Old swaps new: Grannies direct online shopping trends

Posted on 13 mar 2008

Craving for handicrafts incites diffusion of Internet-based stores for handmade goods.

They are Swiss grannies with knitting needles at the ready.

They or the other representatives of their 15-member Netgranny collective knit socks in the clients’ preferred colors or a "surprise" design. The popularity of Netgranny is only a part of a growing tendency of Internet-based shops that sell handmade items.

The marketplace for buying and selling all handmade items attracted more than 100,000 sellers since its launch in June 2005.

Many experts think that people more often prefer to support a small business than buy something from a large impersonal corporation.

Becky Howard of Georgetown sells her fabric handbags mainly through the Internet on different sites. "I have seen a rise in handmade goods because of the logical desire to have something that nobody has," the Texan said.

Perhaps that is why customers are flocking to online stores. The site's photo gallery contributes that customers can get a real perception of the people behind the business.

"Until recently hand-knitted socks have been mainly sold only in rural markets or in handicraft shops," said spokeswoman Fabienne Hoch." Online distribution appeals to the modern urban person who is used to fulfilling their needs on the Internet.

Manuel Rieder said Netgranny is now more well-known than his Tarzan fashion label that founded the site in December 2006.

"There are already copycats of the business coming out on the Internet," he said. "And we have over 100 grandmothers on the waiting list for Netgranny. We never expected this."