Abstract
Indian handloom industry has deep roots into the cultural and historical legacy of the country, it is also main source of income for millions in the rural and semi-urban areas. Indian designers have always been inspired by the rich handloom heritage and incorporated its essence into their creations and established a market niche. Today’s designers have to reassess their strategies to grow meet the expectations of the everchanging customer preferences. This study examines the design entrepreneur’s ability to align traditional craftsmanship with the preferences of Gen Z consumers. Gen Z are a socially conscious and digitally aware generation. To collect the data primary data from 250 Gen Z participants was collected through a structure questionnaire using simple random sampling to understand the consumer behaviour, and to explores information with regards to the challenges and opportunities for design entrepreneurs’ secondary data was sourced from various print and digital platforms. Findings reveal that while Gen Z is aware of the cultural and environmental significance of handloom products and supports these brands. But they also are price conscious so the high production costs, lack of transparency in supply chain is a barrier. For design entrepreneurs modernizing the handloom industry and supply chain inefficacies are major challenges. The opportunities are the potential of design-led interventions to promote handloom, creating a sustainable ecosystem that preserves cultural heritage and meets the contemporary consumer demands.
Presenters
Rajyalakshmi AchantaStudent, PhD, GITAM School of Business, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Design Entrepreneurs,Handloom Industry, Cultural Heritage,Gen Z, Consumer behaviour
