Faq - Sirisha

We've received many of the same common questions over the years and so we decided to put them together into a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) format so that our customers, especially first time visitors, would have a chance to receive answers to their less obvious questions without having to go too far.

If you have questions regarding:

How to contact us, click here.

Our websites, company history, etc. click here.

Our Returns Policy, click here.

Our Shipping Policy, click here.

Our Sirisha Rewards Program, click here.

Your Account, click here.

Our Privacy Policy, click here.

These are also available on our Help Menu throughout the site.

If you have any additions that you'd like to see made to this list please contact us to let us know. If you stump us, then there may even be something in it for you!

What exactly is it that you do?

First and foremost we are importers. We have been traveling overseas since early 2003 for the express purpose of bringing products back to the United States for sale.

We began with just a few small items in our bags and brought in our first container shipment in the summer of 2004.

Since that time we have marketed using several methods. Our favorite has been the Internet, which is our primary marketing tool now in 2009. We started on Ebay and branched out from there into creating our own sirishaglobalbazaar.com and also using many other online venues and marketing partnerships. We are continually adding to and refining our websites and the ways in which we conduct our online business.

We have a penchant for doing it ourselves: We do all of our own buying, product inspections, importing, unloading (even the heavy stuff!), website hosting, design, book keeping, bottle washing, etc.

Are you Fair Trade?

We have gotten this question many times over the years and our standard answer is that we are too small to be anything but fair trade! This is not to say that when (if??) we become one of the "big boys" that we would have it any other way, because we would not change our ongoing philosophy of finding the best manufacturers who are at the same place in their business development cycle as we are, and then grow them as we grow our business.

We are a small company who's primary focus is on the unique. We don't deal in mass produced products. We could order those from catalogs of manufacturing reps representing big plants spewing out product at fantastic rates. What would be the point. We love the specialized products that we select, purchase and import ourselves, because that is what we're proud of, and that's why customers come back to us.

Our typical manufacturer is a small family-run operation who does not produce enough for the major chain stores. A favorite story is of one of our SE Asia manufacturers who had a U.S. chain come to them and asked for many container loads to be produced, and asked how long it would take. The manufacturer stopped the conversation from going any further. You see, their highest priority is to produce the best products that they can and given that their products were very time-consuming, both in regards to producing the raw materials as well as in terms of the labor involved in completing the finished product, that they simply could not entertain such a partnership without compromising their standards for quality. We placed our order immediately! This was someone who's products we would be proud to take to our customers.

Where do you get your products?

We source our products ourselves. In other words we travel directly to the source of our products, conduct product searches and evaluations ourselves, based upon customer input and our own sense of what is desired by the marketplace.

Our two favorite places to source product from are Thailand and Vietnam, where we travel from two to four times a year, depending of course upon how business here in the U.S. is going.

Our typical supplier/manufacturer is very much a counterpart of people you would meet here who are buying and selling their wares. We do not deal with resellers. Each one of our foreign partners is directly involved in the manufacturing process, which is done, more often than not, by a brother, sister or cousin. One of our favorite Vietnamese supplier's is a brother and sister who started making wooden sandals while the sister was still in high school and her brother just graduated. The company is very small, and employs cousins in both the manufacturing and in stocking the shelves and waiting on customers in their small retail shop. This is very much the similar profile of most of our fine suppliers. The proceeds from our purchases goes towards sustaining their families and building their businesses, much in the same way that we are here.

What About Buying American?

This is probably one of the burning questions for many people when they see our business.

We love to travel, is probably the first thing that comes to mind! Seriously, the answers lie in why we are in this business in the first place, which is to provide products for our customers that they cannot get anywhere else and that have been created using techniques and materials that are not available here in the United States.

As you browse our categories you will see products made by artisans that have passed their craft from father to son, mother to daughter, sister to brother, friend to friend, in places that are not easily accessible to us here in the United States.

Our clothing is primarily silk, which is not manufactured in the U.S.. Our Vietnamese lacquerware and our Thai handicraft items are unique to the areas from where we source them. These products have a pristine, untouched nature to them. They are not Westernized. They still hold the magic of the places from whence they came. And that is why people come to us.

In a nutshell, we do not typically market products that are also made here in America. For those products that do have minor similarities, we do our utmost to retain the cultural contributions of the manufacturers and artisans so that they retain the unique qualities of the regions where they were made.

As far as our contributions to American workers go, we are proud of the fact that we help employ dock workers, customs brokers, transportation companies, warehouse workers all along our U.S. supply chain when we conduct our regular buying trips and our shipping activities.

We are also very proud of the fact that we are able to assist our friends in other countries, who make the wonderful products that customers here cannot get anywhere else, to succeed and build their businesses so that we will have quality partnerships for years to come. The saying "Think Globally, Act Locally" is in effect every day at our Sirisha Global Bazaar.