Flipkart's workshop in Nagpur empowers 1000+ rural women, SHGs; unlocks growth potential

Flipkart is India's largest homegrown e-commerce platform, which is deeply committed to help businesses grow, especially MSMEs, sellers, artisans, farmers and beyond. A significant amount of focus is also dedicated to the empowerment of women, by helping them gain financial freedom through meaningful opportunities across various roles. To that effect, Flipkart hosted an orientation workshop in Nagpur, which witnessed active participation from more than a thousand rural women and Self-Help Groups (SHGs).

Flipkart conducted the workshop in collaboration with Simplydesi, a Flipkart Samarth partner, with an aim to provide skill development and knowledge-sharing opportunities to local artisans and SHGs. This workshops enabled them to leverage the Flipkart marketplace to drive their business growth online. The co-founder of Simplydesi Madhubala; Dinanath Thakur, President of Saharkar Bharti; Swanpnil Joshi, television artist and Rajneesh Kumar, SVP & Chief Corporate Affairs Officer of Flipkart Group attended the event organised in Nagpur, Maharashtra.

"Flipkart is committed to supporting and creating value for artisans, MSMEs, SHGs, and women-led enterprises across India. We are thrilled with the encouraging response to today's workshop. Through Flipkart Samarth, we aim to continue providing them with the knowledge, the tools, and the national market access they need to grow their businesses," Flipkart Group's SVP & Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Rajneesh Kumar said in a statement.

The Nagpur workshop empowered rural women and SHGs to grow their business online and how. It strongly emphasised on providing comprehensive knowledge on Flipkart marketplace offerings, and the workshop covered several important aspects, including product listing and ways to conduct business effectively online.

"At Simplydesi, we are dedicated to bringing the offerings of India's cottage industries to a wider audience. The partnership with Flipkart has helped us empower local rural women artisans and self-help groups with the knowledge and resources to understand the fast-growing e-commerce industry and leverage it for business growth. We believe that by organizing such workshops, we can help them reach their full potential and showcase their unique and diverse offerings to the customers in India," Madhubala Ji, Co-Founder, Simplydesi, said.

Flipkart, under the Samarth program, has signed an MoU with Maharashtra State Khadi Village Industries Board and Maharashtra Small Scale Industries Development Corporation to empower, provide market access, linkages and list products of artisans from the state of Maharashtra on the platform.

Flipkart Samarth

Flipkart Samarth is a meaningful initiative by the e-commerce giant, aimed at creating opportunities for artisans, weavers, and micro-entrepreneurs across India. This furthers India's visions of Make in India, Digital India and particularly Atmanirbhar Bharat. The program itself is focused towards helping underprivileged sections of society and supporting organizations that are committed to societal good.

Flipkart Samarth was launched in 2019, and has since trained and provided national market access to over 50,000 sellers from the state and over 100 sellers. Furthermore, the program supports and benefits over 1.5 million livelihoods across the country and has grown its seller entity base by 300% over the last year alone.