Art and craft plays a very significant role in society. These creative activities have the power to inspire, influence, instill values, bring thoughts to life, and create bonds through sharing ideas. They break cultural boundaries and bring the world closer. To help creativity thrive, Itsy Bitsy offers more than ten thousand arts and craft products to creative enthusiasts in India. The company currently has 26 stores and is counting! That makes Itsy Bitsy India’s largest retail chain for art and craft supplies.
The Story of Itsy Bitsy
Itsy Bitsy was founded in 2007 by the couple Rashmi and Harish Closepet with a mission to make the highest quality of art and craft supplies accessible to all. The store also aims at driving employment and creating opportunities for rural women. Both Rashmi and Harish being from Bangalore laid the foundation stone of their business in the city. A simple need sparked the idea when the couple could not find school project materials for their children and had to run from store to store. This was the moment when the couple decided to act as the bridge to connect artists and crafters with quality products.
Itsy Bitsy opened its 1st store in Banashankari, Bangalore in the year 2007. Opening a store was not enough. That was followed by educating people about different products. One thing led to another and the couple came up with another brilliant idea. This time they started their brand ‘Little Birdie’. Under this brand, the couple introduced handmade flowers, embellishments, adhesives, mixed media supplies, and a whole lot more. As the brand gained popularity, the list of products got longer and within half a decade Little Birdie and Itsy Bitsy became well-known names in the art and craft industry.
Today it has its reach in 10 cities via 26 stores and delivers PAN India for online orders through its e-commerce site itsybitsy.in. It is an organically grown business and all operations are managed in-house, including sourcing, manufacturing, logistics, retail, wholesale.
The journey continues
Itsy Bitsy started as a small neighborhood art and craft supply store and is a pioneer in the Indian art and craft retail market. In 13 years Itsy Bitsy has brought arts and crafts into the modern retail space. Itsy Bitsy is the leading art and craft supplies store in India carrying more than 15,000 products under multiple categories. Itsy Bitsy equips artists and craft enthusiasts with everything one can dream of. It is a heaven on earth for creative nerds. The store monitors the global art and craft scenario closely and equips their shelves with every possible product one can think of. They aim to fulfill every creative desire!
The store offers various categories that further expand into different verticals.
Some of them are
- Art
- Mixed media
- Baking
- Beads & Jewelry
- Card Making & Scrapbooking
- Home Décor
- Handmade flowers
- Kids craft
- Party supplies
- Candle making
- Soap making
- DIY’s
- Clay crafts
Itsy Bitsy also imports products from leading brands around the world. The business prides itself about how it helps entrepreneurs across the country by providing the raw materials they need for their finished handmade products.
Aim to Empower
Rashmi and Harish always felt the need to help underprivileged rural women and make them financially stable and independent. Creating employment scope was the best way to empower them. With this determination, they started a small manufacturing unit with 40 women. Today the number has crossed 3000! These women are directly or indirectly employed by them. They also run an orphanage on the outskirts of Bangalore. That shows how much they believe in giving back to the community by enhancing the quality of life of the underprivileged. Their initiative and work done for the community are noteworthy.
