The Artisan Owned
Direct Distribution Model
Historical Document

. The Artisan Owned Direct Distribuiton Model 2002-2003

 

IN 2002 THE RURAL WOMENS ARTISANS COOPERATIVE PARTICIPATED WITH THE AODDM PROJECT
AT NABUURS WEBSITE; BASED IN HOLLAND. NABUUR WAS AN EXPERIMENTAL ON-LINE COMMUNITY
DEDICATED TO NORTH-SOUTH AND SOUTH-SOUTH COLLABORATION IN THE SUCCESSFUL IMPLEMENTATION OF VILLAGE-BASED PROJECTS

TO READ OUR LETTERS
select ANY ONE OF THE KEYS ON THE LEFT-HAND COLUMN

Alma Arel iLuz Mariling Maria Nieves

 

Tecalpulco, Mexico

Artisan Owned Direct Distribution Model

What's the matter?

With the men of the village long gone as illegal wetback workers in the USA,
the women of Tecalpulco must provide for their families.

They earn a living by practicing traditional local handcraft:
the production of a unique type of jewelry.

They must make do with very low prices for their products
as the commercial and financial middle-men make profits.

To create competitive advantage for themselves,
these women of Taxco and Tecalpulco are creating
an innovative Artisan Owned Direct Distribution Model (AODDM)
which enables them to sell directly to retailers and consumers
by means of DHL International.

When the AODDM has proven its worth in practice,
the women want to offer ) with the help of their nabuurs.
the AODDM direct-marketing model to other village craftspeople,
in the forms of a manual, software, and templates,
for export documentation software, production data base,
server-based marketing tools, cost-price data base software, handbooks....

The women of Tecalpulco now want to sell direct to Europe
as a novel business model of potential great importance, for this,
they do require the help of their virtual neighbors.

What has been done so far?

There has been a lot of very rich discussion
about the current state of Artcamp
and how to build and refine the AODDM.
You can see an over view of the discussions,
and see the initial draft of the AODDM
to find out a bit about what has been going on.

Ask questions. We will happily fill you in.

Also, you're just in time to see the introduction of the new product lines
that were designed and created by Alma Areli and Luz Mariling

There is still much work to be done,

and we're happy to have more Neighbors to help.

We are looking for ongoing help and input in the areas of

Marketing and Retail
Media and Promotion
Letter-Writing
Server-Based Software
AODD Model Theory

What you can do

You've already done the most important thing, and that is to show up!

Most of the fun goes on in the Discussion area,
and we invite you to come and participate.

There is no need to be bashful,
the exchange of ideas and resources is what Nabuur is about.

As you become more familiar with the Telcapulco project,
perhaps there will be friends or resources
that can help move us forward
...feel free to invite them in to help.

we look forward to getting to work with you.

Nabuur is looking for virtual neighbours for a test phase
The world is a global village and Nabuur facilitates contact with its neighbours.

Nabuur has been set up to assist local municipalities to solve their problems.
Via the Internet they can contact their 'neighbours' all over the world.
That can help in exchanging knowledge, ideas, and gaining contacts and financial resources.

Nabuur was begun with seven test locations where the community has a clear need.
The illiterate women in the village of Padampur in Nepal, for example, need information
about health and nutrition. In Iquitos, Peru, the original language and culture of the residents
is threatened with extinction, in part because the education is in Spanish.

Via the web site, www.nabuur.com,
you can link to one of the test locations and help to resolve these problems.
The idea behind Nabuur is that affinity with a specific place brings people closer together.

The first locations are Iquitos (Peru), Kouroussa (Guinee), KwaNdengezi (South Africa),
Cairo (Egypt), Izmail (Ukraine), Dharwad (India), Padampur (Nepal).

As the test phase is completed, Nabuur wants to expand the project
to 100 participating agencies in 2004 and 1000 in 2006.

The initiative is supported by Sida, Hivos, Stichting DOEN, and
the Ministry of the Department of Housing, Regional Development and the Environment (VROM).

THIS WAS THE ARTISAN OWNED DIRECT DISTRIBUTION MODEL PROJECT AT NABUUR IN 2002-2003

DIRECT DISTRIBUTION
ADVANTAGES COMPARED TO
ORDINARY IMPORT DISTRIBUTION .

