Product and Pricing Policy

Product Statement

It is important to say that due to the nature of polymer clay, and because it is hand-crafted, each product is unique and cannot be exactly duplicated. We hope you are delighted and fascinated by our jewellery and that you will want to buy it. But we ask you to be flexible about variations as there will be general consistency in colour but slight variations in design and size may occur.

If we negotiate to provide customers with particular colours, we will specify a minimum order and will require a greater time for production, due to the time necessary to create and mix new colours.

With respect to length of products, we work with a limited range of standard lengths which are outline in a separate document.  Once again, due to slight variations in the sizes of hand-made beads that make up each necklace, our lengths will be consistent to within 1.5 cm.  We may negotiate requests for different lengths for certain customers but this will depend on availability of time and stock and a separate cost will need to be established.  A minimum order would be needed to consider such requests.

Production Policy

Once confirmed in writing with Kopila Basnet, most orders will be put into production within two weeks of ordering and take up to 20 days until dispatching. Orders leave Nepal via TNT (with tracking code), and reach most countries within 7 working days.  Please take this into account when placing your orders.
Delivery is included in product price within Nepal.

 

Pricing Policy

We are committed to our artists receiving a fair wage.  And we are committed to running our organisation honestly and sustainably.  The way we run our organisation reflects that we are moving away from the notion of charitable aid towards the concept of business enterprise for sustainable income and development.  For the information of Nepal based organisations, we do not bargain about our prices which are set to be fair and realistic.

Generally, the largest percentage of the product price goes to the artist who made the item, another percentage goes towards the ongoing training projects of SamunnatNepal, another is for shipping and the small remainder is for direct selling costs and administrative costs.

Prices are reviewed twice yearly (usually in January and July) to take into account increased costs of raw materials, postage, wages etc.  Reviewed prices will be made available to customers at the time of review and will remain set for 6 months from that time.

Payment Policy

Payment must be received on ordering, unless part price deposit or another arrangement is negotiated with Samunnat Nepal coordinator, Kopila Basnet or Wendy Moore at acolourfullife@live.com

All goods are supplied on the basis that they remain the property of Samunnat Nepal, and transfer only takes place when the goods are paid in full.

Short, damaged, or non delivery of orders must be notified in writing within 3 days of delivery.  Failure to do so may result in rejection.

And finally…

A major goal of Samunnat Nepal is that in time, the polymer clay production aspect of the organisation will be run entirely by the women.  To achieve this, some of the funds accumulated through product sales are used to train the women in the cooperative to be able to participate more fully in all aspects of the business including design, quality control, stock maintenance and orders, marketing locally and globally, product development etc.  Our goal is to generate sufficient funds to develop a sustainable business structure.

We are proud of our jewellery which while only one aspect of SamunnatNepal, is unique in Nepal.  We try to learn from all the good and bad aspects of a healthy growing business (like working hard, continuous training, quality control, learning from mistakes etc).  We aim to become strong enough in the global marketplace to not only survive, but to ensure our workers a fair and sustainable income.

We offer beautiful jewellery and are committed to quality of design, production and presentation.  We seek to respond to the marketplace and also to incorporate where possible traditional designs of the artists.   Samunnat Nepal states clearly that accumulated profits will be used for social, environmental and economic development projects and training.

Our jewellery is not a commodity product and not mass produced.  It is difficult therefore to adapt Fair Trade Certification to pieces made by small scale artisans.  Our pieces are unique and production costs vary considerably from piece to piece.  The prices we charge are decided upon by our group and guided by Fair Trade principles.

In addition, Samunnat Nepal hopes to:

Encourage community involvement;

Encourage participation in human rights and advocacy activities;

Encourage involvement in all aspects of decision making, particularly with respect to training development and organizational direction and development;

Encourage clear, open communication at all levels and within our local and wider community; and

Establish networks with others whose ethics and goals are similar to ours.

We acknowledge the inspiration of similar organisations to ours that are sustainably and well run in the development of this document.  We especially acknowledge the vision of Ugandan Outreach and Mzuri Beads (as presented on their website) in the preparation of this document.