Amazon today announced that India-based MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises) have crossed $2 billion in exports, in support of Amazon’s push to give these companies a global platform.
Amazon launched its hugely popular ‘Global Selling’ program in the country back in 2015. With this initiative, the company aimed to allow MSMEs to export products to other countries. Over the years, the program has gained massive success, with Amazon India’s GSP now allowing more than 60,000 companies to export their products through 15 Amazon websites globally. These include countries such as USA, UK, UAE, Canada, Mexico, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Netherlands, Turkey, Brazil, Japan, Australia and Singapore. In 2019, more than 800 Indian MSMEs on the program surpassed $131, 375 (INR 1 crore) in e-commerce exports sales individually.
Due to COVID-19, people are being forced to stay indoors. Consequently, the demand for essential as well as daily usage items has went up, especially through online mediums, to ensure social distancing. Due to obstructions in supply chains of bigger brands and companies, smaller businesses, with the help of e-commerce sites, MSMEs have tried to meet this demand.
“In the last three-four months, when the world has been adapting to lockdowns, and disruption in supply chains, we saw thousands of such small businesses sell to customers globally,” Gopal Pillai, Vice-President of Amazon India’s Seller Services, said. “Exports will continue to play a critical role in this revival. GSP is helping locals go global. This is more important than ever for our small businesses, and for the nation, as it recovers from unprecedented time. We will continue to empower Indian MSMEs to realize their potential and make exports easy,” he added.
Earlier this year, Amazon had pledged to enable $10 billion in cumulative exports of India made products by 2025. It took Amazon 4 years to reach the $2 billion milestone. Will be interesting to see the company’s growth strategy to cover up the rest of the $8 billion in just 5 years or so.
“The GSP helps take homegrown businesses global and provides an avenue for MSMEs to build global brands. The program is witnessing momentous growth. It took three years for the program to hit exports of USD 1 billion and now it has grown 100% to hit the next USD 1 billion in less than 18 months,” Amit Agarwal, senior VP and country head Amazon India, said.
Recently, Amazon has been doing a lot to help small businesses in India. It has helped small businesses to digitize and go online. It tied up with banks to provide them easy and cheap loans. Amazon intends to invest more than $15 billion this year to help third-party sellers grow through the Amazon platform.
“We want to see small businesses across the country thriving like never before. We are committed to helping them harness the power of online sales, reach new customers, and provide fantastic selection, value and convenience,” says Nicholas Denissen, Amazon Vice President of Small Business.
