Almost a month prior to Navaratri Festival the Poompuhar showroom, retail arm of Tamil Nadu Handicrafts Development Corporation has decided to sell handicrafts and Golu dolls through e-commerce website like Flipkart and eBay. The crafts are expected to be available for online sale in ten days.

The showroom will organize an exhibition this year. C Ronal Selvestin, Manager of the Poompuhar sales showroom stated ‘’usually we organize Navaratri Exhibition for a month, but this time we decided to hold it for 45 days so that people can have enough time to visit the shop observing the social distancing norms’’. Besides that a medical camp will also set up in front of the showroom.

He also added the shop has multiple ideas to attract the public this year. Annapoorai an artisan stated that based on the requirements of the consumer they add value or make changes to the product ‘’every year customer seeks new varieties of crafts and based on that we will either make value addition or create new concepts for next year’s exhibition’’.

Selvestin stated that most artisans are unwilling to make huge investments this year as they are dubious about the sales. Despite this the shop has been working on to increase the number of artisans to 20 this year from last year’s 15, ‘’while products of 15 artisans, including eight from Coimbatore are already on the display’’.

Following the lockdown imposed due to unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic the average per day of the showroom has dropped by 60% with drastic ups and downs in sales in past few months. The sales before lockdown were 5-6 lakh per day as per Selvestin.  This year the showroom has set target of sales worth 50 lakh which is 10 lakh higher than last year.

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