 "Image via Tech in Asia")
You get all sorts of sellers on ecommerce sites: t-shirt vendors, stay-at-home moms who make jewelry, electronic shops that sell used (read: stolen) products. The diversity can make it seem like it’s an equal playing field. It’s not. In fact, those most successful on online marketplaces tend to exist in urban, well-connected areas where they can afford basic requirements needed to sell online, like internet access and infrastructure for pickup and delivery.
Until now, small producers in India have always solved issues of access by banding together in “cooperatives”, or groups of producers that work together in order to sell and market their products. Each producer owns an equal stake in the cooperative and has a vote on the important outcomes of the organisation. India has over 500,000 cooperatives of different types, from food to artisanal crafts.
Unfortunately, with the advent of large-scale technology, franchised producers that sell online, and a general disruption of the manufacturing industry, the cooperative solution isn’t working as well anymore. That’s where GoCoop steps in.
GoCoop is an ecommerce site specifically designed to work with cooperatives and other clusters. It has multiple layers of services for the different types of sellers that work in cooperatives. For some, GoCoop sets up an account on its ecommerce site with features like shopping carts and payment gateways. For those who are focused on large scale B2B sales, GoCoop has a website listing service that allows customers to place bulk orders and ask about prices and shipping. For larger cooperatives, GoCoop provides independent website management services that include everything from capturing photos to site maintenance.
