She has a heart for art

Several art forms of India are slowly disappearing. Craftsvilla.com is an initiative that has been created with the aim of promoting art and craft in India and helping artisans get a better livelihood. The brainchild behind this venture is entrepreneur Monica Gupta.

Started in the year 2011, Craftsvilla.com is today a large online market place comprising of more than 25,000 different products of Indian ethnic, handmade, organic and natural goods ranging from food and health to home décor. “I grew up in Ahmedabad in a middle class family. As a child, I was very inspired by art and craft and took a lot of interest in making handmade craft at home. A lot of these initial craft items are still with me and I cherish them. I wanted to join an art and craft college but because of social pressure I had to abandon that path and took Commerce for my degree,” she says.

After completing her CA, she got married and moved to the US where she did her MS in Accounting from San Diego State University. She then moved back to India when her interest in art and craft got re-ignited and she joined a few craft-oriented NGOs in Kutch.

“When I interacted with the artisans at the base level while working in NGOs, I realised how  handicrafts in India were declining simply because of the low income it was generating for the artisans. The whole handicraft supply chain has a lot of middlemen and because of that issue, the base level artisans were hardly getting anything for their art/craft work. Therefore, I decided to start Craftsvilla.com to give artisans direct access to customers globally so that they can earn more from their craft and make the craft lucrative business for them to sustain themselves,” she explains. Her efforts and hard work was recognised when she was awarded the ‘Karmayogini Award’ organised by MEDC and AAA on the occasion of Women’s Day.

Overcoming obstacles

The road to her success has been challenging. “Initially, everything was tough for me since starting your own business is very tough especially if you are a woman in India.

Apart from the business challenges of bringing artisans online by helping them in photo shoots, content writing, dispatch etc., society in India also makes it mentally challenging as most of them discourage you to become an entrepreneur. It was harder for me initially as I had to do a lot of ground work myself which sort of eased off later,” she says candidly. However, her perseverance paid off and today her sellers ship to more than 20 countries outside of India and generate in some cases 2-4 times profit than they were otherwise doing. With close to over 50,000 active customers across the globe and millions of visits every month, Craftsvilla.com is expanding rapidly.

Future plans include expansion into deeper rural areas and bring products and artisans online. “We plan to have more than 25,000 sellers and more than one million products online on Craftsvilla.com in the next 3 years. We plan to benefit at least a million artisans directly or indirectly through Craftsvilla.com,” she says with justifiable pride. 

For someone who believes in balancing work and family and also traditional and modern beliefs, she has two daughters and likes travelling and reading books. “I also believe in being on the ground since it helps me to be closer to reality. My advice to young women is to stay put and be mentally tough when starting your own career path in business in India. It is initially very challenging as a lot of people will play with your mind and will try to dissuade you from become a woman entrepreneur,” she opines.