The African Heritage Outlet and Online Mall (Ahoomstore) is celebrating two years of excellence in building a global brand in African arts and craft industry through online retail.
Starting off as one of the first African arts and craft online/ecommerce retail hub in Ghana, Ahoomstore has made tremendous strides in the last two years of its existence.
Ahoomstore is a chain of retail outlets in Ghana which sells Afrocentric and fashionable garments, jewelry and accessories, furniture and fixtures, artifacts, cosmetics, herbs, organic food and lots more.
Ahoomstore is a social capitalist initiative of Groupe Nallem STM, whose business module goes beyond the mere retail of goods, to training and equipping artisans with technical and technological skills to produce merchandise that are of international standards.
It does this through its training school, the Institute of African Arts and Technology (IAAT).
It then serves as an organised retail operator, linking the local arts industry and the international market, and on whose shoulders, artisans can ride to meet global demands.
Ahoomstore has thus created a system where, artisans can shift their focus from marketing their products to solely ideation and crafting.
At the launch of Ahoomstore two years ago, it was a delight to all present when the Minister for Business Development, Dr Ibrahim Awal Mohammed, revealed that the government was ready to support the entrepreneurship concept of Ahoomstore in its quest to pave the way for artisans, craftsmen, amongst others to sell their works worldwide.
The founder of Ahoomstore, Gregory A. Kankoh who also doubles as the founder and Groupe CEO of Nallem, envisioned and set up Ahoomstore to become the preferred online marketplace to trade, as well as buy all Afrocentric products made in Africa by Africans.
He emphasised during the launch that Ghana is gifted with talented craftsmanship and it was time to market its produce for foreign earnings.
It therefore brings a great sense of fulfillment that within two years of its existence, Ahoomstore have successfully recruited and trained up to 200 artisans compared to the 15 it started with.
It has expanded its brick and mortar outlet from one to two major state of the art outlets and about six pop-up shops across all major malls in Accra.
It has also successfully built its mobile app, available both on apple and android devices, whilst increasing its yearly exports by at least 40 per cent over the last two years.
Ahoomstore is committed to pushing the African art industry agenda to the international market, raising standards and setting records.
BY TIMES REPORTER