E-commerce giant Amazon leads in helping Indian exporters sell their products in international marketplaces. Recently, Amazon's global selling program has crossed USD 2 billion in cumulative exports, since it begun in the year 2015. According to the e-commerce platform, about 60,000 Indian MSMEs have been exporting through its global program, on 15 various Amazon websites globally. The states using this platform the most have come out to be Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Haryana. Senior VP and Country Head of Amazon India, Amit Agarwal, says that the company has planned to extend this amount to a minimum of USD 10 billion till the year 2025. It has taken Amazon three years to reach to cumulative exports of USD 1 billion. It then grew by 100% to cross USD 2 billion in less than the next 18 months.
Through its newly released annual report digest, it revealed that over 800 Indian MSMEs surpassed the Rs. 1 cr mark in exports sales in 2019. On the company's big sales, like Prime Day, Black Friday, Cyber Monday etc., according to the report, Indian exporters witnessed a year-after-year growth rate of 72%, 76% and 55% respectively.
The report also indicated that there was a good amount of demand for "Made in India" products in global markets. It also gave a few insights on how Indian products are being used for alternative purposes as well, such as 'using ghee as creamers for making coffee' or 'ayurvedic soap being used as shaving cream' or 'cotton bed sheets being used to make face masks' and many others. Amazon has been uncovering a whole new demand side for such products.
Further, a region-wise separated data showed that northern India leads in the export of sports goods, copper mugs, nautical collectibles, books, apparel etc. Southern India, on the other hand, has been active in export of spices, leather bags, bed sheets, kitchen linen, towels, toys etc. Eastern India was seen to export tea, leather wallets and shoes, home decor, groceries, and automotive accessories. Western India led in export of jewellery, bed sheets, kantha quilts, tapestry and home decor products.
Amidst the pandemic, there was a high rise in demand for Made in India products across categories, like health and hygiene, home essentials, nutritional supplements, etc. The major markets for these products were USA, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Australia, Europe, and many others.
Gopal Pillai, VP of the Amazon India Marketplace, stresses on the need for the creation of low cost logistics solutions, which will help India gain much more benefit from exports. Another requirement to make the process of exporting Indian products overseas is to enable India with a post-dispatch tracking system with foreign postal services. The new Foreign Trade Policy, Pillai hopes, will help address such issues, and will enable businesses of all sizes to use e-commerce marketplace, and export their products to global markets.
