consumption, DIY and crafting, homemade products, traveling and green living
we compiled a list of bloggers/influencers to reach out to but have to wait
until the site is up and running (shopping cart function not in place yet)
Partner with established businesses that share our values but are not direct
competitors, such as Ben & Jerry’s, The Body Shop and Starbucks
based on one of our team member’s experience with a Singapore based
social enterprise, all these organisations support initiatives ranging from
very small to large scale and actively support young ventures in increasing
their social impact
Partner with travel agencies to promote trips to the countries our products are
sourced from
we haven’t actively reached out to them yet but will compile a list of
adventure travel focused agencies that specialise in our source countries
Other Business Partners
We are already in discussions with companies that are invested in ethical trust:
We are currently in active discussions with the United Nation Cultural and
Development Fund and the European Development Fund and exploring
opportunities with regards to micro loans for our artisans
We are investigating other potential partnerships with businesses whose interest runs
in parallel to ours for future good of the artisans and their traditions/regions, such as
kiva.org (micro loans) and the Grassroots Business Fund
Current web hosting might not be sufficient once the traffic to our site increases
We need to implement responsive design and optimise the site for mobile and
tablet
We are currently looking into alternative hosting partners such as Amazon, who
offers one year of free service; this would allow us to focus on traffic generation and
gaining a critical mass of customers while not having to worry about hosting issues
Web Hosting
Payment Solutions
Payment solutions are crucial for conversion
We are studying ways to allow payments directly to the artists or the agents and the
transporters, but will probably start by using escrow accounts
We will initially offer PayPal payment only to get started and be able to sell first
products and gain traction. PayPal offers many benefits in terms of implementation
and flexibility of payment splitting, methods, escrows etc...
Once the site is up and running smoothly, a credit card payment option will be
implemented which, according to our e-commerce experience and customer
feedback, is likely to significantly increase the conversion rate
We assigned a project lead for each of the below areas to make sure we cover all
important aspects:
Artisans
Agents
Marketing partners
Legal advice
Web hosting
Payment solutions
Partnership summary
Artistii
Identified Distribution
Logistics
Since we follow a drop shipping scheme to cut down warehouse costs, a strong
partnership with couriers is very important.
We have information from a leading international courier company who helps build the
experience and contacts to set up agreements required in the logistics sector. We are
now in active discussions on how to optimise the shipping methods and costs for
Artistii.
Customs are a delicate issue too, which we are starting to understand how to analyze
with care. Every item must be certified as exportable in order not to harm the whole
business. The right advice is therefore of paramount importance.
Logistics(1)
Drop shipping asumes that the Exporter of Record (EoR) and the Importer of
Record(IoR) are aware /of:
The required export regulations inclusive of all apllicable duties and taxes
associated with the relevant product. Although ownes is on the EoR to ensure
compliance of local export regulations, exports generally incure less conditional
releases compared to imports and as such will require less forms of submissions.
Should duties or taxes be incurred at this stage it will the legal responsibility of
the EoR to cover the cost.
The required import regulations inclusive of all applicable duties and taxes
associated with the relevent product. The ownes is on the IoR to ensure compliance
of local import regulations and is legally responsible to ensure all submissions are
attended to prior to the product being recieved at the inbound port. Imports, for most
parts, recieve a greater level of scrutiny and it is imperative that all import taxes,
duties and fees are attended to within the given timesclaes. Import duties, taxes and
fess are the legal reposibilty of the IoR.
Logistics (2)
The production of a Commercial Invoice detailing all information accordance to the
IATA guidelines as well as the required local export and imports customs agencies.
The CI must be produces prior to shipment and becomes a legal document at the
point of shipment. It is also the the main document used by customs agencies for
clearence and as such all information supplied on it must be acurate and traceable.
Supporting document must be attached with the CI should there be any information
requiring supporting evidence.
Any special dispensational requirements of the local regions that may in affect nullify
any insurance aggrement. It is imperative that the appropriate insurance is applied
prior to the shipment if any products that may deemed as high value (generally
anything above 10,000 USD) or deemed as a risk to health or life. It is the
reposibility EoR to ensure that shipments are underwritten unless poof of prior
aggrement can be shown.
That the production of a signed Manifest, Bill of Lading or Air Way Bill is a legal
document denoting contractual agreement between the EoR/IoR and the assigned
shipping company.
Logistic Distribution Summary
Distribution is based on a drop shipping format with the view of cutting
the amount of transit time required between the point of sale to the
completion of sale.
The model incoporates the requirements of the end customer with the
needs of the artisan, while fulfilling the business requirements of Artistii.
The models looks to free up liquidity within the process to ensure all
parties involved are serviced appropriately.
Distribution Channels
We will initially focus on online distribution only with a focus on maximising
exposure of our brand:
Main sales channel is our website www.artistii.com
Partner up with affiliate websites to increase our reach and gain access to their
customer base
Set up shops in eBay and Amazon to increase our exposure
Sell our products through the channels of our marketing partners (see slide 13), e.g.
in Starbucks outlets, charity events hosted by our partners etc.
Follow us,
Get updates of launch,
Get your ethical gift on:
www.artistii.com