Indian merchants selling goods to international markets have witnessed a massive 224 per cent growth via Amazon’s Global Selling Programme (GSP) during the year 2017.
The details were revealed during the launch the company’s Export Digest 2017 report by Amazon India GM and Director (Seller Services) Gopal Pillai. The report included insights into growth of Indian exporters selling globally and popular product categories offered by Indian exporters abroad.
Indian states and cities were emerged as the most international exporters by selling popular product categories abroad, the report revealed.
It pointed out that North Zone saw 114 per cent growth in exporters selling globally, followed by West Zone, with 112 per cent, South Zone with 81 per cent growth and East Zone saw 74 per cent growth in the number of exporters selling globally.
The States with most international exporters include Delhi, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh. Whereas cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Kolkata topped the charts with most exporters.
Smaller cities like Indore, Surat, Ahmedabad, Ghaziabad and Pune also have large number of sellers using Amazon’s platform to reach customers globally.
Home décor, dinnerware and copper mugs, ethnic wear and women’s apparel were found a huge demand from international buyers, mentioned the report.
Importantly, Indian bedsheets have been adopted as beach towels, throws, and wall hangings, while ‘shudh’ ghee is being used to enhance the flavour of coffee blends.
A Quick overview of Amazon’s Global Selling Program
The programme was launched in June 2015 in India. It allows entrepreneurs, manufacturers, artisans as well as large brands to sell products overseas and go global and showcase their ‘Made in India’ creations to the world which includes apparel, home furnishing, jewellery, books, collectibles, sporting goods, handbags, shoes and health & beauty products.
Also Read: Flipkart opens its platform for global customers via eBay
In last two years and 9 months, the platform has on-boarded over 32,000 sellers in India, who are selling over 90 million products to customers in countries like US, Mexico, Spain and Japan amongst others.
Problems faced by Exporters
The exporters want relaxation in customs policy for returned goods and in norms prescribing for limited period for storage of goods abroad which government has specified 15 months.
They also want the inward remittance received often differs from the declared value in invoice during exports as pricing is dynamic. Due to this mismatch, banks ask for clarifications and additional documentation, which impacts sellers operations.
The development was reported by ET.
