TEHRAN — The Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicraft Organization (CHTHO) of Iran plans to launch an online-shopping portal to tap the handicraft market.

“The young generation welcome e-shopping and we aim to develop the handicraft industry by investing in this field,” CHTHO’s handicraft chief Bahman Namvar-Motlaq said during a meeting with managers of some well-known Iranian e-shopping portals on Sunday.

“We are surprised by the growth of the handicraft industry over the past two years. Now, over 170 portals offer Iranian-made handicrafts,” he added.

At the meeting, Sa’eed Mohammadi, co-founder of Digikala, the biggest online shopping store in Iran, talked about challenges of online selling of handicrafts.

Digikala started offering handicraft items in April 2015 and it was welcomed by visitors, he said.

“Most of our visitors are young people and unfortunately they are not familiar with different kinds of handicraft. So, we initiated some small campaigns to introduce this art to younger generation,” he said.

He lamented the mismanagement in the handicraft market, saying that some workshops do not have any plans to diversify their products and some do not even issue invoice for buyers.

“We initiated a campaign titled Made in Iran on our website to promote Iranian-made products,” he added.

At the meeting, Narges Shayegh, the director of Aranick portal, which offers Iranian handicrafts, also touched on some problems she is facing for online marketing of handicrafts.

“We have problems for sending handicraft products via the mail service to other cities. Some items are broken when they are received by customers,” she said.

Iranians who live in other countries welcome the website saying that they have received several orders from different parts of the world, she added.

Meanwhile, the director of CHTHO’s handicraft exports department Pouya Mahmoudian, said for his part, that CHTHO plans to support the development of handicraft portals.

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