Amazon says working with government to unblock export policy issues

Amazon says association with the Indian government over the past years has boosted global selling programme and more sellers are now enthusiastic to join initiative.

In its quest to increase net revenues from the global selling programme (GSP) to $ 5 billion by 2023, global e-commerce company Amazon is working closely with the Indian government to solve policy issues. 

Apart from focusing on encouraging sellers from India to ship their products to USA, Europe, Japan and other countries, the e-commerce giant is hopeful that some of the recent changes in the country’s approach towards exports will boost GSP.

While the GSP, launched in 2015, had a slow start for the first two years, it has picked up good pace in the last two years.

“Initially, in the first two years it was a slow start, but it picked up in the last two years and the GSP now has a high double digit growth. We are so confident about the programme and the prospects, we believe we will do minimum net sales of $ 5 billion under the GSP by 2023”, Gopal Pillai, vice president of seller services at Amazon India, told Business Standard.

Pillai said Amazon’s association with the Indian government over the past years has boosted GSP and more sellers are now enthusiastic to join this initiative.

“More importantly, we are focusing on the building blocks and the areas of concern, for example, we work with the government to unblock a lot of policy issues and that’s working out well”, he said.

According to Pillai, the initiative from the e-commerce platform to work with the government resulted in several changes which is boosting exports.

“We were able to create more post offices where they now accept export boxes. The number of forms needed for exports went down from 14 to three and the subsidy (on exports) went up from two per cent to four per cent. So there are so many things which have happened and it is all coming together. That’s why we have the confidence,” he said.

Also, the shipment value limit for courier has been increased from Rs 25,000 to Rs 5,00,000 as the maximum eligible amount for incentive claim.

Amazon is of the view that Indian policies are becoming friendlier towards e-commerce and exports which is helping it tap the potential from India.

However, asked about what more changes does Amazon wish for to promote the GSP, Pillai replied, “It is a continuous process and as we continue to work with the sellers, we will figure out more what is working and what’s not working”.

Moreover, the company is also negotiating the rates on behalf of the sellers so that they are exempted from bargaining individually under the GSP and these sellers have now started using the company’s logistics network to boost their business.

Pillai opined that the norms and the registration process for the Amazon fulfilment centres in USA are more relaxed than it is in India which makes it easier for sellers to operate globally. 

Since this programme was launched, more than 50,000 sellers from the country have joined in and encouraged by their performance, others are also queuing up. 

The Amazon Export Digest 2019 states that there has been a 55 per cent growth in number of Indian products on Amazon’s international marketplaces and a 56 per cent growth in number of Indian exporters. 

The major Indian states having the maximum number of international sellers are Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan.