Zanisa's philosophy is: Celebrating the handmade process, the nurturing of our environment and the people behind it all. It features a stylish collection of gifts, home and personal accessories that provides detailed descriptions of each item - both through photography and information on the people who make them.
Owner and creator Susan Lawrence strives to provide a shopping experience that saves time, is helpful, informative and highlights good design. All items are easily identified under the following: Star Company, Handmade, Natural, Recycled, Organic, Fairly Traded and Sustainable. Extensive category selections allow for quick access to the items of interest and the sorting features provide a way to really focus on areas of interest. The site offers several services such as Concierge (which sends email reminders of important dates) and Gift Lists (as many as you like, so that when mom's birthday comes around you can go directly to her gift list and pick something out). The checkout system is set up so that you can send items to many different people within the same order and also identify which items, or groups of items, you'd like gift wrapped with a personal message.
The site is hosted using wind-powered energy, recycled packaging throughout, and a tree is planted for every order over $50. When asked why? Susan replies, " I just thought there had to be a better way. My own experience in trying to find lovely goodies that also satisfied my personal philosophy was hard work and took a lot of time and energy. In the midst of what I refer to as a midlife crises (but really was more like a midlife awakening) the light bulb went off - why not create an environment that makes it easier?"
And so Zanisa was born.
PS: A little known fact - Zanisa actually means, "to restore harmony and balance within a large gathering". It stems from the Shona language of Zimbabwe.
