Friday, February 21, 2003
Feedback: Website: Kwesi Folson, US
I wish to commend you on your effort after reading the piece on BBC. This is practical and has meaningful targets.
Monday, February 3, 2003
Media: BBC: African crafts go online
Traditional African craftsmen are starting to sell their wares to collectors on the other side of the globe, thanks to...
Monday, January 13, 2003
Feedback: Musical Instruments: Myron & Natalie Jackson, Florida, US
I'm immensely satisfied with my order. I find everything to be of superior quality. I've explored your web page and I think the concept is wonderful. I hope to do repeat business as well. Honestly I've been apprehensive about doing business with some parts of Africa because of past episodes of problems. Your web page offers a number of safeguards and I found staff very accommodating as well. We have a dance company here in Tampa and we have performed Ghanaian dance for the last 25 years. Our mentor was Nana C.K. Ganyo who passed away last year in Arizona but was buried there. We're so delighted to have such high quality instruments, he would be very proud. Thank all of you for your time, cooperation and integrity.
Wednesday, November 20, 2002
Media: E-Marketing (3rd Edition): by Judy Strauss, Adel El-Ansary & Raymond Frost
eShopAfrica.com was asked to contribute "Practitioner Perspective:E-Commerce from Ghana" to:
E-Marketing, Third Edition
by Judy Strauss, Adel El-Ansary, Raymond Frost
From Part 5 Global Perspectives
Practioner Perspective: E-Commerce from Ghana
Cordelia Salter, founder of eShopAfrica, is originally from England and has lived in Africa since 1979. For most of that time she has worked in the IT sector. In 1998 she founded a Web studio specializing in high quality Web sitres with an African theme (www.cordelia.net). eShopAfrica.com is her first e-commerce project. eShopAfrica began in Spring 2001 and is based in Accra, Ghana.
Although eShopAfrica.com is based in Ghana we are marketing to the rest of the world so the fact that credit cards are hardly used in Africa does not affect us. Until there is an easy to use ecash solution (perhaps through mobile phones which are already very popular in Africa) any ecommerce in Africa would only be aimed at a very, very small minority.
I think all of us face the same problems when it comes to getting on to search engines these days - you have to pay to get to the top. We are considering paying to be listed or paying to target advertise but we have many doubts about how many serious purchsers would actually use search engines to find the kinds of products we have. We think a well targetted real world marketing campaign may be a more effective use of our funds.
I have developed and run eShopAfrica in Ghana on dialups since 1999. Connectivity in Ghana is really not at all bad. (I used to live in Ethiopia where being connected was a big challenge!) Since I took an office at BusyInterenet which has a VSAT and a 56k connection speed I have been able to do much more online marketing. Dial up speeds were often too slow or there was too much local congestion for online marketing to be worthwhile timewise before.
I think the main challenges we face are with perceptions of product prices. We find that those we target fall into two categories - either they know African products (or are African) or they don't. Those who know African products want to purchase from us at the same or less than they would pay if they came and bought it themselves. They seem very unwilling to recognize or pay for the costs of running the website or connectivity and just want rock bottom prices.
Those who don't know Africa have a perception that Africa is very poor and expect to see our items cheaper than artefacts from other poor areas (like India). However, if you know Africa you know that in fact it is expensive here and that things are not cheap. Also there are many Indian and Chinese copies of African products (particularly textiles) which make our genuine products look expensive. Many people outside have little idea of quality and so again just think we are overcharging.
Another problem that we have faced is that local artisans see the dollar prices on the website and then increase their own prices in expectation of getting that amount themselves. They have little understanding of the costs of running and maintaining a web site. We have to take a lot of time and trouble explaining to them that the prices on the web site include our overheads.
Our heaviest cost is that of the payment service provider (in our case Worldpay). Being based in Africa puts us in the high risk category so we pay the heaviest premiums. We can offer a further discount to people who don't mind paying by ordinary bank transfer in the old fashioned (non-e) method.
I think ecommerce in general is going through the doldrums - maybe its disenchantment or maybe a reality call. Who knows?
E-Marketing, Third Edition
by Judy Strauss, Adel El-Ansary, Raymond Frost
From Part 5 Global Perspectives
Practioner Perspective: E-Commerce from Ghana
Cordelia Salter, founder of eShopAfrica, is originally from England and has lived in Africa since 1979. For most of that time she has worked in the IT sector. In 1998 she founded a Web studio specializing in high quality Web sitres with an African theme (www.cordelia.net). eShopAfrica.com is her first e-commerce project. eShopAfrica began in Spring 2001 and is based in Accra, Ghana.
