What is Eyaas?

Eyaas is an online store for handmade products from rural and semi-urban producers. The World Bank estimates that the handicraft sector employs close to 9 million people in India, the second largest after agriculture. Early in our endeavor we realized that this sector faced issues of extreme polarizations - the bigger got bigger and the smaller ones struggled to survive of which many eventually died. Eyaas evolved into an e-commerce platform for small and marginalized producers and non-profits to be the bridge between products from the grassroots to mainstream markets. Through increased income we want to improve living conditions and preserve our heritage. We also want to provide access to amenities which would improve standards of living. We facilitate this by increasing market access, which in turn increases disposable income to support higher standards and improved living conditions.

How we work?

The e-commerce industry globally is driven by off-line presence and activities. To support our online sales and customer acquisition we work by conducting corporate sales and exhibitions. We partner with CSR and HR initiatives of larger organizations to bring sales traction for the organizations and artisans we work with. We travel globally to conduct trunk shows, exhibitions and sales, and network with conscious and ethical consumer groups, to facilitate sales and increase disposable income in the short term and to create familiarity with the organization and our products and acquire and retain customers for the long term. We try to add social value through the value chain of our business processes. We outsource a significant amount of our work to groups which benefit from employment especially work which is labour intensive but personalized, like packaging.