19 Oct E-commerce services for traditional neighbourhood businesses

Author: Raúl Rebollo, Te Veo Online

“The success comes when I receive a thank you message from the client who bought my handmade earrings for her mother”

For the last decade we have lived with a very demanding economic model for businesses. Today the internet allows us access to any product around the world in less than 48 hours. That means we need to optimise processes to allow us to reduce the costs and the prices of products. However, there also seems to be a current which breaks away from this trend. We are talking about local artisans businesses where knowledge of craftsmanship, handed down from generation to generation, or personalized products, is the key factor and their business model.

The artisan world resists, like the famous Gallic village that Goscinny and Uderzo described in their Asterix comics. They are located in neighbourhoods like Lavapiés or Chueca in Madrid; these local shops that value craftsmanship and prioritise detail and quality over mass production. Training programmes aren´t an option for many of these artisans, since they conflict with the daily routine of running their business.

However, thanks to the program run by IE Foundation, these artisans can avail of the training they require. In essence, artisans can learn about e-commerce and digital marketing solutions by working alongside experts of the digital economy and online marketing. The experience helps them to grow their sales and build valuable skills.

The success, which was written about at the beginning of the article, comes with training the beneficiaries about how to effectively approach potential clients. All this has to work with a capacity-building methodology and knowledge transfer that allows them their own self-management.

When passion and love do not follow the new internet norms, when it seems that only common and scalable systems are successful, when it seems as though everyone is attached to their screens, this programme shows that there is another way to learn and grow by engaging with the pulse of local culture. Technology should be a solution for every business model, even for the ones centred on craftsmanship, the creativity and the quality of the products that are hammered with illusion.

Therefore, when a business is based on the craftsman, the creative and unique products, does not follow the new internet rules, when it seems as though everyone is attached to their screens, this programme shows that there is another way to learn and grow by engaging with the pulse of local culture. Technology becomes the best ally to reach a greater number of clients and generate new jobs, therefore to survive and grow.

Thank you Pepa, Yirley, Andreina, Sonia, Arantxa, Carmen, Diana, Ángela and Nicolás for your patience, daily effort and passion. You have shown us where the real local and neighbourhood commerce essence is. Those who have worked so hard can now make technology work for them and enter a new economy, but with products of great quality and integrity.