Although eShopAfrica.com is based in Ghana we are marketing to the rest of the world so the fact that credit cards are hardly used in Africa does not affect us. Until there is an easy to use ecash solution (perhaps through mobile phones which are already very popular in Africa) any ecommerce in Africa would only be aimed at a very, very small minority.
I think all of us face the same problems when it comes to getting on to search engines these days - you have to pay to get to the top. We are considering paying to be listed or paying to target advertise but we have many doubts about how many serious purchsers would actually use search engines to find the kinds of products we have. We think a well targetted real world marketing campaign may be a more effective use of our funds.
I have developed and run eShopAfrica in Ghana on dialups since 1999. Connectivity in Ghana is really not at all bad. (I used to live in Ethiopia where being connected was a big challenge!) Since I took an office at BusyInterenet which has a VSAT and a 56k connection speed I have been able to do much more online marketing. Dial up speeds were often too slow or there was too much local congestion for online marketing to be worthwhile timewise before.
I think the main challenges we face are with perceptions of product prices. We find that those we target fall into two categories - either they know African products (or are African) or they don't. Those who know African products want to purchase from us at the same or less than they would pay if they came and bought it themselves. They seem very unwilling to recognize or pay for the costs of running the website or connectivity and just want rock bottom prices.
Those who don't know Africa have a perception that Africa is very poor and expect to see our items cheaper than artefacts from other poor areas (like India). However, if you know Africa you know that in fact it is expensive here and that things are not cheap. Also there are many Indian and Chinese copies of African products (particularly textiles) which make our genuine products look expensive. Many people outside have little idea of quality and so again just think we are overcharging.
Another problem that we have faced is that local artisans see the dollar prices on the website and then increase their own prices in expectation of getting that amount themselves. They have little understanding of the costs of running and maintaining a web site. We have to take a lot of time and trouble explaining to them that the prices on the web site include our overheads.
Our heaviest cost is that of the payment service provider (in our case Worldpay). Being based in Africa puts us in the high risk category so we pay the heaviest premiums. We can offer a further discount to people who don't mind paying by ordinary bank transfer in the old fashioned (non-e) method.
I think ecommerce in general is going through the doldrums - maybe its disenchantment or maybe a reality call. Who knows?
Friday, August 16, 2002
Feedback: Textiles: Janis Malcomson, UK
I wanted to thank you for the prompt arrival of the mudcloth shawl. I had been looking for one for a while, and was so pleased to hear about your site. Everyone who has seen the shawl has admired it. Thanks again.
Wednesday, July 31, 2002
Feedback: Textiles: Patricia Thomas, US
This is in response to the article in the Wall Street Journal about theft of designs in the Ghanaian textile market. There was a comment at the end, that Ms. Salter would like to put Printex Ltd. textiles for sale on the Internet, but that Mr. Millet of Printex fears the potential for theft of copyrighted patterns. My husband and I would like to comment on this:
My husband and I lived in Ghana for several years--we have always loved the textiles produced in Ghana. However, the problem of stealing patterns and making cheap rip-offs has been there since forever. In the old days, it was poor-quality Ghanaian textile firms stealing Manchester and Java designs! Only now it is Ivory Coast, Korea, India stealing from Ghana. This is a sign of the high quality of the Ghanaian product. It pains me to see cheap printed "Kente" from Korea sold in American chain fabric stores, where people will never know the real thing.
We were in Ghana last March, and we were delighted to see so many excellent fabrics made in Ghana. Ghanaian textiles are so excellent these days, I did not need to buy any cloth from any other countries. It was also very easy to spot the poor-quality rip-offs in the market. Over the Internet, I can see why Mr. Milad Millet does not want to expose his textiles to immediate theft. However, we wonder if it might be possible to offer only those patterns that have already been copied and thus undermined by the foreign forgers.
If Printex Ltd. has piles of cloth that no longer sell in the Ghanaian market because of the influx of cheap imitations, then they need an efficient and easy way to sell them in a totally new market. I would guess that Internet sales are mainly to customers outside of Ghana, where market-driven pattern popularity would not be an issue. The quality of the textiles would be guaranteed to the Internet customer, as it would be cloth coming directly from the manufacturer; the proven popularity of the design (by virtue of having been stolen) could even be a marketing point! To me, outside of the Ghanaian fashion scene, the fact that a pattern is 3 or 6 month out of date doesn't matter at all. After all, I am still sewing the 12-yard pieces I brought home in 1977!
