e-Commerce Development for Latin American Artisans

This past quarter, we visited our Mexican producers and made some fascinating discoveries. Our Barro Negro (black clay) potter shared the story behind his business name, La Escala. He noticed that many customers weren’t asking for new designs but rather different sizes. “La Escala” means “the scale,” reflecting his dedication to crafting pieces with the perfect height, width, and diameter. This photo illustrates how changing the scale transforms the pots, giving them new purposes and appearances. At SoulGives, we cherish the insightful and creative perspectives of our artisans.

We also spent a day with our wool weavers in Oaxaca, learning how they use vinegar to create color variations to optimally suit their woven products.

This quarter, we’ve begun partnerships with Walmart Marketplace and Bluecart. While not all our products are suitable for these platforms, they offer pivotal selling opportunities for many items. Managing these e-commerce avenues will require additional paid staff time, funded by donations.

Lastly, thanks to free exhibit passes, we attended the 2024 Newtopia Now conference on new natural foods and cosmetics in Denver, our home base. We gained valuable industry insights and made many promising contacts.

We so appreciate your support of donations or the purchase of our artisans and growers products. We know that our partners will not have the living wages they deserve until buyers see that their skills and the quality of their products is worth the extra price they pay over the goods produced by slave shops. Slowly this is happening without them having to leave their homelands or end their cultural heritage.

The website is being updated each month and we appreciate the suggestions and comments we are receiving from you in addition to  your gifts. 

Google has continued to supply us with $10,000 worth of advertising each month so we can share to the world the products and announce what our people are doing. We have worked to create better data about our customers and those that visit our site and will continue to add products that they will want. We received a grant from Resilia to develop our business processes and these important tasks have taken time we hadn't planned for before the award.

Our artisans produce incredible handmade, natural products. One product we will introduce soon is unheard of in the North America. Mexico and Central America have species of stingless bees. Not only can they live near population centers without bothering anyone, the honey they make has many unique medicinal properties. The melipona bee from Mexico is so valued, the ancient Mayans created a god called Xunan Kaab or Royal Lady Bee for them.

Next quarter we are planning on applying for several grants to help support the website and other projects. Please contact us if you would like to help in working on them. We can use help from anyone!

We want you to see some of the incredible products we have on our website and hope you will visit to learn more about how they were made and who made them.

The wool purses are made by zapoteca women that live outside Oaxaca, Mexico. They weave them on a wood loom after hand dying the wool from plant derived dyes.

The chocolate bar is made from cacao grown in the yucatan penninsula of Mexico. We offer a variety of flavors and I'm sure more than one you have never had before.

The jewelry is made from articles found on the beaches of Costa Rica - sea glass, tiles, stones and shell fragments. Each is a unique creation.

The wood platters are handmade by our partner in Guanacaste, Costa Rica. He uses local woods and primarily from the rich grained guanacaste tree.

Finally, there are copies of our brochures that our partners use at local markets. 

Thank you for your prayers and support!