Stage set for Indian small biz to build global brands: Amazon's Broussard

As work from home became the new normal due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Broussard said thousands of our e-commerce sellers from India played a key role in serving customers globally during this period.

There is a huge opportunity to create global brands from India. Customers across the world are buying from businesses around the globe and this presents a tremendous opportunity to businesses in India, said Eric Broussard, Vice President, international marketplaces and retail, Amazon.

E-commerce brings this opportunity closer to businesses irrespective of their size. It enables a level playing field and keeps the sellers and the entrepreneurs in charge of their inventory, the markets they want to sell in and work to create a global brand for themselves. With Amazon Global Selling, Broussard said Indian exporters can today list their products on 17 international marketplaces or websites of Amazon. They can get access to 150 million paid Prime members and over 300 million customers in 200 countries and territories across the world.

“The way I see it, there is a huge opportunity to create global brands from India,” said Broussard at Amazon’s flagship event Smbhav. “Already we have some great examples of Indian businesses starting from scratch and building successful global brands with customers across the world.”

For instance, Vahdam Teas which is not just a successful business on Amazon globally but has featured in Oprah Winfrey’s favourite things a couple of years ago, according to Broussard. Also, Wow Shampoo has become one of the most popular shampoo brands on Amazon in the US.

Almost 60 per cent of the physical products sold on Amazon globally now come from independent Sellers—not Amazon. Sellers’ sales have grown twice as fast as our own retail sales since they first started on Amazon. During the 2020 Holiday shopping season, more than 71,000 small and medium-sized businesses worldwide surpassed $100,000 in sales. And Indian businesses on Amazon Global Selling saw a 50 per cent growth in business year on year during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sale.

As ‘stay at home’ and ‘work from home’ became the new normal due to the coronavirus pandemic, Broussard said thousands of our e-commerce sellers from India played a key role in serving customers globally during this period.

In this changing world, the pace of technology adoption has accelerated. There has been a structural shift in online shopping behaviour. More customers are coming online for their shopping needs in the US, Europe, India, and all over the world. This has also meant that more businesses are relying on technology to connect with customers online and grow their business. 

“The pandemic has shown us the power of and potential of technology for businesses, as well as for life in general,” said Broussard. “Our commitment to supporting small and medium-sized businesses has never been more steadfast. Today, we have more than 70,000 businesses in India (which) were part of the Amazon global selling programme and are selling to customers across the world. Amazon is helping boost exports from India with this programme.”

With each country looking to increase its share in global exports and international trade and exports are an important factor in boosting domestic economies. They are also important in generating employment, enabling a greater choice of products for customers and providing larger markets for growing companies. Amazon has pledged to enable $10 billion in exports from India by 2025. 

“This sets the stage for millions of Indian small businesses to cater to the global customers and build global brands from India,” said Broussard.

Amazon Global selling helps customers across the world shop locally for global products. On the seller side, global selling enables businesses of all sizes to sell to customers across the world, leveraging Amazon’s investments in technology and infrastructure. 

“You could have a customer in New York City, Berlin, Tokyo, Dubai (to buy) bedsheets from a seller in Delhi or Mumbai through Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.co.jp. They can get the product delivered to their address in one to two days, pay in local currency; while the seller in India gets the money in Indian rupees in their bank account,” said Broussard.

For instance, Mumbai-based Jack in the Box is redefining creativity toys for kids. It started on Amazon global selling programme in 2017 and has been growing 2X year-over-year. It is now selling to customers in 15 countries including the US, Canada, Germany and the Middle East. In the last four years, it has grown to be one of the top craft toy brands in the world, from Mumbai.

Also, businesses are using FBA (fulfilment by Amazon) to make their products Prime eligible. Amazon’s Prime programme enables customers to get unlimited free shipping on a wide array of products. Amazon is investing in growing the Prime program across the world. This helps the flywheel spin faster for customers and sellers. 

For instance, Vaibhav Aggarwal from Lucknow who runs a health and personal care business called Wonder Care and sells products like lung exerciser and hernia belts. Wonder Care has relied on FBA to expand their exports business and today caters to customers across North America, Europe, APAC (Asia Pacific) and Australia. 

“We have been focused on making every aspect of selling globally simpler for our sellers. For example, a seller from India doesn’t need to know Japanese to list her products on Amazon.co.jp,” said Broussard.

For this Amazon has a solution called Build International Listings (BIL) which helps the sellers in listing their products across all marketplaces. The solution translates the content into international languages such as German, Japanese and French, making the process easier.

Broussard also said the Government of India is making efforts to create an encouraging environment for helping small and medium businesses to be part of e-commerce exports and contribute to a much stronger economy. He said Amazon's teams in India are working with industry players, state and central governments and other partners to create a conducive ecosystem to lower the entry barrier for Indian businesses to start or expand their exports business.

“The host of initiatives from the Government to strengthen manufacturing, nurture entrepreneurship and promote digital enablement are playing a key role in supporting the development of global businesses,” said Broussard. “This puts India in a great position to expand further and build global Indian brands.”