Area adult education offers new opportunities
May 16, 2011
Nicholls’ Jaramillo credits new plate approach for big success
May 18, 2011
Regionally handmade goods and local services are being offered to a worldwide market by way of the Internet. According to Options for Independence CEO Barry Chauvin and Options Workforce Development Director Jim Pittman, there is no other online site currently available that matches the interactive options, arrangement for vendors, and benefit for participants from customers to sponsors to charities that the Gulf Coast Marketplace offers.
With an initial focus of assisting those who were occupationally displaced or economically impacted by the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill of April 20, 2010, Options has created the online Gulf Coast Marketplace as a sales tool that links artists, artisans, small service businesses and tourism ventures to consumers. It also promotes Louisiana products and lifestyle and benefits the local economy by generating sales tax revenue.
“Down here we have a rich culture with arts and crafts and handmade items,” Chauvin said. “We weave baskets. We carve duck decoys. We have wood turners and jewelry makers. Everything you can think of, but they really struggle to market their products.”
Chauvin said that the idea of an online marketplace arose after he attended an arts and crafts festival and thought how that same concept could be made available online. He thought how it would save vendors travel expenses and also expose them to a wider audience. “They want to be in business, but they don’t want to deal with conducting the business part of it,” he said. “That’s where we come in.”
The Gulf Coast Marketplace differs from sites like Ebay and Amazon.com in that it is graphically set up like a fair market with designated product tents and booths, videos of artists working and telling about their products, and trailers that tease potential tourists.
There are also areas where a few mouse clicks will take the online shopper directly to art studios, available swamp tours and charter fishing opportunities. Individual product pages list what is available at any given time. The opportunities can only grow, according to Chauvin and Pittman.
Options, which has traditionally strived to get disabled persons active in the workforce, is taking its efforts one step further by assisting the economically displaced, and those interested in entrepreneurial ventures with an opportunity to promote and sell their goods and services with, in most instances, same day shipping.
The Gulf Coast Marketplace is described as an online business with central operations and warehousing in Houma. It is a shared revenue model with proceeds from online sales disbursed 70 percent to the vendor, 10 percent sales tax, 10 percent for operating expenses, and 10 percent contributed to a reinvestment pool. Vendors also have the option of offering a percentage of their sales to charities or organizations of their personal interest. Registered participants receive weekly payments on the sale of their products.
“There are all kinds of people in this area [that operate their own creative businesses],” Chauvin said. “But they don’t want their own website, they don’t want to go to fairs and festivals, but they do want to sell their products.”
Even those who do participate in fairs, festivals and trade shows can benefit by expanding their exposure through the Gulf Coast Marketplace according to the website backers.
Pittman pointed out that as well as being a commercial venture by nature, the Gulf Coast Marketplace provides a social benefit for those persons who have been economically impacted due to natural disasters or manmade catastrophes.
“One of the challenges that we have uncovered over the years, one of the primary challenges that [our clients] are faced with has to do with employment and income,” Pittman said. “That is one of the reasons we are creating the Gulf Coast Marketplace. To help those impacted individuals, families and small businesses to bring supplemental income into their homes. There is nothing with the community recovery sort of mission that this has.”
Chauvin explained that the e-commerce site is being established in part with sponsorship as well as a $50 annual fee for vendors to participate. “For the first 50 vendors we are waiving that fee,” he said.
Special promotions also offer added opportunities for vendors, sponsors and consumers.
Opportunities for participants are met by providing a little imagination according to Pittman.
“I heard from a lady [who is] 65 years old,” Pittman said. “She was hoping she could retire but realized that [financially] she couldn’t. She has been a graphic artist and in advertising and there wasn’t a job for her.” He stressed that this venue offers an opportunity to sell her artistic skills.
Painters, sculptors, cooks and tour guides from Louisiana are participating in the Gulf Coast Marketplace to expand their marketing opportunities. “Everybody we talk to wants to sign up,” Chauvin said.
Options wants to grow the Gulf Coast Marketplace presence by developing distribution hubs in various regions of the state. “Our hope is that the distribution center will also employ people who have experienced barriers to employment,” Pittman said.
For more information on the Gulf Coast Marketplace, Pittman said he could be contacted at (504) 583-5862 or at jim@optionsforindependence.com.
Options CEO Barry Chauvin (seated) and workforce development director Jim Pittman check the progress being made on the new Gulf Coast Marketplace interactive website and shopping center. Gulf Coast Marketplace features products and services made in Louisiana. MIKE NIXON
