Success isn’t an accident. It takes careful planning, hard work, and passion to achieve. Fair Trade thrives on transparency and accountability while respecting the sensitivity of certain situations. We have big goals ahead of us for 2017 and we’d love to give you a sneak peek into our roadmap to see how we plan to get there.
Goal one: Partnership Opportunities
Secure at least two new artisan partnerships in 2017.
- We currently work with several artisan groups in Colombia, India, Indonesia, and Uganda. At the moment, we’re finalizing a partnership with a group in a new country, and hope to finalize another partnership within this calendar year as well. Partnerships take quite a long time to come to fruition because we want to be sure both parties see tremendous benefits from working together. Sometimes, partnerships just aren’t the right fit and it’s better to identify that in the beginning stages. Our goal when entering partnerships is to be in it for the long haul, and we’re thrilled to provide new product offerings with each new region we venture into.
Grow current partnerships by collaborating together to create new styles.
- Our team love to sketch. You never know when a brush of inspiration will strike. It’s incredible to see the process from abstract idea, to sketch, to initial sample prototype, to final production. Sometimes, the finished product is even better than we could have imagined! We have some stunning ideas for 2017 and can’t wait to introduce them to you starting with our spring line.
Experiment with materials to create new best sellers.
- Experimenting is one of our favorite things to do! If you’ve followed our story, you’ve likely seen our Sample Sales. They’re some of our most popular events. These extremely limited quantity styles are often results of our experiments throughout the year. As we craft together with our artisan partners, some styles aren’t produced in quantities. As much as we love every style we produce, we want to bring only the best of the best to market in scalable quantities. Our samples typically sell out in record time at great prices, and it gives our customers a chance to own a truly unique piece.
Goal Two: Grow our Curator Network
Expand our training program to help educate about our mission.
- Our Curators are the backbone of our mission. It’s important to our team to share relevant information with them to ensure they are able to successfully share our story and our products. We plan to completely revise our training program this year to continue supporting them in the best way possible. After making updates to our program this year, our team has been ideating on new and improved ways to support this important network.
Reach out to our local communities to further our impact.
- Know of an event in your area? Email our Care Team (care@ithoughtofyou.com) to let us know about it! We love sharing our mission and would love to consider your region to share our story with.
Support reputable charitable organizations important to our team and our network.
- Customers have shared with us how important they feel about supporting local, national, and global causes that give back. We plan to amplify this passion in 2017 by expanding our Give Back Initiatives. Do you have causes that are important to you? We’d love to hear about them! Email our Care Team (care@ithoughtofyou.com) and let us know.
Goal Three: Expand our Reach
Start a conversation with media partners to broadcast our story and our mission.
- We’ve been featured by some of the biggest names in the media and we hope to continue that momentum this year. Do you have connections to a media outlet who may want to learn more about our story? Email our Care Team (care@ithoughtofyou.com) and we’ll be happy to provide our current Press Kit for media relations. We have ambitious plans for 2017 and our impact can be amplified when our message reaches the masses.
Identify rising styles to produce on-trend accessories worth sharing.
- Production of a new style can take more time than you might think, that’s why it’s important for our design team to identify rising styles far ahead of the season’s launch to have time to test, revise, and produce in time to bring trendy and classic looks to market.
Dive into new markets to continue our relevancy in the fashion space.
- Although jewelry is our main focus, we plan to experiment in new spaces to find products that compliment what our customers love. Have an idea? Email our Care Team (care@ithoughtofyou.com) and let us know what new types of products you’d love to see in the coming year.
