E-tailing Auroville

Auroville.com’s website appears a tad conservative for an e-tailer (or e-commerce) unit. “Expect a lot of changes,” says Stephan. “In a few months, it will be all different!”

Stephan, the on-line store’s new executive, who took over from Suzanne (Lumière) in April, is taking major steps to change the e-tailer’s concept and got together a large team of Aurovilians to do so. Abhi looks after website maintenance; Vera and Ayesha are in charge of customer care; Luise does marketing; Panneer courier services and general affairs; Ulli ‘all the bank stuff’; and seven employees do the order processing, packaging and accounts.

So what’s changing? “We are personalising our website: who we are and what we stand for,” explains Luise. “We do not want to be a Flipkart or Amazon. We are part of Auroville and we see ourselves as one of Auroville’s windows to the world. This means that we do not only sell Auroville products, but that we also give information on Auroville.” The customer care team replies to questions about the opening times of the Matrimandir; gives information on mud-brick architecture; tells how to become a newcomer, where to find a guesthouse, or the background of Eco-Femme’s product. “You ask, and they’ll answer. And of course, they also provide all the product information requested and may even give a call after a product delivery to learn if the client is satisfied.”

The website will interlink with other Auroville websites. “Some of Auroville’s commercial units have opened websites but the expected sales did not follow. We propose to those units to provide only information on their website and let the sales happen through Auroville.com,” says Stephan. “Customers can go from our website to the unit’s website to learn more about the unit and its products, and come back to us to place an order. We also plan to carry links to Auroville’s informational newsletters such as Auroville Papers, The Auroville Earth Institute, Savitri Bhavan, Auroville Village Action and, of course, Auroville Today.”

“Our customers do not distinguish between Auroville and Auroville.com, and neither do we,” explains Luise. “We do not see ourselves as a purely commercial undertaking. Auroville.com is not about pushing sales. We want to give more than the products: when a customer buys something from Auroville, something of Auroville’s aims and ideals should be shipped along.”

Part of those ideals is that Auroville.com does not spam. “We have a database of 14,000 email addresses and we respect our clients’ privacy. People get our regular emails and can unsubscribe at will.” That option, it appears, is rarely used. Compared to the industry average, unsubscribing is minimal while the opening rate of the emails is between 25% - 30%, considerably higher than the usual 10%.

“This is also a result of the email content,” adds Luise. “We inform our clients that we have new products, and at the same time how those products have been made. For example, with Upasana garments, we informed about the difficulties of the Varanasi weavers or of the Madurai cotton farmers. Sometimes we get feedback. ‘You made my day, this was beautiful, thanks for sharing’ – read one response to our emails. That really made my day as well!”

Having a popular website and doing mass-emailing is but one part of successful marketing. To know your customers is another. Luise, who holds a sociology degree from Germany, recently did a survey asking customers who they are, what they want, how they know about us, and what their connection to Auroville is. “We found that 50% of our customers know about Auroville through a personal relationship, either because they have family or friends here or because they’ve visited. Most European customers know Auroville personally; many customers from India have visited the Matrimandir or seen Auroville products. And then there are those who just find us by googling because they are looking for special products, such as sun dried spirulina or Maroma’s products”.

Auroville.com is also active on social media. It has a Facebook page (aurovilledotcom), which Luise peppers daily with short stories about Auroville. “We’re also on Pinterest, will be on Instagram soon, are still discussing joining Twitter and will probably start a blog. We are involving young Aurovilians and artists in advertisement spots, and we plan on doing short 15-second video clips on Auroville. It’s a lot of fun,” says Luise.

The change has already shown results. “The turnover has been rising by 15-20% compared to the previous year and will soon cross Rs 10 lakhs/month with sales worldwide. The larger team is justified and necessary to step up to the next level,” says Stephan. “Today, Auroville.com carries the products of 42 Auroville units, over 2,500 in all. Soon, there will be many more.”

Amongst the new products will be paintings, sculptures and ceramics by Auroville’s artists. “We want to promote Auroville art. Our website will have pages on individual artists, with information on the person and a select offering of their works. This will be unique for Auroville, and in this way another aspect of Auroville will become better known,” says Stephan.

Before deciding to add a new product to the website, Stephan inquires about how and where the product is made and what role the unit plays in the economy of Auroville. The product as well as the conditions under which it is made must be aligned with the ideals of Auroville. “Our website carries the slogan ‘Made with love in Auroville’. That’s the one thing that won’t change.”