Amazon-enabled exports from India set to touch $20 billion by 2025

The Amazon fulfilment centre in Rugeley; Image: Nathan Stirk/Getty Images

Since the 1960s, Aaqib Bhat’s family was in the rugs and carpet manufacturing business. Eventually, the business became a major player in handmade Kashmir silk rugs. At the time, their products were sold to pan-India wholesalers or international tourists visiting Kashmir.

Bhat was working in Dubai at a consulting firm prior to the pandemic. When the pandemic hit in 2019-2020, he returned home and saw how the family business continued to flourish despite the challenges. That inspired him to stay back and take the entrepreneurial plunge. That’s how Pashwrap was launched in 2021. Pashwrap is a high-end luxury brand that celebrates the rich history and timeless beauty of pashmina. Six months into the launch, it had a fully functioning Amazon Global Selling seller account for exports.

“We have now delivered to almost 3,000 customers via Amazon Global Selling. Our average sales per day is $500-600, and during sale events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, we have seen our numbers jump 5x to 10x. Through Amazon, we now export to the US, Canada, Mexico and Australia. Next year, we want to also try entering the European market,” says Bhat, who is only one of the 1.5 lakh Indian exporters who have been selling over 40 crore ‘Made in India’ products to customers worldwide since 2015, enabled by Amazon’s Global Selling programme. On September 5, Amazon Global Selling unveiled the Exports Digest 2024 and announced that it is on track to enable Indian businesses to surpass $13 billion in cumulative ecommerce exports from India by end of 2024.

The company’s flagship ecommerce exports programme, Amazon Global Selling, was launched in 2015. The total seller base on the programme has grown by close to 20 percent in the past year. The programme has seen remarkable adoption across the country and has sellers from more than 200 Indian cities. Bhupen Wakankar, director, global trade, at Amazon India speaks to Forbes India about how the programme is growing in India, strategies to reach the $20 billion target and more. Edited excerpts:

Q. How are Indian sellers engaging with the idea of ecommerce exports?

We've observed that while most people—particularly within the seller community and the broader ecosystem—have a good understanding of ecommerce and exports individually, they often react with surprise when these two concepts are combined. The reality is that not only is ecommerce exports possible, but it is also a large and thriving industry that has been evolving for some time.

Q. How has Amazon Global Selling grown in the Indian market?

Over the last nine years, we've seen significant growth in India, especially in terms of the variety of products and the diversity of sellers joining our platform. The years between 2015 and 2020 marked the first five years of the programme, and we had reasonable success ramping up during that period. However, in 2021, when Jeff Bezos visited India, Amazon Global Selling recognised that cross-border ecommerce was gaining significant traction.

In 2020, we pledged that by 2025, when the programme reaches its 10-year mark, we would achieve $10 billion in cumulative exports for small businesses across the country. Interestingly, Covid-19 became a tailwind for our efforts. Now, almost four years into our five-year pledge, we would have crossed $13 billion. As a result, we are on track to meet our goal of $20 billion by 2025 for Amazon-enabled exports from India.

Also read: Inside Amazon's game plan for India

Q. Could you take us through some of the focus areas and strategies in place to ensure that this goal is achieved?

There are three key pillars driving this growth. First, there are broader technology investments that Amazon has made, which have significantly reduced friction in cross-border ecommerce. The second focuses on awareness—educating the broader ecosystem and ensuring that sellers and stakeholders are aware of these tools and opportunities. The third pillar is somewhat related to awareness—ecommerce policies. The government of India and even state governments have started to focus on cross-border ecommerce and exports. These three have matured and contributed to our ‘hockey stick’ growth.

We’ve also developed tools and technologies specifically for cross-border operations, particularly focusing on two key areas: Cross-border payments and logistics.

Over the last three years, my team has launched several initiatives to simplify these processes for Indian customers. For example, an entrepreneur in Lucknow can list products in London, Luxembourg, Los Angeles or anywhere else without leaving Lucknow. They can sell in US dollars, euros, yen or any other currency, and receive payments in Indian rupees directly into their bank account every 15 days.

Additionally, we've created a programme called Amazon Send, which arranges for product pick-up from the seller's warehouse and handles shipping to forward-deployed warehouses in the US, Canada, Germany or wherever destination the seller chooses. This essentially eliminates the typical anxieties related to logistics. We’ve seen our seller base grow from 125,000 in 2023 to over 150,000 in 2024, showcasing the diversity of sellers who are leveraging these tools and technologies.

Also read: Why Indian MSMEs should see the world as their target market

Q. What role do artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies play in boosting the success of ecommerce exports for Indian sellers?

The first step is to understand how packaging and other factors work in global markets. You need to know how customers are searching for keywords, what the best-seller products are, and how they’ve listed their keywords in their product descriptions.

You might create a listing in English, but it’s going to be very different when selling to a German or Spanish customer. That’s where our product, 'List Once, Sell Globally', comes in. It does all of these machine-driven translations for you, so you don’t have to worry about outsourcing that task. This could be a huge anxiety point for entrepreneurs, which is now eliminated.

The second challenge is determining how often and how much you should send shipments. These supply chain decisions have huge implications on profitability because if your products are sitting on the ocean for too long, it’s really just money sitting in the pipeline, not generating any sales. Questions like 'When should I inbound?' and 'How should I inbound?'—all of these recommendations are already available to you in our Seller Central tools.

So, nearly everything Amazon has created now includes machine-driven recommendations, even for digital campaigns. For instance, the system might suggest bidding on certain keywords, and as a seller, you just need to understand these signals and decide how to manage your marketing campaign. Technology is firmly embedded in all aspects of this process, addressing nearly every anxiety point you might think of—with some machine helping you at each step.

Q. How do cross-border logistics work? And is it done in-house or with partners?

At the moment, there are two popular modes: Air and ocean. Depending on the category, most businesses tend to rely on ocean freight because it's significantly cheaper—about 80 percent less expensive. Of course, this means longer transit times.

Air freight, on the other hand, has two service classes: Shipments that arrive in under a week and those that take up to two weeks. It's important to note that this involves large pallets of goods being sent in anticipation of orders, not individual items for immediate sale.

Depending on the logistics lane, Amazon partners with a variety of logistics providers. For example, UPS is a major partner, but this can vary by region—what works for Korea or Taiwan might differ from what’s used for India. We rely on core logistics providers with their own assets, such as ships and cargo planes.

There are two main modes of cross-border ecommerce: Merchant (or seller) fulfilled and Amazon fulfilled. Merchant fulfilled (or seller fulfilled) means the seller is responsible for all logistics. And Amazon fulfilled (or fulfilled by Amazon) is more scalable and prevalent, accounting for over 80 percent of our business. In this model, sellers ship their inventory to Amazon's forward-deployed warehouses in key markets like the US and Europe.

Q. What are some emerging trends in cross-border ecommerce?

Some trends to watch out for include preventative health care solutions such as organic supplements and traditional remedies like ashwagandha or turmeric. Consumers are increasingly seeking products that support wellness and metabolism without relying on pharmaceuticals. Next is superfoods. Products like millets and fox nuts are gaining popularity as people become more health-conscious and look for nutritional benefits in their diets. Also, the demand for natural and organic skin care products, including essential oils and other topical treatments, is on the rise. Lastly, we have seen a notable increase in interest for electronic and STEM toys, which are helping to drive success stories like the Miko robot in the market.