Amazon set to cross $8 bn in exports from India by 2023, up 60% YoY

E-commerce major Amazon on Wednesday said it is on track to enable $8 billion in cumulative exports by the end of 2023, up 60 per cent from $5 billion last year.

The firm now has 125,000 Indian exporters from more than 200 cities under its Amazon Global Selling Programme, which was launched in 2015.

Of this, more than 1,200 exporters on the programme crossed Rs 1-crore sales in 2022, the company said while unveiling its Exports Digest 2023 report.

These developments are in line with the company’s target of crossing the $20-billion mark in exports by 2025. This has been doubled from its previous target.

The programme, Amazon said, has allowed exporters to sell over 266 million ‘Made-in-India’ products through Amazon’s 18 international marketplaces. The US, the UK, Canada, France, Spain and Italy were among the top marketplaces for Indian exporters. 

“In the last 12-24 months, we have seen a lot of emerging marketplaces like UAE, Australia and Japan as robust destinations where our sellers are listing their products,” Bhupen Wakankar, director, global trade at Amazon India, told Business Standard.

“These markets are growing a lot faster than established ones,” he said. There is, however, still room to grow in established markets as well, Wakankar added.

“We are not doing anything specific that incentivises or focuses on emerging markets. We are very clear that the technology available for exporters to established markets is available to the ones focusing on emerging markets as well. Many of our sellers are operating in multiple marketplaces,” he said.

The states, which saw the maximum number of exports on the program, include Maharashtra, Delhi, Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh.

In 2022, Amazon’s highest-growing export categories included toys — which saw over 50 per cent growth, home and kitchen products (35 per cent growth), and beauty products (25 per cent). Furniture and luggage witnessed growth of 20 per cent each.

“We are seeing a lot of growth in categories like toys, leather goods, ayurveda products and even furnishing. These new and emerging sectors are growing much faster than traditional categories such as home products, which include bed sheets, bed covers and rugs,” Wakankar said.

Amazon said that it is witnessing “remarkable growth” from smaller cities. Exporters from 25 cities cumulatively crossed $10 million in sales in 2022.

For instance, cities like Sri Ganganagar in Rajasthan cumulatively crossed $13 million in sales from exports last year and Haridwar crossed the $23-million mark during the same period.

“The MSME (micro, small and medium enterprises) sector, which contributes significantly to our economy, plays a critical role in achieving our vision of an Atmanirbhar Bharat,” said MSME Minister Narayan Tatu Rane.

“E-commerce exports, facilitated by programs like Amazon Global Selling, offer Indian MSMEs unparalleled opportunities to showcase their products globally. With enabling policies and support, we can turn our Prime Minister’s vision into reality and become a global export powerhouse,” he added.

Amazon is also leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to drive Indian exports.

“We use AI and ML to offer sellers support with understanding market trends and demand patterns across global markets. This helps them in experimenting in new markets without a lot of initial investment or effort. It also helps more tenured sellers plan their inventories, act quickly on customer feedback and update their products and offerings,” Wakankar said.

Amazon, he said, has simplified the process of managing listings for different global markets.

“Our Build International Listings (BIL) solution helps sellers list their products across all marketplaces by adding offers and synchronising prices. It also translates the content in international languages such as German, Japanese and French, making the process easier for the seller and removes language barrier,” Wakankar added.