Indians on Amazon Global Selling to enable $20 bn in exports by 2025

Amazon has doubled the exports pledge and the Indian exporters are on track to surpass $5 billion in cumulative exports on the e-commerce platform.

Amazon said that the cumulative exports by Indian exporters on the Amazon Global Selling programme are on track to surpass the $5 billion milestone. The e-commerce firm also unveiled the Exports Digest 2022. Encouraged by the rapid growth that the programme has been witnessing, Amazon has doubled its exports pledge, to now enable $20 billion in cumulative exports from India by 2025. 

The programme took about three years to enable the first billion dollars, and the last $2 billion have come in just 17 months. The program has been witnessing remarkable adoption amongst businesses of all sizes across the country and has grown to more than 1 lakh (100,000) exporters since its launch in 2015. 

“We are excited by the remarkable growth that over 1 lakh exporters are witnessing through our Global Selling program. In 2020, Amazon had pledged to enable $10 billion in cumulative exports from India by 2025 using this program,” said Amit Agarwal, SVP India and Emerging Markets, Amazon. 

Agarwal said as Indian micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) discover how e-commerce makes it easy for them to reach customers globally, Amazon is seeing a rapid increase in the number of exporters joining Amazon Global Selling to cater to the growing demand for Made in India products across the world. 

“We are therefore scaling up our pledge to boost exports from India using e-commerce to $20 billion by 2025,” said Agarwal. “We will continue to work with all key stakeholders to make exports easier for Indian MSMEs to help them create robust businesses and build global brands from India.”

These exporters are showcasing millions of ‘Made in India’ products to customers worldwide through Amazon’s 18 international websites in countries such as the US, UK, UAE, Canada, Mexico, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Netherlands, Turkey, Brazil, Japan, Australia, and Singapore.

“MSMEs are the backbone of India’s economy, contributing to around a third of India’s GDP (Gross domestic product) and driving nearly half of the country’s exports,” said  Union Minister of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises, Narayan Rane,

Rane said enhancing the export potential of Indian MSMEs is a key government priority and efforts are being made to support Indian MSMEs for their success in international markets. 

“Amazon’s continued efforts towards enhancing the share of MSME exports is commendable, and their commitment to enable $20 billion of exports by 2025 is very timely,” said Rane. “I would like to congratulate Amazon and all the MSMEs for playing an important role in driving export-led growth to help realise the vision of an Aatmanirbhar Bharat.”

The 2022 edition of Amazon’s annual Exports Digest provides insights into the success and scale of exports from India through the Amazon Global Selling program. This is reflecting a significant increase in demand for Indian products across global markets and the growth of Indian exporters selling globally.

Abhijit Kamra, director - Global Trade at Amazon India, said the government had set an ambitious target of achieving $400 billion in annual merchandise exports. India has breached this target as the country’s merchandise exports touched a record $418 billion in 2021-22. Kamra said the country is witnessing a similar and more momentum on the e-commerce side as well.

“It has been a monumental year, last year for exporters on our platform too,” said Kamra. “The sheer rate of momentum is increasing very fast  (in terms) of the sellers who are becoming part of exports using e-commerce. We now have a seller community of over 100,000, who use Amazon as part of their exports business.”

Kamra said Indian exporters are increasingly seeing e-commerce exports as an opportunity to grow their business. He said apparel, toys, and jewellery emerged as top categories growing 82 per cent, 55 per cent, and 47 per cent on Amazon Global Selling in 2021. The home category increased by 32 per cent year-over-year. More than 1000 Indian exporters on Amazon Global Selling crossed Rs 1 crore ($131,000) in sales in 2021.

In 2021, several Indian entrepreneurs and businesses including Indo Tribe (handicrafts), Mou Meraki (leather products), Aromafume (Ayurvedic products), D’Moksha Homes (home décor) have emerged as globally successful brands, underlining the popularity of ‘Made in India’ products in international markets.

The top cities from where exporters are joining Amazon Global Selling in North include Delhi, Jaipur, Noida, Jodhpur and Amritsar. In the East, these include Kolkata, Patna, Guwahati, Bhubaneswar, Siliguri. In the West, these are  Mumbai, Indore, Ahmedabad, Bhopal, and Pune. In the South, the top cities from where exporters are joining include Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Coimbatore, Trichy and Madurai.

Recently, Amazon’s chief rival Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, said it is now offering Indian manufacturers and trading companies an opportunity for international expansion as cross-border sellers on Walmart Marketplace, where they could reach a growing market of more than 120 million US consumers each month. Along with its Indian company Flipkart and cross-border commerce company Payoneer Walmart laid out a detailed roadmap for local sellers with export ambitions at the recent Walmart Global Seller Summit in New Delhi. The roadmap is part of Walmart's efforts to expand its sourcing from India to $10 billion a year by 2027.