India-based sellers on Amazon have reportedly exported goods worth more than $2 billion (~Rs. 15,000 crore) globally through the e-commerce platform. The exports are part of Amazon’s ‘Global Selling’ program, which was launched in the country in 2015. It has reportedly helped more than 60,000 Indian sellers export products to 15 Amazon websites worldwide.
The sales figures, which are cumulative over a five-year period, are a fraction of the country’s yearly exports. India is estimated to have exported goods and services worth around $530 billion (Rs. 40 lakh crore) in FY2019-2020.
Be that as it may, Amazon India executives believe that things are moving in the right direction for the company. In a telephonic interview with Reuters, Gopal Pillai, vice president for seller services at Amazon India, said that the company has seen a massive growth in exports over the past year and a half. “It took us three years plus to hit the first billion dollars. Today we are able to hit the next billion dollars, 100 percent growth in the last 18 months”, he said.
The biggest market for Indian sellers is the US. According to Abhijit Kamra, head of global trade at Amazon India, the annual shopping events in America, like Black Friday and Cyber Monday have helped boost sales of India-based sellers on the platform. The company’s own ‘Prime Day’ promotional events have also brought in more business from abroad, the company said.
Apparel, jewellery, home items and leather products led the sales. However, exports grew across several other product categories as well, said Kamra. It will be interesting to see if the company and the sellers on the platform will be able to retain this momentum through the pandemic.
