Yesterday, I traveled to the capital of the country, Islamabad from my hometown of Faisalabad. Being one of the more diverse cities with a population of expats, Islamabad has a lot of handicraft stores targeted towards a domestic as well as international audience. My objective was to travel to different handicraft stores to get a sense of what is in the market, what sells, and where there is room for improvement.
My first stop was the “Imagine” store in Central Islamabad. There, I met the owner whose family has been in the handicraft industry for three generations. I told him that I was visiting the store for my Masters research, then asked him questions and got the following information.
He told me that the footfall at the store had significantly decreased since the pandemic. He mentioned that the footfall used to be 30-40 people per day (with a majority population being Chinese) and now it is 10-12 visitors per day. The owner mentioned that international travelers have reduced since the pandemic, so even though domestic customers are still coming, lack of foreign tourists has resulted in the sale of handicrafts to reduce.
He pointed out that one of the main issues is quality control, with no two products being uniform and the excuse from the craftsmen being that these products are handmade and are not consistent in their size due to that reason. He concluded by saying that we need to make export quality things for them to sell. According to him, there is no significant government support helping this very important industry that is struggling. He said that consumers have to
I spoke to other craftsmen at four other shops who verified these concerns. Another craftsman from a local, unnamed shop added a very important point saying that there needs to be a significant push from consumers as well as from the producers of handicrafts asking for quality control. He also added that products need to be made in contemporary fashion for people from this generation to really like them.
After reflecting on market research that I conducted, I concluded that there is an unmet need in the handicraft industry for good quality, cultural products that have a contemporary touch to them. My next step now is to search for brands that are modern, exciting, and cultural and see what work they are doing.