DIRECT DISTRIBUTION
ADVANTAGES COMPARED TO
ORDINARY IMPORT DISTRIBUTION

Any jewelry Distribution company has two parts or departments

1. Sales and Collections
2. Fulfillment and Shipping

Our proposal is to locate the Fulfillment and Shipping function
at the facility of the Producer of the products Artcamp in Taxco.

All the work of picking and shipping orders to retailers and other customers -
Artcamp can handle all that operation with a rack and parts-bin stock room.

With in-house Distribution Co., the products now only need to be handled **once**
this in itself is a BIG saving and argues for the merits of Producer Direct Distribution.

The establishment of a Producer Direct Distribution business owned and operated
by the woman’s artisans cooperative, would be a big breakthrough for artisans
becuase it would permit the enterprise to reap the benefit of being the creator
and producer of the merchandise; usually only the least amount is earned for that.

By being its own distributor, Producer would be competitive and also profitable.
Needed is shelves and stock inventory the salary of a young girl some advertising

What is finally needed is a volume of sales of at a minimum 50 packages weekly
So to attain the economy of scale to reach a $10usd factory-to-door delivery cost

HOW IT WORKS

Orders are generated by internet advertising and by creative public realtions efforts
the Artcamp website is variegated and extense, acts as a base for interest in Artcamp.

Both retailers and consumer customers are both addressed; volume discounts offered;
The key thing is to develop effective product offers in order to get orders and reorders.

Orders arrive via e-mail of FAX

Some products will be in stock ready to ship;
Some products will be semi finished – to inlay or bezel-set different stones for example
Some products will be produced, only when they have been ordered

When the individual order is completed and all pieces are finished
- gift carded or price tagged or bar coded or whatever -

The Producer women then Prepare proper Packing Lists for the individual orders
whether it is to a Retail Customers or to a Store and enclose the Packing Lists
together with the merchandise inside individual USPS Priority Mail envelopes.

A group of these individual shipments are ganged together
And shipped in a single shipment to the United States
where they are broken apart and the individual shipments
released to the United States Postal Service. The cost
Of the delivery of such a package door to door is $10.00usd.

So the product from the factory in Taxco
can get delivered to any door in the USA or Canada
for only $10.00usd in the optimum case
of 50 packages being shipped out/week.

By this method is eliminated a lot of serious costs
that any USA-based Jewelry Distribution Business
will still have to pay for. This should be a decisive
strategic advantage so the artisans can take benefit.

1. saves the cost of holding stock on a shelf in the USA/Canada facility;
at Taxco, the amount of product held in stock can be very much lower.

2. save the cost of persons who are going to be handling the stock in the US
the benefits, the taxes, communication, everything to do with labor relations

3. save the costs of the fulfillment facility itself,
4. the space, the shelving, the postage meter etc

5. save the cost of counting the product
when the Mexican women have already counted it
it would be more efficient to go through the motions only once.

6. special orders are easier to accomodate and the problem of back-orders mitigated;
instead of sending orders short this piece or that, Producer hurries up and makes them

7. the real value of an ordering, fulfilling, labeling, counting, boxing etc capability
just at the end of a cottage industry handcraft jewelry enterprise production line.

The equally important questions of marketing, selling, and collecting.
can be adressed as a separate topic; the key here is fulfillment facility.

Producer offers a price list for its entire product line at any time; stated price
for each item is *delivered* to the customer’s door in the USA or Canada.

Shipping is included in the product, the customer does NOT have to think about it.

This is a clean natural concept of collapsing the distribution chain back to the producer
Establishing produce –owned distribution is a natural idea whose time has clearly come.

With only a minimum of extenuation costs - either Producer can use the advantage to compete with the cheap Oriental product that is its deadly competition, or, Artcamp can enjoy margins from the unique quality of its product in the fashion market, as net profit.

Producer as marketing Distributor means it is in a position to receive market data
using that knowledge to inspire an infinite series of design/development projects.

The cycle that Producer would complete: Customer-Retailer- Distributor- Producer-
The need of the Producer is to create markets for its own handcraft jewelry products
and still be in commercial position to take full advantage of those markets it has created.
The best way it can accomplish this worthy project is to become its own Distributor.

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THESE DOCUMENTS ARE FROM THE HOSTORICAL ARTCAMP ABOUT TEN YEARS AGO;

NONE OF THE PROJECTS DESCRIBED EVER RECEIVED SUPPORT, OR WAS REALIZED.