CREATIVE entrepreneurs are getting more support to boost their exports through Kingston Creative’s new Kulcha Connect application.

The app invites creatives in fashion, music, art, and more to become culture app vendors in order to showcase their products and services on the platform and thus attract international buyers.

“We have this app that we’ve developed to increase access for our creative entrepreneurs so they can sell their goods; it’s an e-commerce tool, among other things. They can sell their goods online on the app,” manager of Kingston Creative’s CreaTech programme Karen Hutchinson told the Jamaica Observer Business Forum last week.

According to Kingston Creative’s website, vendors featured on the app will benefit from direct communication and engagement with clients and customers, increased brand awareness, getting ahead of their competition, and increased sales.

Due to visual artists’ inability to produce large quantities of artwork in a scalable manner, it has been challenging for them to launch into exports without worrying about high shipping costs for a single piece to an independent buyer while economies of scale are an issue.

Hutchinson explained that the Kulcha Connect app will help bridge the gap between supply and demand.

“We’re essentially aggregators of all the different creative entrepreneurs so it’s not one person that is satisfying the entire market or one person that needs to fill a container. It’s us taking on board a lot of the processes that they would find difficult for themselves,” she said. The more technical aspects, such as payment processes online, will be handled through the app. It will also act as a fulfillment centre.

Kingston Creative Executive Director Andrea Dempster Chung explained that the app operates within the creative community as a key part of its business model.

“Not everyone can put up their own e-commerce platform, and it will take a lot of time away from their business,” Dempster Chung said.

As the non-proft arts organisation encourages creators to capitalise on Jamaican culture by looking outside the island for sales, it’s also actively helping businesses learn how to do that through its Go Global Accelerator Programme.

Dominic McDowell, project manager at Kingston Creative, revealed that the programme is designed to take businesses that are interested in scaling up and exporting, and provide them with training (through a number of different modules) from industry experts who will walk them through all the processes.

“We offer training from rebranding or refining their branding to operational issues, to actually preparing themselves for the export market in terms of identifying the market, as well as what to prepare for when they are about to export their products,” McDowell said.

Dempster Chung revealed that so far the app, which is available on both the Google Play and the App Store, has recorded more than 900 downloads, with 23 participating vendors. Within the app there’s a list of upcoming live events, tours, and classes that are offered. Visitors to the island will also be able to look at a map on the platform to discover what’s happening locally.

“If you’re a visitor to the place you can say, ‘Okay, I want to see shopping, heritage architecture, and food,’ and you can go in and find these different locations and visit them and give them business without us as an intermediary. This is about visibility; this is about giving people market access to get international sales; and it’s about being that aggregator,” said Dempster Chung.

The app is still in the development stages, and Dempster Chung said plans are in place for the marketing of the various vendors and the app itself. For now, Kingston Creative has begun with the local market by having the app promoted during its monthly Artwalk event.

“We are in discussions because the plan, obviously, is not to stay local forever; it’s to ensure that internationally this app is known and downloaded. Social media will play a major part in that; there is already a developed social media feed for that. We are also going to be partnering with organisations that are in the Diaspora. Right now we’re working with an entity that does a lot of events in Miami, and we’re looking to partner with them in order to promote among the Diaspora of communities,” she said.