Overstock.com puts world's crafts up for sale

SALT LAKE CITY — Overstock.com's Patrick Byrne calls it the one genuine "light bulb" moment of his life.

The switch flipped on when he was motorcycling through Cambodia nearly a decade ago. Traveling from village to village, he noticed small groups of skilled silversmiths and other artisans creating interesting and beautiful table settings, silks and home décor products. Some of the cooperatives included the disabled, many of who had lost limbs to landmines, or women with no legitimate job opportunities.

That's when it came to him how he could change the world for the better — one handcrafted, ceramic turtle teapot at a time.

The result has been Overstock's Worldstock division, which earlier this week celebrated passing the $50 million mark in payments to its global artists and craftsmen.

Seeing the small quantities being produced by these Cambodian artisans, Byrne realized that the sophisticated distribution system his fledging e-tailer already had in place could serve as the supply chain they needed to reach Western consumers en masse.

Byrne said that's precisely what Overstock was built for: to take small quantities from scattered suppliers and efficiently redistribute them for sale. So it wasn't much of a stretch applying those same principles to selling small quantities from suppliers scattered globally.

"Many artisans create attractive merchandise but lack capital to advertise or set up supply chains into the United States," Byrne said. "Overstock allows these artists to take advantage of the supply chains that we have already built."

And it pleases him to no end seeing what his once-radical idea has achieved in such a short time. "It's the single idea that I'm most proud of — unquestionably the best idea of my life," he said.

Worldstock has sold more than $75 million in merchandise since its September 2001 debut. On average, more than 60 percent of the sales price received by Overstock is returned to its network of more than 10,000 producers and suppliers, who are typically impoverished or handicapped artisans, their co-ops, or groups working with them. Deducting for costs, Byrne said, Overstock is right around break-even for the endeavor, which is all he asks.

Worldstock's goal isn't about creating profits, but rather it's about creating jobs for thousands of people by empowering them to help themselves and their respective nation, Byrne said.