Greetings from Bali
I'm writing this from our beautiful beach office in Keterwali, Bali. Our young very dedicated team is beavering away to make sure AW websites are more visible to the world. There are teams working on SEO, PPC, SM and PD. Yes, I know. I have spent time this week bonding with these super bright young people, full of ideas and enthusiasm. So nice to work with them and they are all falling in love with AW. I'd like to say they are my new favourite team... haha but I'd get in so much trouble...
To be honest I'm really happy working on new products like an incense burner or a beautiful carved
Buddha. But in today's cut throat online world, you have to work hard to stay ahead of the competition. And these young guys can really help.
But I have a big rather different problem to fix...It's the artisans.. they are in short supply.. so making products is getting a little difficult here.. I'll explain more below.
Last week I was telling you about wizards and that pool boy.. if you missed it you can catch up here.
Usually, when I arrive in Bali, Ringo will give me a little list of issues that he cannot fix.. usually excessive price rises making a product uncompetitive. But this time the list is long, not just price rises but problems in supply. We have slow supply issues with even some of our oldest and best suppliers. Something is going wrong. So I went to investigate..
The area above Ubud running up to the foothills of Mount Agung is full of small villages each specialising in particular crafts. One of my favourite things is to buzz around those villages with Ringo finding artisans and contracting them to make products for AW. These guys don't have websites, many don't even have a business card. Family businesses that in many cases are generational, with skills passed down from father to son. Often they are rice farmers tending the rice terrace.. but that job is intermittent, so they use farming downtime to make crafts. Crafts that find their way to good gift shops around the world.
The route of the problem is that Bali is booming with record numbers of tourists arriving. The hotels and restaurants are offering higher wages to attract staff, so many have left the villages to work in the resort areas. Added to this problem is that local gift shop owners turn up with cash in hand and buy finished products which the artisans think they can replace later. Thus orders get delayed.
What's the solution? The other day I spent time with Ringo visiting five different suppliers with basically the same problem. I argued that during the pandemic we had been there for them and placed orders when no other buyers came. But that didn't work... Of course, everyone is really sorry for the delays but what can they do?
In the end, the solution is (as always) a combination of things. 1. Pay more to attract artisans back, and they are more happy in the village. 2. Offshore some production to other parts of Indonesia. 3.. Cancel the products that just cannot be made now and focus on the ones that can.
Despite all the problems, as Ringo pointed out to me we still load a container every week or so. Shipping more artisan products to Europe than ever before.
I think eventually the market will fix itself. Lots of folks from other parts of Indonesia are coming to Bali for work. Even in our warehouse, we have people from Sumba, Java and Flores. Our digital marketing team hail from all parts of Indonesia. Hopefully,
artisans will find their way back to work and be better paid.
From our Aromatics team new products are coming... (with lots in the pipeline) - the bath bomb kits are getting a great response and selling well. See below.
I'm planning my next trip to India with our man in India; Mr Chatterjee.. I will go and visit the new factory in Serampore, near Kolkata. The last time I was there was just before the pandemic, so I'm looking forward to catching up with the team there.. but first lots of jobs to get done here.
Have a wonderful week.
Take care.. as they say here Hati Hati.
David