Boonhalo – e-commerce platform

Women and those who live in military conflict area in the East of Ukraine, those who left without work while COVID-19 suffer from lack of livelihoods because of job shortages and a gender inequality; Very similar situation exists in countries of ex-USSR, so called “Soviet heritage”, where men held a dominant position, and women a secondary.

A social enterprise,  an online platform for trading handmade abroad “Boonhalo” is a real way out. Women and other vulnerable people (pensioners, disabled, women living in towns and villages) can stay home, housekeeping, bring up children and at the same time do handcraft and earn money, stop the spread of the pandemic. If our solution was scaled globally it could reduce the level of poverty, decrease the level of labor migration and emigration from developing countries, increase the level of living, improve the economic growth, increase the number of women entrepreneurs.

In Ukraine the average level of salary per month is $400, $13/day. Poverty in Ukraine among the population of 44 million is 4% - those who live for $5,5/day are 1,7million. The difference between poverty and what is cold “not poverty” is small – it is conditional upon low economic development of the country. Ex-USSR countries (15 republics, population - 250mln.) are in very similar situation after the collapse of Union and live in average for $605 per month ($20,2/day). In Germany monthly salary - $4560 ($152/day), USA - $25/hour, it is obvious that ex-USSR countries need economic growth generated by the growth of entrepreneurial activity. Our solution – online platform on trading hand-made products abroad “Boonhalo” allows Ukrainians earn money selling hand-made products from their homes without working abroad or emigration. Such international platforms as etsy.com, eBay and Amazon are expensive for small manufacturers, many Ukrainians and ex-USSR users do not speak English. We translate sellers' information into English. Many crafters lack knowledge and confidence to trade abroad – we provide trainings. PayPal in Ukraine has many restrictions - we provide other international payment systems that work in Ukraine without restrictions.

E-commerce platform for trading handmade goods from 15 ex-USSR countries to English-speaking countries (USA, Canada, the UK), starting from Ukraine.

International marketplaces such as eBay and Amazon trade different kinds of goods including handmade and have quite expensive conditions for trading for small entrepreneurs. Etsy.com is the biggest in handmade trading but 15 ex-USSR countries are still uncovered. The main problems in trading via existing marketplaces are the English language, which people from ex-USSR countries do not speak, the way of payment – PayPal has some restrictions for these countries and knowledge in e-commerce. Our solution “Boonhalo” is the way out: we translate sellers' goods descriptions and account information into English, editing that by native speakers. As payment systems we use Payoneer, Skrill and UnionPay which operate internationally. Moreover, we provide on-line trainings on e-commerce, entrepreneurship and different kinds of crafts, generating more sellers on our marketplace, promoting it and attracting more interest. According to analytical data from Etsy.com, Ukraine has a good potential in developing handmade trading as it ranks the 4-th place in Europe after the UK, Germany and France on online sales of handmade goods. Prospectively, we provide export/import trading for 15 ex-USSR countries.

In Ukraine people sell handmade because in most cases they earn their living. We attended handmade exhibition and interviewed about 200 exhibitors. All of them want to trade abroad, but English is a barrier, they love their hobby and earn on it but trading abroad is more profitable.

Our target population is women as they are the most vulnerable. Our goal is women entrepreneurs in towns and villages. There are 3 categories of crafters we target: existing entrepreneurs (fashion designers, painters, sewers, etc.), hobby crafters and crafters-newcomers (women who live in small towns and villages, disabled people, pensioners, suffered from the military conflict in the East of Ukraine, left without work while COVID-19).

We plan to conduct online-marketing campaign to attract new sellers to our marketplace, create branded video-classes with crafts, provide online trainings on e-commerce and entrepreneurship, involve local authorities, local mass media, NGOs that work with marginalized groups, invite crafters to our marketplace from exhibitions and other marketplaces. Earning on trading handmade abroad from their homes many people, especially women in Ukraine and further 15 ex-USSR countries improve their living conditions without the need to work abroad, become independent, safe and stop COVID-19 or other pandemic.

Besides professional crafters we invite, educate and train on e-commerce, entrepreneurship, crafts the most vulnerable (women, especially in small towns and villages, pensioners, disabled and those who suffer from lack of finance, internally displaced from the East of Ukraine, left without work while COVID-19). Our social enterprise – e-commerce platform on trading handmade goods abroad gathers existing crafters-entrepreneurs and future crafter-entrepreneurs. We provide services on English editors and translators of users’ accounts and goods description. We train new entrepreneurs and create good jobs for people who assist crafters to trade and serve platform for its effective operation.

