Last fall, a member of the Māori tribe and a local driver of innovation and entrepreneurship in the rural community of Tolaga Bay in New Zealand contacted me on LinkedIn.
She read about production on demand and how it can enable artists or entrepreneurs to sell customized products, ranging from artwork and books to hoodies, and share them with customers anywhere in the world.
We helped them get started, and a few weeks later, Lily and a group of Māori entrepreneurs launched their Shopify stores and began selling products with their designs through our platform. They invited me to the online launch of their stores, and I sat there watching as they performed a beautiful Māori folk song. I will never forget that moment because it was such a powerful manifestation of what our platform empowers people to do and how technology can help form connections and livelihoods beyond borders, from one local community to another.
Empowering artists to go global and local partners to grow their business
This past year has demonstrated the vulnerability of global supply chains. Some retailers report that the cost of shipping a container of goods from Asia to Europe has multiplied by six, and bottlenecks and backlogs cause significant delays.
What we are witnessing is not just a result of the pandemic but an acceleration of pre-existing trends that demonstrate the power that can be unlocked by local production.
Imagine a world where, rather than shipping the products we buy across the globe, we can have them produced in local digital fabrication hubs and delivered to our doorstep in hours. This would create a supply chain that is shorter, more resilient, and much faster, while supporting local businesses and fostering stronger communities.
Rather than asking what will change after the pandemic, we have asked ourselves what will not. Local production and delivery have arrived and are here to stay.
Ecommerce is not a zero-sum game.
At Gelato, we believe that ecommerce is paving the way for big brands and any entrepreneur who wants to sell their creativity to a global audience. And for them, the digital toolbox has never been more extensive.
With ecommerce platforms like Shopify, anyone can open up an ecommerce store overnight (and so they are. The pandemic had accelerated ecommerce growth in the US to $800 billion this year, up more than 30%, a level that before COVID-19 was expected to arrive around 2022). Companies like Stripe help facilitate online payments, and companies like Gelato provide a platform for production on-demand on which any brand can design, produce, and sell their products without investing in or keeping inventory, worrying about cross-border shipping or minimum orders.
Today, our network consists of roughly 100 local producers in 30 countries, including Brazil, Russia, India, and China. This network has plenty of room for both small and large companies to grow across different product categories, supporting the surge in the ecommerce space for years to come.
Local creativity shared globally.
Creativity is born in individuals and teams across the world. It is shaped in the minds, hands, and hearts of artists, creators, and entrepreneurs—from Tolaga Bay in New Zealand to entrepreneurs in Toronto or Shanghai.
We also believe this creativity should be shared through local production, which makes it possible not only for larger companies to distribute their products worldwide but also for indigenous populations, the artists living in the deep Norwegian woods, or the many people who have leaped a new career – most by choice, some by necessity.
One key driver for us at Gelato is our customers’ imagination and visions. They tell us what’s next. And to the entrepreneurs of Tolaga Bay – thank you for reminding us why it matters.
