Their saris may be touted as ‘long-lasting’, but the sale of saris by Priyadarshini Handlooms, once a symbol of the State’s handloom weavers, is on a decline.
Faced with a crisis, the more than four-decade old Karnataka Handloom Development Corporation (KHDC), which manages the brand, hopes that e-commerce sites will reignite interest in the dying name The company has registered on the online e-commerce site, amazon.in, and sales began in the past week.
“We have listed 100 varieties of saris to the Amazon godowns, with the intention of sending as many as 500 varieties of saris soon,” says Ramachandra, MD, KHDC. The saris will be sold at prices ranging from ₹6,000 to ₹12,000. Based on the response, he plans to register with amazon.com, which allows access to an export market. It has been more than a decade since KHDC exported their textiles.
The venture into e-commerce comes at a time when KHDC’s retail business is waning. Out of their ₹150-crore turnover, barely ₹22 crore is from the Priyadarshini outlets. This is a drastic decline from the ₹40 crore retail sales seen in 2012-13. The rest are from government schemes where handloom weavers churn out school uniforms.
However, Mr. Ramachandra looks at the e-commerce venture as a way of reaching out to perhaps younger customers who prefer handwoven material. “Priyadarshini Handlooms saris may not have new designs, but there is a strong, nostalgic value and sense of quality. To strengthen this emotional connect between the brand and the weaver, we want to include a custom note with information about the weavers who have made the sari, their life stories and the specialities of the sari. We want to drive home the point that since these are handwoven, no two designs are the same,” he said.
Started in 1975, KHDC’s objective was to bring weavers out of the clutches of bonded labour. Large investments were made to organise weaver clusters across the State and by the 1980s, ‘Priyadarshini’ was a brand that occupied prime position among the salaried class. But as the private sector stepped in, power looms began to spread and preferences for designs changed. This pushed Priyadarshini’s traditional textiles to the edge. In 2017, they saw a 14% decline in turnover.
Second attempt
The foray into e-commerce is the second such attempt. In 2017, they made a low-key debut, selling just two saris before the attempt was scrapped. “It was a mess. We would process the order and send it only when we received payment. It would take weeks for one order to be delivered and even potential customers lost interest,” said an official.