With 850, 000 sellers worldwide, Etsy is already testing out this concept with Etsy Wholesale, a b-to-b platform to link retailers with national chains.

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Next to the garment district in an even more insalubrious part of the city, heavily populated with drunks is Toy-town, home to more than 100 businesses, most of them owned by Chinese immigrants who specialise in managing production chains that link Chinese capital and labour with western designers and marketers.

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Yet for all the recent progress in supply chains, a weak link remains--the link between product development and manufacturing.

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Torpoint ferries are pulled across the River Tamar on chains and are an important travel link between Plymouth and Torpoint in Cornwall.

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Torpoint ferries are pulled across the River Tamar on chains and are an important travel link between Plymouth, Devon and Torpoint in Cornwall.

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In villages across India, the group has helped to train local entrepreneurs in setting up marketing chains, arrange decentralised credit and finance, and link the villages with manufacturers of village power units.

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And a good few, presumably with Junior by their side or with Daddy's credit card details on hand, have clicked through to the e-commerce website link, the cleverly named Hampstore.com, where you can buy hamster mugs, key chains, bumper stickers.

CNN: ASIANOW - TIME Asia | Asia Buzz: Great Balls of Fur