S Henlly Phom
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Lipok Ozukum[/caption]
Dimapur, March 13: The story of ilandlo – an online market of Nagaland is indeed fascinating, to say the least. It all started when the brain behind ilandlo, Imtisunep Longchar realised the craving for homemade local food while staying away from home as a student and working in Delhi.
Not able to meet his cravings for home produced items – a common strain among Naga students staying away from home – the idea about using the internet and e-commerce to purchase/sell things at a click hit him.
Without much idea on e-commerce, but with zeal to transform the e-commerce sector of the state and generate an avenue for local entrepreneurs to expand their business, ilandlo was conceived in February 2014.
After a brainstorming session, and on a shoestring budget, ilandlo came into existence under the patronage of Imtisunep Longchar and Lipok Ozukum. “It was not an easy task for us to set up an online website as we had no much knowledge and it took us a year to really understand how e-commerce works”, shared Imtisunep to Eastern Mirror.
“ilandlo enables a whole new experience of selling exclusive indigenous products through the online platform, breaking the barrier of being confined to a local area and traditional market system. It is a marketplace where sellers, skilled and talented individuals can sell and promote their work without any prior monetary investments” informs ilandlo website to its visitors.
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Imtisunep Longchar[/caption]
The website also reads: “With the initial objective to promote and boost indigenous weavers, artisans, craftsmen, local artists, writers, fashion designers, small businesses enterprises and entrepreneurs to provide an alternative source of exposure and sustainable income, the concept, now, also runs parallel on opposite directions channelling in a free flow of business and services by introducing merchants from outside the state to sell their products at www.ilandlo.com”.
Lipok Ozukum worked for around six years in Hyderabad and Imtisunep worked for six years in Delhi before coming together to create ilandlo. “E-commerce is seen by many, not without reason as the next big thing and seeing the market was attractive it makes perfect sense to invest in the northeast market”, asserted Longchar.
According to him, the target was to reach to customers across the country and bring money back to the state economy. The first product that was up on ilandlo was food products basically targeting students which still continue to be sold.
The system was created suitably so that entrepreneurs, irrespective of their diverse merchandise, can sell by simply paying a registration fee. “We created ilandlo-vendor based website with the idea to do something for entrepreneurs. However people are still sceptical to sell their products online and it is not easy to mobilise”, said Longchar.
People still question if the website is Nagaland-based and few people are not able to accept that Nagas can also be inventive, noted Longchar, ‘including my parents who still question on e-commerce.’
He said that it was still difficult to convince people ‘but we try to work it out so that the trust level is high even if that means going through some losses as we need to satisfy our customers’.
From packaging to modelling the products, to making it look perfect for the website, ilandlo is more like a company extending Corporate Social Responsibility. “The website continues to face mountain of challenges but we are trying to bring in more vendors and entrepreneurs while dealing with regular producers openly inviting those who want to make use of ilandlo,” conveyed the duo.
Traditional way of business in Nagaland is easier said than done. We struggle to contact consumers to build trust and persuade people to bring their products as ilandlo helps advertise them to sell, according to Longchar.
The duo of Lipok and Imtisunep were still not convinced that their creation of ilandlo has achieved their initial target, and quite modestly, stated that they still have a long way to go. “ilandlo is just a tiny drop of water in an ocean.”
