Elevyn’s online platform connects craftsmen with global markets in order to empower marginalized communities, enabling rural entrepreneurs to set up online shops and sell their crafts to a global market, while simultaneously channeling a portion of the sales to local non-government organizations.
1.The New Idea
Elevyn aims to create wealth for marginalized communities by using fair trade online stores as an innovative platform to raise money for social causes. By appealing to the growing number of social conscious buyers via an easily accessible internet store, Elevyn seeks to create a world with less poverty and more cultural preservation.
2.The Problem
The biggest obstacle for most indigenous craftsmen is not the lack of skill, but lack of access to markets. Those with access often pay unreasonably high fees to middlemen, preventing them from retaining a sufficient percentage of sales as income. Consumers’ distrust of many mediators’ lack of transparency and high overhead cost diminish their enthusiasm for socially and environmentally friendly products.
3.The Strategy
Elevyn's model connects makers with markets and removes traditionally inhibiting middlemen. Through this model, Elevyn also retains a portion of sales in escrow accounts, which the rural entrepreneurs direct to local causes in their communities. Customers are assured of extremely low overhead costs, provided with the stories behind the creation of the products, and are encouraged to track the impact of the dollars from their purchases to the causes they eventually benefit. The site consists of an online marketplace, escrow account reserving portions of sales for donations to causes, networking community, analytic and products management tools, design customization services and content management services. Shopkeepers can also create micro-sites imparting information about their chosen causes and campaigns. The analytic tool measures the performance of products, demand, categories, impact of geography and other factors contributing to products sales based on transaction histories.
The tool suggests a minimum cost per click for a particular item and a suggested ceiling. Shopkeepers can post and manage their products directly through this easy-to-use software.
The indigenous craftsmen are the first to benefit from increased incomes earned though direct access to larger markets and freedom from expensive middlemen. Their larger communities benefit from donations to local causes, and customers benefit from reduced prices. Due to the fact that the entrepreneurs choose a local cause to which they will donate a portion of the profits of each product to, this instills socially conscious habits amongst the blossoming entrepreneurs as they grow in self-sufficiency, while consumers feel more connected to their purchases and can track exactly “where their money goes". The networking tool creates community among Malaysia’s socially minded entrepreneurs and consumers, as members can save “contacts,” hold forum discussions, and receive updates on friend’s activities. Locals, thus can benefit from each other’s knowledge. Elevyn’s benefits will touch at least 20% of the craft community in its initial phase.
Entrepreneurs pay a $5 initial fee to establish their virtual shop, $.20 listing fee per product and $.04 per click on each item. Fees are deducted automatically from the $5 stored values, which can be replenished periodically. Elevyn charges a 3-5% transaction fee on each item sold.
4.The Person
Devan Singaram was born in Malaysia and grew up in Brunei. After studying Information Technology in Australia, he returned to Malaysia to work for several "dot com" companies. He looked to bridge his knowledge in IT and social work, by working on several internet projects with NGOs. In 2007, he set up Elevyn.com with Mike Tee, a social enterprise company to lift marginalized communities out of poverty.
