Over the past week, e-commerce behemoths Flipkart and Amazon have announced a slew of alliances, all with an unlikely set of partners—weaver associations, government-run artisan cooperatives and NGOs working with handmade and handloom products. Packaged as an initiative to mark Handloom Day (August 7), Flipkart christened its project, Samarth and Amazon launched its Karigar store online. For both, however, these partnerships are more than just another opportunity to ramp up the numbers on their platforms; they are strategic branding tools too, as both look to ride the growing trend for sustainable fashion, among high-spending urban consumers in the country.
Sustainability is