Shop4All

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Shop4All: e-marketplace with products and services from vulnerable groups of people

GreeceAthens, Greece
Year Founded:
2014
Organization type: 
for profit
Project Stage:
Idea
Budget: 
$10,000 - $50,000
Website:
http://www.shop4all.gr
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Project Summary
Elevator Pitch

Concise Summary: Help us pitch this solution! Provide an explanation within 3-4 short sentences.

Shop4All is an online platform and business model addressing the sustainability of vocational training centers for vulnerable people (e.g., physical/mental disabilities). Shop4All team undertakes all IT and marketing tasks required for the development of new online promotion and sales channels.

WHAT IF - Inspiration: Write one sentence that describes a way that your project dares to ask, "WHAT IF?"

What if vulnerable groups of people become more self-contained and have equal opportunities to integrate into society through their creative and labour skills?
About Project

Problem: What problem is this project trying to address?

Vocational training centers help vulnerable people in many ways, but they face many problems. One is insufficient public financial support. Another is that, although they can offer quality products and services, they lack established sales channels: clients are usually family members and friends. Moreover, they have neither know-how nor human and financial resources for product promotion. Voluntarism is always an aid, but a “best-effort” one.

Solution: What is the proposed solution? Please be specific!

Shop4All consists of: -Tools: professional Web presence of the participating organizations, a modern e-marketplace for their products and services, a central donation system and yellow pages for in-kind donations, virtual bazaars -Services: dedicated staff with the expertise to handle all daily operations required, such as technical support, (online) marketing, orders etc. -Business model: performance-based marketing and low-cost subscriptions for assuring the sustainability of the project itself: long-term professional support is a primary goal. The marketing strategy will focus on the product quality and the side-benefits from purchases, and on concepts like compassion and charity. Media sponsors will help to get mass publicity.
Impact: How does it Work

Example: Walk us through a specific example(s) of how this solution makes a difference; include its primary activities.

UniquePeople (UP) is a rehabilitation and vocational training center for disabled people. It provides courses to 110 trainees, aiming to empower their skills and independent living. The trainees attend cooking, gardening, candle making and other labs supervised by professional well-qualified personnel. The UP staff have no capacity nor the know-how to promote the products (e.g., candles, gifts) effectively, and there is always unsold stock. Their website is poorly designed and maintained by one of the teachers with some experience in computers. Shop4All team can outsource all IT and online marketing tasks and create new sales channels. As a consequent, UP can have new revenue streams that improve its overall operation and sustainability.

Impact: What is the impact of the work to date? Also describe the projected future impact for the coming years.

The project will initially work with vocational training center and social enterprises dealing with people with physical, mental disabilities and suffering from chronic illnesses. According to noesi.gr and other sources, there are more than 100 such organizations that employ more than 1500 professionals and have more than 5000 trainees or workers from vulnerable groups. To the beneficiaries, one should add family members and friends of vulnerable persons. Hence, the economy of scale achieved by Shop4All is clear: a few people can affect the daily routine and lives of several thousands of people. The main benefits for individuals will be: personal development, enhancement of self-esteem and independent living, labour skills. For the organizations, the development of new revenue streams will allow trainers to focus on delivering quality training and improving their curriculum.

Spread Strategies: Moving forward, what are the main strategies for scaling impact?

The full impact of the project will be achieved when all organizations in Greece that have the characteristics of VTCs (i.e., capacity to produce and commercialize goods and services) and count to more than 300 today, can have an effective online presence and enjoy online sales with minimal effort and costs. Such organizations may be cooperative enterprises from unemployed, ex-prisoners, isolated villages, etc. Another mid-term objective is to export such goods to other countries, starting from Europe and specifically in places with strong Greek community.
Sustainability

Financial Sustainability Plan: What is this solution’s plan to ensure financial sustainability?

The income of Shop4All will be based on commissions from product sales and on yearly fees for the provision of standard IT and marketing services (in the order of 700-1000Euro/year/organization). Although it is a commercial platform, an upper limit will be set to the annual profit (as a percentage of turnover). Excess profit will be returned to the organizations so that their standard fee is constantly reduced.

Marketplace: Who else is addressing the problem outlined here? How does the proposed project differ from these approaches?

Currently, in Greece there is no online platform that promotes goods produced by vulnerable society groups. Direct competition consists of other e-shops. Most of the products in Shop4All will be hand-crafted, of high quality and often certified. Moreover, every purchase has important (non-material) side-benefits for the organizations and their trainees. This social aspect is a strong motivation for consumers to trust Shop4All. Other similar initiatives outside Greece are www.shopforsocial.com, www.colorful-minds.org and www.tenthousandvillages.com.
Team

Founding Story

The founders of Shop4All started working with disabled people in research projects. Next they founded the team of IT volunteers e-thelontis.gr and offered some help to poor organizations. Being also technology enterpreneurs, they realized that voluntarism is not a solution. A true solution should rely on a clear and promising business model and not on charity. Some visits to vocational training centers validated the main concept and helped towards elaborating on the details. Today a fully detailed setup of the project is documented and under development. The project will be initially hosted in Codefactory, web application development company.

Team

The team has the capacity and expertise to successfully run the project: Dr. Vassilis Tsetsos: founder, project director Mr. Gregory Tsetsos: founder, platform development and techical support, founder of Codefactory.gr Mrs. Albina Tzintoli: marketing professional, full-time Mrs. Sonia Marinou: economist, operations, part-time Mr. Paul Stouraitis: operations, full-time Mr. Chris Golfis: graphic designer, part-time
About You
Organization:
Mobics
About You
First Name

Vassilis

Last Name

Tsetsos

About Your Project
Organization Name

Mobics

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Project
Organization Country

, AT, Athens

Country where this project is creating social impact
What awards or honors has the project received?
Funding: How is your project financial supported?

Individuals, Businesses, Customers.

Supplemental
Partnerships: Tell us about your partnerships.