To be able to get real Ghanaian textiles right now would be fantastic. I plan to mail everyone I know about your web site. What a great resource! Best wishes.
My husband and I lived in Ghana for several years--we have always loved the textiles produced in Ghana. However, the problem of stealing patterns and making cheap rip-offs has been there since forever. In the old days, it was poor-quality Ghanaian textile firms stealing Manchester and Java designs! Only now it is Ivory Coast, Korea, India stealing from Ghana. This is a sign of the high quality of the Ghanaian product. It pains me to see cheap printed "Kente" from Korea sold in American chain fabric stores, where people will never know the real thing.
We were in Ghana last March, and we were delighted to see so many excellent fabrics made in Ghana. Ghanaian textiles are so excellent these days, I did not need to buy any cloth from any other countries. It was also very easy to spot the poor-quality rip-offs in the market. Over the Internet, I can see why Mr. Milad Millet does not want to expose his textiles to immediate theft. However, we wonder if it might be possible to offer only those patterns that have already been copied and thus undermined by the foreign forgers.
If Printex Ltd. has piles of cloth that no longer sell in the Ghanaian market because of the influx of cheap imitations, then they need an efficient and easy way to sell them in a totally new market. I would guess that Internet sales are mainly to customers outside of Ghana, where market-driven pattern popularity would not be an issue. The quality of the textiles would be guaranteed to the Internet customer, as it would be cloth coming directly from the manufacturer; the proven popularity of the design (by virtue of having been stolen) could even be a marketing point! To me, outside of the Ghanaian fashion scene, the fact that a pattern is 3 or 6 month out of date doesn't matter at all. After all, I am still sewing the 12-yard pieces I brought home in 1977!
To be able to get real Ghanaian textiles right now would be fantastic. I plan to mail everyone I know about your web site. What a great resource! Best wishes.
Monday, July 15, 2002
Media: Wall Street Journal: Industry Combats Cheap Knockoffs
MICHAEL M. PHILLIPS, Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, 15 Jul 2002
ACCRA, Ghana -- On the Printex Ltd. textile-factory floor is a closed door bearing a sign that reads: "Out of bounds. Anyone seen entering without permission will be severely dealt with."
Printex managers have good reason to be careful. Behind the door, a team of designers comes up with more than 500 copyrighted patterns a year for the colorful African fabrics that are the staple of Ghanaian fashion, and textile pirates are itching to see the new designs.
The sooner the new models go public, the sooner textile makers in China, Pakistan, Nigeria, India and Ivory Coast will make cheap copies of the most popular ones, smuggle them back into Ghana and snatch Printex's customers.
"We maintain strict secrecy until the point of production," says Printex executive Sujit Menon. "We keep everything under lock and key."
It is a bitter twist on the usual international dispute over intellectual-property rights, in which someone in a poor nation copies the products of a corporation in a wealthy country. Instead, Ghana's is a story of the poor stealing from the poor, with local manufacturers finding their copyrights pirated by companies in other developing countries.
Once the new Ghanaian designs are released, it is only a matter of a few months _ if not weeks _ before knockoffs appear. The four local textile producers figure piracy and smuggling cost them about two-thirds of the $150 million annual local market, a sharp blow in a country with relatively little indigenous industry and an average annual income of just $400.
Printex, which employs 400 Ghanaians, operates out of a Dickensian expanse of screening cylinders, steaming irons, huge rolls of raw cotton cloth and snaking tubes of dye. Sweat-drenched workers in flip-flops splash through puddles as they weave fabric, screen on designs, and cut it into 12-yard pieces.
Printex, which has about $20 million in annual sales, supplies printed cloth to wholesalers, who then distribute it to market women, who by tradition are the majority of textile dealers, all over this West African nation.
Ghana's textile market is fickle, with women buying the latest designs for dresses or head wraps. About a quarter of the new patterns from Printex's secret design room will sell well. Once the fabrics hit the market, the company hires student models to show them off, such as in ads on billboards and television. A winner could be produced in runs of as many as 300,000 yards. The rest will die after runs of just 3,000 yards.
Printex produces only screened textiles generically called "fancy prints." Some other companies, such as the Dutch textile maker Vlisco BV, also sell more expensive batik-like fabrics printed using a wax process. Each design is copyrighted, and, in theory, protected for 15 years. In fact, some don't last that many days before they are copied by pirate factories, industry executives say.
The fakes aren't hard to spot. They tend to be made of flimsier, less regular fabric, often synthetic such as rayon, instead of cotton. The colors don't always line up with the shapes. Some manufacturers print their name on the edge, but many sport a slightly altered logo from one of the famous brands, such as Printex, Vlisco or its local subsidiary, Ghana Textile Printing Ltd.
