Your source for information to grow your Fair Trade retail business. Covering strategies for social media, growing email lists and holding events.
After spending two days in our home with windows covered with plywood, no electricity, little cell service and no outside news other than an occasional text I had a lot of time to reflect. Earlier in the week we’d heard stories of the effects of Hurricane Matthew on Haiti and thankfully heard from the artisans that[…]
October is Fair Trade Month, and we encourage you to celebrate it with Global Crafts and the Fair Trade Federation! Our fair trade month theme is Fall into Fair Trade, where we are helping wholesalers and retailers inform customers and buyers about 360° fair trade. FTF is a community of businesses committed to 360° fair[…]
As Fair Trade Month is around the corner (October, actually), what better way to engage customers than by inviting them to your ethnic table and enjoy some global cuisine? According to Mintel, a global market research firm, sales in the ethnic food sector have been climbing steadily since 2004, reaching $2.2 billion in 2009 and growing[…]
Yoga is a powerful part of our lives, and has been for many years. Between attending thousands of classes, teaching classes, attending festivals and workshops, and providing yoga products to hundreds of customers, it’s become ingrained in our thinking and way of life. To boil yoga down to a simple catch-phrase is extremely difficult. There[…]
We live in a world of snaps, texts and tweets. Yet despite our reliance on technology for real-time updates, the greeting card industry continues to grow. In fact, the Greeting Card Association (GCA) estimates annual sales of greeting cards to be between $7-8 billion. Not million. BILLION. And, if you think Facebook birthday wishes posts[…]
As one of the co-founders of Global Crafts you would expect that l would be asked, often, why I am involved in Fair Trade. Interestingly I don’t think l have ever been asked. I think people assume that I want to help people. Of course I do and I certainly don’t want to harm people,[…]
I wax nostalgic for the days when school started after Labor Day. So bear with me that I’m posting this on September 1st and featuring back-to-school items while in most places school has already started. Was it just me, or were you excited about getting a new (metal) lunchbox, a binder with a plastic sleeve for[…]
We realize that it’s not easy for independent retailers to come up with new things to do everyday to increase business, especially as we enter the ever-busy 4th quarter. Here are 30 things to do every single day throughout the month of September. Some will take more time than others but the idea is to[…]
When we unpacked our first shipment of Zimbabwe wood carvings in 2003, we found that the empty spaces in the box were filled with blocks of wood with rusty pieces of metal attached. Each one weighed just under a pound. We’d shipped the order by EMS, which is international priority mail, and paid dearly for[…]
The phone call from Rich Howard-Williams from Plowsharing Crafts this past year was a surprise. I had arranged for Carlo Brutus – a Haitian metal artisan who has acted as a coordinator for our orders since 2007 – to demonstrate the art of making the metal wall art for which Haiti is known at Plowsharing’s[…]