The government has roped in nine e-commerce players including Flipkart, Amazon, e-Bay to boost sales of handloom products in the domestic market.
The textiles ministry has also tied up with 70 retailers to sell handloom products, which were largely available only in trade fairs or in few government run stores currently.
Alok Kumar, union development commissioner (handlooms) said the domestic market has huge potential but faces a problem in branding.
The portals have approached the weavers and have achieved a high coverage. Kumar claimed that while one portal has registered 24 cooperative societies covering 23,000-odd weavers, another has covered 542 weavers and societies and has uploaded 9,360 products.
Some of the e-commerce players like e-Bay have been allocated 10 clusters, or areas. Flipkart has been allocated the Varanasi Cluster in Uttar Pradesh. Amazon four clusters across different states and Craftsvilla Handicrafts have got three clusters spread across Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha.
