Anou and COVID-19

Last Updated: May 6th 2020

In the beginning of March we suspended most of our operations and froze shipments. This down period gave us time to assess the situation surrounding the pandemic and ensure that we put no artisan at risk. Such decisions are never easy, but it was made easier when many of our incredible supporters continued to place orders and custom orders even though the date when work would resume was uncertain. So to all of you who made orders in the past couple of months — thank you.

During this downtime, we spent time reconfiguring how Anou could resume operations in our new normal so that artisans could generate income but at minimal increased risk. Some the changes we’ve made or are in progress include:

• We’ve begun to work with our partners to develop drop off shipping at national post offices so artisans no longer need to wait in line or pay cash to ship products.
• We’ve also moved our dye facilities from Fes to a rural location. Due to the software we’ve developed, we can easily move our dye work and dye orders can be completed by members of single artisan family.
• Custom orders, or any other production, will be restricted to single homes. Cooperative buildings or meeting areas will not be able to be used until further notice pending government approval. Using software integrated with Whatsapp, artisans can just as easily update their customers from their home as they could from their cooperatives.
• We’ll maintain quality control checks on all our shipments by having artisans send their orders to a network including of our Fes HQ and artisan leader villages for inspection before shipments are turned over to our shipping partners for fulfillment.

With these changes in place, our supporters may experience delays in their shipments and custom orders and our timelines may not be as precise.  Further, many of the shipping options we offer our customers are not available and at the time of writing we only can only ship priority. As shipping options come back online they will be updated in our checkout process.

In the coming months, we’ll continue to invest in Anou’s technology to create a seamless experiences in our new normal. Thank you to all who have and will support Anou through this adjustment. Your support will enable us to get artisan businesses back to normal as quickly and safely as possible.

Have questions for us? Just email us at hello@theanou.com