The stage of development for our solution it pilot and we test is within our friends and relatives and those who trade online either on the side of sellers or on the side of buyers. We gather the info about the usability of the platform and test all the parts of the website to improve it and launch as soon as possible.

The address of our online platform is: Boonhalo – goods made by hands

Our direct international competitors are Amazon Handmade, Etsy.com and ebay, Folksy.com is the UK’s biggest online craft fair. The innovation of our social e-commerce enterprise concludes in changes in perception and adaptation of new knowledge among women and vulnerable people living in towns and villages. Changes in perception: especially while pandemic, people understand that the world will never be the same – many people left without work and many jobs disappear but online trading, studying becomes more popular. Young people and urban citizens adapt more quickly to online life, but marginalized groups, especially women in towns and villages need a helping hand in a view of adapting new knowledge and approaches to earning money and to work in general. There is no need to go to work every day and sell goods in the market, we provide detailed trainings on e-commerce, entrepreneurship and different kinds of crafts which help them become independent, confident, spend more time with their families, keep house, conduct export/import trading and earn money for better life without any need of working abroad and leaving their homes for several years. For people from towns and villages e-commerce is a new knowledge and trading abroad frightens but we educate, train and assist newcomers and solve the main barrier – we assist with translations into English and edit descriptions of handmade goods.

Our solution is on pilot stage, so at the moment we have several sellers on our platform and 

Current number of purchasers/testers – about 50

In 1 year we will have 1,000 sellers and purchasers about 10,000 

In 5 years we’ll have 50000 sellers and 1,000,000 purchasers

Following several Sustainable Development Goals – poverty reduction, gender equality and economic growth, gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, our project has a sustainable development impact on the economic growth of Ukraine. It is aimed to reduce poverty in the country, decrease the amount of people who tend to work abroad, address gender equality and human rights gaps and stimulate people to make handmade goods. We launch a pilot project in Ukraine in town Brovary of Kyiv Region. 

 We plan to cooperate with local authorities, employment center, tax office and medical institutions to monitor and evaluate indicators’ of outcomes during the project implementation. Such indicators as “Proportion of economically active women and girls and all women and girls in Brovary city” or a “number of entrepreneurs among women, marginalized and vulnerable people who have registered an individual entrepreneur in Brovary” will be taken at above mentioned institutions and the level of knowledge, awareness or ability will be evaluated with the help of surveys and interviews.

Core of our team consists of 2 persons. Svitlana Borodina – CEO of the project and Ruslan Borodin – CTO. Team members which are full-time staff when project starts: Authority issues coordinator, Training center coordinator, Social development coordinator.

During the 1-st year we plan to employ up to 30 people.

CEO – Svitlana Borodina

Serial entrepreneur, more than 10 years of experience as a Marketing Director and managing my own companies.

About 70 projects/campaigns in marketing/advertising, digital campaign were implemented.

Development and implementation of marketing strategies, marketing analysis/audit of products, including online digital.

Project Manager, Marketing and Public Relations in Ukrainian Social Investment Fund, Project manager in Corcordanza - Italian charity organization.

CTO – Ruslan Borodin

Serial entrepreneur. For over 8 years of running my own IT company, 5-35 people, depending on the size of the project. The total experience of the head is about 15 years.

More than 50 innovative projects in the field of software and equipment for advertising and PR of world-known brands have been implemented.

General project management, developing project roadmaps, producing innovative projects in the field of IT.

Authority issues coordinator - Hrytsenko Iryna – about 10 years in the Department of Education of the District and Kharkiv region State Administration, an Inspector of Minors' Child and Juvenile Rights Protection - organization of family-type orphanages, reform of boarding facilities at the district level.

Training center coordinator - Gryb Klavdia – more than 30 years of experience in educational system of Ukraine as a principal of school, director of educational complex.

Social development coordinator- Tetyana Derkach

Ministry of Social Policy and Labor of Ukraine - analysis of social monitoring of the population of Ukraine. Ukrainian Social Investment Fund – a coordinator of Khmelnitsky regional representation, coordinator of social capacity development services, 32 projects were implemented.

The leader of our team is a woman and most part of members are women. Main values of our team are punitiveness, we are oriented to the result and making changes and impact in our country as well as in the world.

