Ask HN: Is there an existing Amazon for fair-trade goods "Made in Africa"?

4 points by sharadgopal 15y ago ↗ HN

Hi, I was just wondering whether any of you have heard of any e-commerce websites that sell fair-trade products (besides coffee/ tea) that have been produced in African countries ? I could only find individual organizations with such websites, and most of them were not really fair trade certified. If you know of any such place, please let me know. I am looking into the idea of getting a mock marketplace just to gauge the interest in this niche, and if any of you could provide any criticisms of the the idea[1], that would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

[1] Idea: To have a consolidated space dedicated to connecting fair-trade certified products made in African countries and consumers in first world countries (primarily usa).

Also, by Africa in title == African Countries.

4 comments

[ 2.1 ms ] story [ 23.5 ms ] thread

mathgladiator 15y ago ↗

Not sure, but I wager Amazon will be doing it in 1-3 years if there is a market there (or someone does some powerful fair-trade marketing).

If you have found a market, then you could build a import-export business and then maybe sell out to Amazon in 2 years.

luckyisgood 15y ago ↗

Have a look at http://www.novica.com/

They specialize in home decor products form all around the world, West Africa included: http://west-africa.novica.com/

They claim they operate under fair trade principles: http://www.novica.com/customerservice/ - although, i do not see any fair trade certificates clearly displayed on their site (do fair-trade certificates exist at all? i'm not an expert on that).

* as per your idea: any scarce product, accompanied with a great story, could sell really well. go ahead and let the world know of the unknown beauty Africa is.

fractallyte 15y ago ↗

I occasionally wish for an e-commerce site that specialises in 'Not made in China'...

What ever happened to quality products from other Pacific Rim economies?

ig1 15y ago ↗

You could actually run your entire backend operations from Amazon, as they offer operations as a service so you can get them to do your stock management, warehousing, etc.