Bangladesh is one of the key producers and suppliers of handmade crafts or handicrafts. Four million workers are involved with handicraft industry. Unfortunately, the sector is plagued with challenges such as producer communities are hugely disaggregated with low capacities, lack of a transparent and traceable system that can ensure an equitable supply chain, inability to market the products natio
nally, high interference of middlemen, and low selling prices. We believe that the nature of commerce is changing: people are choosing to purchase goods online or from a mobile device, consumers are looking for unique items rather than mass produced goods. We believe that these trends create a strong, long-term market opportunity for Dorpon allowing us to create a market by attracting buyers who want something different than a conventional, mass-produced retail shopping experience and sellers who are engaging in their creative passion, working for themselves and defining success on their own terms. Most large retailers emphasize efficiency and scale and pressure their suppliers to reduce their costs in order to offer goods produced at volume at the lowest-possible prices, our approach to commerce is fundamentally different and based on human connections. We believe that many consumers want to purchase goods that are unique and that reflect their personality and style, not simply mass-produced, generic goods. Finding these goods can be difficult, as markets for such goods have historically been highly fragmented across boutiques, consignment stores and other venues and marketplaces.