We are a team from Ukraine, which set a goal to increase the economic activity of our country and 15 ex-USSR countries, involving in this process the citizens of the most developed countries such as the USA, Great Britain, Canada etc. When you enter the market of another country, you need to understand the cultural characteristics of the inhabitants, the conditions for doing business, to perfectly know the needs of people. It is impossible to know all the features and successfully launch an international social business project from across the ocean alone. An organization that is a local and international expert in the field of social impact innovation can assist to solve this difficult task.

We bank on support of MIT as an adviser, a partner whose reputation has already been recognized in the US and over the world, as well as a community created to address international challenges. Financial support is also vital to starting and surviving our initiative. In partnership with like-minded Solve associates, we are far more likely to have a long-term transformational impact.

As we connect Ukrainian sellers and North American buyers we need to understand other content audience, its peculiarities, desires, best approach. Best expertise in these issues have local professional organizations. We are looking for Solver's assistance and expertise in marketing and promotion at North America as well as in product distribution, funding, legal issues, monitoring and evaluation. We are looking for best experience and practices which we would like to get at Solver team.

We would like to parted with Solver team, MIT faculty, Solve Members, Global Affairs Canada, UN Women, UNDP and SIDA to better reach the goals of our project and copy best practices of successfully realized project, get best experience. 

We use this prize for TV and YouTube promotion of our platform. 

In the East of Ukraine there is a military conflict with Russia that has been lasting for 6 years. A lot of people had to leave their homes and move to other cities. Many of them have still not adapted socially and psychologically because of losses but some unique individuals have successfully overcome complicated periods of their life and are able to inspire others to overcome and psychologically survive against all odds.

We shoot a series of TV programs, named “Winners” about internally displaced people, refugee women, families suffered from the conflict about their long way back to a normal life. All of them overcome post-traumatic syndrome after such a stress, now people suffer from isolation and pandemic and are in stress. Inspiring stories of strong people, who overcome war and post-traumatic syndrome are useful for people in stress caused by COVID-19. Their stories of life are manuals on how to get yourself out of depression, why you can’t give up and shut yourself in.

 Specialized organizations tell about ways to get out of depression with a focus on handmade, learning new professions. Psychologists confirm that such approaches help to cope with difficulties and get out of depression. All programs will be branded with our logo, links to our YouTube channel with trainings on craft, entrepreneurship and e-commerce. Programs will be demonstrated all over Ukraine on the channel that has 100% coverage to occupied territories of Ukraine.

Following several Sustainable Development Goals – poverty reduction, gender equality, economic growth and the empowerment of women and girls, our project has a sustainable development impact on the economic growth of Ukraine.

Needs in health, education and standard of living are satisfied on the minimum level, but Ukraine is included into 100 countries with a high level of poverty in the world. There is a need to increase the level of business activity, which will contribute to improving living standards in Ukraine.

We believe in women and girls as when we have happy women as a result we have happy men, happy families and happy society. 

We focus on entrepreneurship development among women and girls, marginalized and vulnerable people (f/m) with the help of social e-commerce platform for trading handicraft.

Within the project, we plan to develop a single e-commerce platform for trading handmade products manufactured in Ukraine that are sold abroad (Canada, the USA). This project is oriented to address gender equality gap, focusing on the development of women’s and girls’ entrepreneurship activity especially among women suffered from the conflict in the East of Ukraine through handicraft sales. Producing handmade products is possible at home. In this way, women get more freedom in their life and become financially independent. They can stay at home with children and keep house. We use the Prize to develop educational trainings on entrepreneurship, handmade skills, online trading for women and girls and for providing them microgrants ($200 each) for starting online business.

We use this prize for shooting a series of 50 educational and inspiring videos of successful women who found forces and desire to obtain new knowledge and skills and become prosperous entrepreneurs earning on handmade though in the past they were accountants, housewife, retired, bank employee, actress, journalist, University graduates, military, etc. These videos are promotional videos of our online platform and are planned to be demonstrated for years as an educational material.

The main channels for promoting our e-commerce platform are social media where YouTube has a key role. We will shoot 50 videos where women of different age tell their inspiring story how they become independent, satisfied and happy though everything started from… here is a unique story of each woman – was fired, bank bankrupted, could not find a job, sat on maternity leave, hated her job, etc. Each story is unique and that is the most interesting. People like storytelling and inspiring stories from real life that occur or one’s happened with you, your mother, your neighbor or a friend they like the most.

Videos will be posted on our YouTube channel, as well as distributed on social networks as promotional and at the same time educational and inspiring videos that change attitude of people to the profession, jobs, entrepreneurship and women leaders in general. All videos will have a phrase "developed with the assistance of the Vodafone Americas Foundation"