Ghana Textile Printing's distributor keeps a warehouse of new fabric on the edge of Makola market, Accra's commercial heart. Next door is a storefront of wholesaler S.K. Owusu, who sells the cloth to the women who run retail stalls in the market itself.
Ms. Owusu displays a certificate of merit presented by Ghana Textile Printing and the Vlisco Group for her work selling their wares. But on a rack on her wall at the moment is a bolt of gold cloth with a green star burst, with a close imitation of the Vlisco logo on the edge.
"It's not Vlisco," she concedes to Cecil Evans-Chinery, the district sales manager for Ghana Textile Printing's distributor. "It's supplied to me through Togo."
But, she explains, the vendors and their customers are demanding lower-price goods. She sells six yards of the fake for 75,000 cedis, or about $10. A GTP version would cost twice as much, and a Vlisco wax original 280,000 cedis, or nearly $40.
Mr. Evans-Chinery says he can't get too angry. He knows times are tough, and that Ms. Owusu has debts.
The pirates keep costs low in part by copying only designs that are already selling well; apparently the pirates are tipped off by the market women. So there is tension in the air as Mr. Evans-Chinery strolls through Makola's textile section; stall after stall is lined with smuggled cloth from China, Nigeria, Ivory Coast and elsewhere. The market women know him well, and suspect he either wants to raise prices or turn the women in. For their part, they say if Ghana Textile Printing turned out less expensive products, they wouldn't sell counterfeits.
"Everybody wants something cheap," Mr. Evans-Chinery sighs.
Ghanaian officials, under pressure from industry, are increasingly worried by the flood of foreign fabric. But it is the smuggling, not the copyright infringement, they find really troubling. Imported textiles are subject to a 20 percent tariff, and _ if industry estimates are correct _ that means the smuggling costs the government about $20 million in lost revenue.
The government's first instinct was to fight back at the retail level. Some months ago, officials summoned 1,500 Accra market women to the National Theater and warned them a crackdown was coming. "They know who the smugglers are," says Julia Anokye, senior industrial-promotion officer at the Ministry of Trade and Industry.
About a month later, customs police conducting a series of market raids seized smuggled goods and arrested a handful of textile dealers. A group of angry market women stomped to the Ministry of Trade and Industry and demanded an audience with the minister, which they eventually got.
"There was an uproar," a Ms. Anokye concedes.
Much of the pirated material comes through the port in Togo, next door on the Gulf of Guinea. Then, industry executives say, it is trucked north, where there is less border supervision, and smuggled into Ghana, past poorly paid, easily bribed customs officers.
Milad Millet, director of family-owned Printex, tries to stay ahead of the pirates by changing designs constantly, and by keeping his new patterns under tight wraps. Cordelia Salter, who runs an African-goods retail Web site called eShopAfrica.com here, recently approached Mr. Millet about displaying his products online. Thinking of the pirates, he turned her down flat. "All they've got to do," says Mr. Millet, "is log on, see the new designs and say, Start printing, boys!"
Copyright WSJ updated Jul 15, 2002 Write to Michael M. Phillips at michael.phillips@wsj.com
ACCRA, Ghana -- On the Printex Ltd. textile-factory floor is a closed door bearing a sign that reads: "Out of bounds. Anyone seen entering without permission will be severely dealt with."
Printex managers have good reason to be careful. Behind the door, a team of designers comes up with more than 500 copyrighted patterns a year for the colorful African fabrics that are the staple of Ghanaian fashion, and textile pirates are itching to see the new designs.
The sooner the new models go public, the sooner textile makers in China, Pakistan, Nigeria, India and Ivory Coast will make cheap copies of the most popular ones, smuggle them back into Ghana and snatch Printex's customers.
"We maintain strict secrecy until the point of production," says Printex executive Sujit Menon. "We keep everything under lock and key."
It is a bitter twist on the usual international dispute over intellectual-property rights, in which someone in a poor nation copies the products of a corporation in a wealthy country. Instead, Ghana's is a story of the poor stealing from the poor, with local manufacturers finding their copyrights pirated by companies in other developing countries.
Once the new Ghanaian designs are released, it is only a matter of a few months _ if not weeks _ before knockoffs appear. The four local textile producers figure piracy and smuggling cost them about two-thirds of the $150 million annual local market, a sharp blow in a country with relatively little indigenous industry and an average annual income of just $400.
