Hi, I was just wondering whether any of you have heard of any e-commerce websites that sell fair-trade products (besides coffee/ tea) that have been produced in African countries ? I could only find individual organizations with such websites, and most of them were not really fair trade certified. If you know of any such place, please let me know. I am looking into the idea of getting a mock marketplace just to gauge the interest in this niche, and if any of you could provide any criticisms of the the idea[1], that would be much appreciated.<p>Thanks.<p>[1] Idea: To have a consolidated space dedicated to connecting fair-trade certified products made in African countries and consumers in first world countries (primarily usa).<p>Also, by Africa in title == African Countries.
Have a look at <a href="http://www.novica.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.novica.com/</a><p>They specialize in home decor products form all around the world, West Africa included: <a href="http://west-africa.novica.com/" rel="nofollow">http://west-africa.novica.com/</a><p>They claim they operate under fair trade principles: <a href="http://www.novica.com/customerservice/" rel="nofollow">http://www.novica.com/customerservice/</a> - although, i do not see any fair trade certificates clearly displayed on their site (do fair-trade certificates exist at all? i'm not an expert on that).<p><i></i>*
as per your idea: any scarce product, accompanied with a great story, could sell really well. go ahead and let the world know of the unknown beauty Africa is.
Not sure, but I wager Amazon will be doing it in 1-3 years if there is a market there (or someone does some powerful fair-trade marketing).<p>If you have found a market, then you could build a import-export business and then maybe sell out to Amazon in 2 years.
You could actually run your entire backend operations from Amazon, as they offer operations as a service so you can get them to do your stock management, warehousing, etc.
I occasionally wish for an e-commerce site that specialises in 'Not made in China'...<p>What ever happened to quality products from other Pacific Rim economies?