The Epelia Shopping Community 2.0 is the marketplace provided by Fairdirect e.V.. It is a central purchasing platform for food items sold directly by their producers. We focus on the individual producers: every Fairdirect producer operates his or her own online shop on the Epelia platform, so that the sales contract is always made directly with the producer.
Customers use one common login, shopping basket and checkout process for all shops on the Epelia marketplace together, and make one payment for a purchase, even if spread out over multiple shops.
By means of the QR codes embedded in the Fairdirect labels on all product packaging, customers can navigate directly to the product’s page on the Epelia marketplace, created by the respective producer. There, users will find the list of ingredients, the sources of all raw and auxiliary materials, information about the producer, the price and also detailed information about the product’s fairness level.
By setting up Fairdirect shipment centers, all Fairdirect products associated with one such center can be shipped in one parcel when purchased online, dramatically reducing shipment costs. Usually, we piggyback shipment centers on existing local distribution infrastructure such as farmers markets. Shipment centers are a service, not an intermediate trader. This is fair for producers since they still sell directly to their customers. It is fair for customers, since they are guaranteed to always buy from identified producers. It is fair by providing neutral and transparent information about the whole production process. It’s also fair towards animals and nature by treating them well. Fair plus direct makes up Fairdirect, obviously.
The Epelia marketplace is operated by Fairdirect e.V., however we will not exclusively sell products evaluated by Fairdirect. We will also grant other collectives with similar goals to sell there – means, there will also be products without the Fairdirect logo on the packaging. These organizations can still use our label (with the QR code linking to the poduct page on the Epelia marketplace), just in association with their own logo. But all products use the same mechanism to calculate the product fairness level indicated on the label. The required product evaluation is organized by each organization, or in collaborations between several.
All of this contributes to our vision of a global network for fair and direct trade of food items, without intermediate traders and with objective product information.
