Amazon woos Indian exporters to sell products on Black Friday sale event

US e-commerce giant cuts subscription fee for new exporters joining Global Selling programme

Indian exporters will present millions of products to Amazon customers worldwide during the e-commerce firm’s annual Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) annual shopping event November 24 to 28.

Using the company’s Global Selling programme, exporters will launch thousands of new products on Amazon’s global websites. The products are across categories including home and kitchen, toys, apparel, health and personal care, jewellery and furniture.

Traditionally, businesses in India witness massive sales during Diwali. “In the US, the shopping season starts now and Black Friday is the largest shopping (event),” said Bhupen Wakankar, Director, Global Trade, Amazon India, in an interview. “So our sellers from India can participate in these global sales and it is like participating in multiple Diwali (sales).”

Amazon has slashed the subscription fee for new exporters joining Global Selling for the first three months from $120 ($39.99 per month) to $1. This limited-time offer is available to exporters joining the programme between November 7 and May 6, 2023.

Amazon launched SEND, a logistics solution to simplify international shipping for Indian exporters. It is available for exporters on Global Selling to ship air parcels from India to Amazon’s fulfilment centres in the US. Additional destinations and shipping modes are to be launched soon. Sellers using SEND can book, ship, and track shipping services from within their Amazon seller central dashboard.

“Think of it as a virtual equivalent of how you book flights,” said Wakankar.

Through Global Selling, Indian exporters can list their products on Amazon’s 18 international marketplaces and websites. They can showcase them to customers in over 200 countries and territories. In the recently concluded Prime Early Access Sale on October 11 and 12, Indian exporters registered over 70 per cent growth in business compared to BAU (business as usual). Here categories like toys, home, kitchen, apparel and grocery registered the highest growth. In the BFCM sale event held in 2021, Indian exporters witnessed a nearly 2X surge in demand across North America, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.

This year Amazon said that the cumulative exports by Indian exporters on Global Selling surpassed the $5-billion milestone. The programme has grown to more than 100,000 exporters since its launch in 2015.