Printex, which employs 400 Ghanaians, operates out of a Dickensian expanse of screening cylinders, steaming irons, huge rolls of raw cotton cloth and snaking tubes of dye. Sweat-drenched workers in flip-flops splash through puddles as they weave fabric, screen on designs, and cut it into 12-yard pieces.
Printex, which has about $20 million in annual sales, supplies printed cloth to wholesalers, who then distribute it to market women, who by tradition are the majority of textile dealers, all over this West African nation.
Ghana's textile market is fickle, with women buying the latest designs for dresses or head wraps. About a quarter of the new patterns from Printex's secret design room will sell well. Once the fabrics hit the market, the company hires student models to show them off, such as in ads on billboards and television. A winner could be produced in runs of as many as 300,000 yards. The rest will die after runs of just 3,000 yards.
Printex produces only screened textiles generically called "fancy prints." Some other companies, such as the Dutch textile maker Vlisco BV, also sell more expensive batik-like fabrics printed using a wax process. Each design is copyrighted, and, in theory, protected for 15 years. In fact, some don't last that many days before they are copied by pirate factories, industry executives say.
The fakes aren't hard to spot. They tend to be made of flimsier, less regular fabric, often synthetic such as rayon, instead of cotton. The colors don't always line up with the shapes. Some manufacturers print their name on the edge, but many sport a slightly altered logo from one of the famous brands, such as Printex, Vlisco or its local subsidiary, Ghana Textile Printing Ltd.
Ghana Textile Printing's distributor keeps a warehouse of new fabric on the edge of Makola market, Accra's commercial heart. Next door is a storefront of wholesaler S.K. Owusu, who sells the cloth to the women who run retail stalls in the market itself.
Ms. Owusu displays a certificate of merit presented by Ghana Textile Printing and the Vlisco Group for her work selling their wares. But on a rack on her wall at the moment is a bolt of gold cloth with a green star burst, with a close imitation of the Vlisco logo on the edge.
"It's not Vlisco," she concedes to Cecil Evans-Chinery, the district sales manager for Ghana Textile Printing's distributor. "It's supplied to me through Togo."
But, she explains, the vendors and their customers are demanding lower-price goods. She sells six yards of the fake for 75,000 cedis, or about $10. A GTP version would cost twice as much, and a Vlisco wax original 280,000 cedis, or nearly $40.
Mr. Evans-Chinery says he can't get too angry. He knows times are tough, and that Ms. Owusu has debts.
The pirates keep costs low in part by copying only designs that are already selling well; apparently the pirates are tipped off by the market women. So there is tension in the air as Mr. Evans-Chinery strolls through Makola's textile section; stall after stall is lined with smuggled cloth from China, Nigeria, Ivory Coast and elsewhere. The market women know him well, and suspect he either wants to raise prices or turn the women in. For their part, they say if Ghana Textile Printing turned out less expensive products, they wouldn't sell counterfeits.
"Everybody wants something cheap," Mr. Evans-Chinery sighs.
Ghanaian officials, under pressure from industry, are increasingly worried by the flood of foreign fabric. But it is the smuggling, not the copyright infringement, they find really troubling. Imported textiles are subject to a 20 percent tariff, and _ if industry estimates are correct _ that means the smuggling costs the government about $20 million in lost revenue.
The government's first instinct was to fight back at the retail level. Some months ago, officials summoned 1,500 Accra market women to the National Theater and warned them a crackdown was coming. "They know who the smugglers are," says Julia Anokye, senior industrial-promotion officer at the Ministry of Trade and Industry.
About a month later, customs police conducting a series of market raids seized smuggled goods and arrested a handful of textile dealers. A group of angry market women stomped to the Ministry of Trade and Industry and demanded an audience with the minister, which they eventually got.
"There was an uproar," a Ms. Anokye concedes.
Much of the pirated material comes through the port in Togo, next door on the Gulf of Guinea. Then, industry executives say, it is trucked north, where there is less border supervision, and smuggled into Ghana, past poorly paid, easily bribed customs officers.
Milad Millet, director of family-owned Printex, tries to stay ahead of the pirates by changing designs constantly, and by keeping his new patterns under tight wraps. Cordelia Salter, who runs an African-goods retail Web site called eShopAfrica.com here, recently approached Mr. Millet about displaying his products online. Thinking of the pirates, he turned her down flat. "All they've got to do," says Mr. Millet, "is log on, see the new designs and say, Start printing, boys!"
Copyright WSJ updated Jul 15, 2002 Write to Michael M. Phillips at michael.phillips@wsj.com
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