Monday, February 05, 2007

Description Cards - why they are important

One of the difficult things about launching a Web site to promote fairly traded items is that you do not always have the chance to talk about the artisan producers with customers one on one. One of the ways we get around that is by including a description card with each and every item we ship out. The description card describes not only the item, but we're usually able to include information about the artisan group as well.

Nonetheless, a description card can only include so much information. That's why we're going to start using this forum to introduce new groups we're working with and to give a little more info on others.

Our first one - which we'll cover in a few days - will be The Corr-Jute Works group from Bangladesh. It's a beautiful story of how these artisan groups have made a livelihood for themselves by creating pretty jute fiber market bags among other items. We've started featuring their bags this past weekend and, as usual, we've already begun getting orders despite the fact that our shipment isn't due until later this week.

I hope you enjoy the regular artisan focus stories! And keep your comments coming - they are refreshing to hear!