Starter Kit. Idea 154 of 500. Cluster 7
QR-linked product pages and simple ecommerce setup
The mechanism, from the book
The tiny business pathway. A rural woman with an exceptional product should not need photography, English copy, packaging design and a distributor before the world can find her.
The first step
Build a one-page listing for one producer near you, with photos, story, price and an order button, and print a QR code on their label that opens it. Ask the producer to sell through it for a month and count the scans and orders. Then offer the same set-up to five more producers at a fixed fee, with the first producer's orders as your proof.
- Who pays first
- A producer whose customers ask how to reorder after they go home, and who has nowhere to send them.
- What leaves today
- A visitor who loved a product has no way to reorder from home, so every repeat sale is lost the day they fly out.
Ask first
- Information and Communication Technology Agency. Ask whether they support small businesses going online.
- Data Protection Authority. Ask what rules apply to collecting customers' details online.
Check before you spend
That payment is handled through a proper provider, that customer data is protected, and that each product page is accurate.
Find out these three numbers
- What will a producer pay for a page and a simple shop?
- What do payment providers charge per sale?
- How many producers in the district have no online shop?
A comparison from the book
Sri Lanka House. Chapter Seventeen
"We build the QR product page and the online store."
The QR page and online store are part of the book's pathway for small producers.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.