Amazon Global Selling programme hits $2 bn in overall exports from India

The programme helps over 60,000 Indian exporters sell 'Made in India' products, pledges to take cumulative shipment values to $10 bn by 2025

4 min read Last Updated : Jul 20 2020 | 10:31 PM IST

E-commerce giant Amazon said cumulative exports through Indian sellers on the Amazon Global Selling programme have crossed the $2 billion milestone. During the India trip of Amazon founder and Chief Executive Jeff Bezos in January, the company had pledged to enable $10 billion in cumulative exports by 2025 helping Indian businesses grow by selling online worldwide.

Amazon Global Selling now helps over 60,000 Indian exporters sell millions of Made-in-India products to customers worldwide through its 15 international websites in countries such as the US, UK and UAE. The other countries include Canada, Mexico, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, The Netherlands, Turkey, Brazil, Japan, Australia and Singapore. In 2019, over 800 of sellers on the programme did business of Rs one crore each in e-commerce exports.

“We are excited about the rapid growth being witnessed by Indian MSMEs and brands on Amazon Global Selling,” said Amit Agarwal, senior vice-president and country head, Amazon India. “It took the programme three years to hit cumulative exports of $1 billion and it has grown 100 per cent to hit the next $1 billion in less than 18 months, to cross the $2 billion milestone in cumulative exports from India.”

Experts said Amazon is now also actively wooing the government with such initiatives. On Monday, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways and MSME Nitin Gadkari, unveiled the Amazon India ‘Exports Digest 2020’.

“I would like to congratulate all the MSMEs who have been working with Amazon to take their locally manufactured products global,” said Gadkari. He said MSME will continue to play a critical role in the “country’s economic revival” and help overcome the current pandemic.

In the beginning of 2020, as the world faced the Covid-19 crisis, which necessitated people to stay at and work from home, Amazon said thousands of Indian MSMEs helped serve customers globally through e-commerce exports. Made-in-India products across categories like health and hygiene, nutritional supplements and home essentials saw heightened demand from customers in markets like the US, Canada, Europe, Mexico, Japan and Australia.

“Covid-19 pandemic has definitely impacted everyone, but for people who are part of e-commerce have seen the benefit and growth both in domestic as well as in the export programme,” said Gopal Pillai, vice president for seller services at Amazon India. Pillai said the company is well on its way towards achieving the $10 billion in cumulative exports by 2025, based on the momentum and success of the MSMEs across the board. “With this milestone ($1 billion) we are confident we are in the right trajectory, and should be able to reach that goal by 2025,” said Pillai

Amazon said the number of exporters on its platform has grown to over 60,000. An increasing number of sellers joining from metros as well as tier 2 and tier 3 cities.

“This (tells us) that given the right opportunity Indian manufacturers can compete and excel at the global stage,” said Abhijit Kamra, director (global trade), Amazon India.

One of the entrepreneurs, Rishabh Chokhani, founder and CEO of Naturevibe Botanicals said for him it was a strategic decision to sell directly to customers across the world. He said Amazon Global Selling provided him the right channel to start quickly. “Last year, the business grew at 56 per cent year-on-year and with people opting for natural, healthier options – we are seeing even greater demand in the recent months,” said Chokhani.