Rural Retailing: Challenges to Traditional Handicrafts

ABSTRACT

The expansion of tourism into villages has provided craft traders of Kerala with significant opportunities in rural retailing. However, village artisans with limited resources fail to reach global consumers. This study aims to clarify the challenges faced by rural craft cooperatives in selecting retail channels for their products. Testing the hypotheses at two levels using primary and secondary data, the author identifies the retail channel that offers the maximum returns to producers and satisfaction to consumers. The results indicate that those cooperatives owning exclusive retail channels guarantee sustainable market relationships for rural artisans.