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Microsoft has e-shops, Amazon has z-shops, but who's got c-shops, charity shops?

Grassroot community vendors sell traditional handicrafts to community buyers, people who are able to visit their small stores and street setups. However, with the advent of the Internet, there is a huge potential to open up their business channel to the entire world. Consumers in various parts of the world would even be willing to pay ten cents extra, if they knew it was going to a someone in the streets of a poor country. And that dime can go a long way for someone who struggles for food every day.

The idea is to setup an internet store front that allows grassroot communities to sell their goods online, streamlines middle-man costs, gives consumers a chance to partcipate in social change, and of course, provides an opportunity for volunteers to increase the charity in their lives.

The broader vision is to also incorporate education for the rural communities and connect overseas residents to the rural conditions and culture.

The Potential

With the right implementation, cShops project can do a lot of amazing things:

• Connect consumers with the causes: whenever they buy anything, there'll be a link which takes them to a description of the cause; furthermore, there'll be a donation amount that you can just include in your shopping total. Even ten cents would go a long ways in places where your annual salary is less than $200.
• Empowering the grassroot communities: we won't be directly working with individuals but rather the nonprofits running programs in the community. This will ensure that money doesn't just go to one person but creates opportunities for more people in the community
• Communities have nothing to lose: this is just another business channel; if nothing comes out of it, they haven't lost a dime (if it works, of course, the potential is huge)
• Jobs For Rurals: incorporating the broader vision (see model) with education, this can build up to a very sustainable model for the rural sector.
• Inspiration: it would be an incredible testimonial to the spirit of service: a dot-com business, no bruh-hah, just inspiration