The brainchild of Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne, Worldstock today can boast that it has provided 5,300 of the world's poorest people in 33 countries with the means to make a living. In all, $37.4 million in handcrafted furniture, jewelry, clothing, artworks and other items have been sold since Worldstock's inception.
Not bad for a dream born in the painful, isolated aftermath of a 2001 motorcycle crash on a remote Cambodian trail. The trip, meant to be part of Byrne's vacation tour of India and Southeast Asia from the seat of a Yamaha, ended up being an epiphany.
Children found the crumpled Byrne, and he was taken in by a nearby village. That night, native remedies dulling the throb of a broken arm, scrapes and bruises, he contemplated the poverty - and artistry - he had seen on his trip.
It dawned on him that the e-commerce giant he had built by buying up small or odd-sized lots of close-out goods and reselling them on the Internet could also work for the high-quality products village potters, weavers and artists were producing.
Worldstock was born and officially launched Sept. 24, 2001, as Overstock's global "social entrepreneurship program." But five years later, Byrne still is not completely satisfied; he wants his personal stab at world poverty to take wing and soar.
"I am thrilled with it, but somewhat disappointed in its size," Byrne said Wednesday, noting that sales of tens of millions in a world where an estimated one billion people live on less than $1 a day won't soon realize his goal of fighting poverty "efficiently and in a manner that nurtures self-respect for all."
The next milestones for Worldstock, if Byrne has his way, will be $100 million in sales, $250 million, $500 million and finally $1 billion in revenue, with the bulk (about 65 percent) of that returning to the pockets of not a few thousand but hundreds of thousands of village artisans.
He's counting on promotion of the site and its growing inventories to spur growth in coming years and gain the attention of online shoppers looking for the rarity of handcrafted, rather than mass-produced, goods.
Worldstock's modest success thus far has won it praise as an enterprise both charitable and for-profit, especially in its grass-roots development of co-ops to contract handmade goods.
Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. recently noted that at nearly 600 jobs, Worldstock has become one of the tribe's largest single employers.
"Worldstock purchases goods from . . . Navajo artisans who earn a living and care for their families, while preserving the traditions of our culture," he said. "We are grateful for Worldstock's support in protecting our Nation's independence."
Ian Vasquez, director of the Global Economic Liberty Project for the Cato Institute, has cited Worldstock for "actually helping poor people do well and get out of poverty," not through handouts, but via the marketplace.
John Renesch, renowned writer and speaker on the role of commerce in social change and a faculty member at the Center for Leadership Studies in Somerville, N.J., agrees that Worldstock is "generally considered a noble idea as it spreads wealth to people who are really hurting in many cases."
Although warning of the social dangers indigenous cultures can face from more intrusive economic development efforts, Renesch included Worldstock among laudable attempts to "create [or] transform a global society that is people-friendly, life-affirming and sustainable for the long term."
bmims@sltrib.com
About Worldstock
* Founded in 2001, Worldstock.com runs as a separate enterprise from its online parent, Overstock.com.
* Nearly $40 million in sales acheived in five years.
* Two-thirds of revenues (roughly) return to the pockets of Third World artisans. Overstock keeps its take at a break-even level.
* Provides employment for more than 5,300 people in 33 countries.
* The Navajo Nation counts Worldstock as a major employer, with nearly 600 tribal members selling through the service.
