Trade, import, export for MSMEs: E-commerce company Amazon on Wednesday announced doubling its cumulative export target of ‘Made in India’ goods from micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) under its global selling programme. The company’s senior vice president for India and emerging markets Amit Agarwal at a virtual event said, “In January 2020, we had taken a pledge to enable $10 billion in cumulative exports from India by 2025 through our programme of global selling. Excited by the momentum in the businesses joining the programme and growing demand for Made in India products across the world, we are doubling down and raising our pledge to enable $20 billion cumulative exports by 2025.” 

The earlier $10-billion target was announced by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos during his visit to India in 2020. Amazon launched its global selling programme in India back in 2015 to provide export opportunities for Indian sellers to Amazon’s 18 international markets. The programme has grown very quickly to over 1 lakh exporters and the number of new sellers joining the programme has doubled over the last couple of years, said Agarwal at the launch of Amazon Exports Digest 2022. 

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According to Amazon, exporters from India under the global selling programme are on track to surpass $5 billion in cumulative exports. “The programme took about three years to enable the first $1 billion exports while the last $2 billion (exports) have come in just 17 months…We are excited to build a strong foundation for MSMEs to realise their export potential, help them become globally competitive and contribute to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of making India an export powerhouse,” Agarwal added. 

Beyond metros, exporters including women entrepreneurs, startups, and traditional businesses from Tier-II and III cities are part of the programme. The top cities from where Amazon India gets its maximum sellers joining the programme are Delhi, Jaipur, Udaipur, Lucknow, Coimbatore, Trichy, Mysore, Kolkata, Guwahati, Siliguri, Indore, Mumbai, and Ahmedabad, said Abhijit Kamra, Director, Global Trade, Amazon India. 

The top-selling export categories under the programme have been textiles, leather, beauty, ayurvedic supplements etc. “In 2021, we have seen 82 per cent growth in apparel category exported from India. The toys category, which is also seeing a lot of traction, is growing at over 55 per cent. Jewellery category continues to grow at about 47 per cent and women products, which have been the mainstay of exports, are growing at 30 per cent,” said Kamra.