Amazon, the world's largest e-commerce company, revealed on Wednesday that it had crossed $8 billion in cumulative exports from India in 2023 and was on track to meet its aim of $20 billion by 2025. In 2022, the company's exports totaled $5 billion.
"We are quite encouraged by the progress we have witnessed. We had reached $5 billion in exports by mid-2022 and $8 billion by the end of 2023. We believe we are only getting started. The momentum is there," said Bhupen Wakankar, Director of Global Trade at Amazon India. Amazon, which started exporting from India seven years ago, would need to more than triple its exports by 2025 to fulfill its ambitious $20 billion aim.
This announcement comes shortly after American retail giant Walmart announced that it has sourced more than $30 billion from India over the past two decades. Walmart is now aiming for $10 billion in yearly sourcing by 2027.
Discussing the competition, Wakankar stated, "We are customer-centric, not competitor-centric. More participants will help the seller ecosystem. We're all in this together"
In accordance with its goal of increasing domestic exports, Amazon has announced the winners of the third round of its Propel accelerator program: Mirana Toys, Avimee Herbal, and Perfora.
The Propel program, which was previously only 16 weeks long, has now been expanded to a year. This year's edition featured 47 brands from across the country, an increase from 15 the previous year. The initiative offers $100,000 in equity grants, $1 billion in AWS credits, and comprehensive mentorship from industry veterans and Amazon professionals to the winners.
Amazon's fastest-growing export categories are toys, home and kitchen products, beauty products, furniture, and luggage. Wakankar noted that other products, such as leather goods and Ayurvedic products, are gaining momentum.
Amazon's largest market for Indian exports continues to be the United States, followed by the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, and Germany.
The company's main sales events in 2023 boosted exports from the country.
"Our merchants from India took part in three major sales events: Prime Day in July, Prime Fall Day in October, and Black Friday in November. Depending on the category, we saw anything from 40 to 70 percent growth. Some categories experienced 100% year-on-year growth," Wakankar noted.
Amazon has announced multiple collaborations with federal and state governments to enhance exports in the last year, and it intends to double down on this strategy.
In November of last year, Amazon signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry, to collaborate on capacity-building sessions, training, and seminars for MSMEs in 75 districts chosen by the DGFT.
Last August, at the fourth edition of its flagship Smbhav Summit, the company signed a Memorandum of Understanding with India Post for an integrated cross-border logistics solution to increase Indian exports. It was also one of the first e-commerce enterprises to use the railways' Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) to speed up product delivery.
"In terms of cross-border logistics, we currently offer both full container and partial container maritime services from India. We now have an air offering with different airlines. So, we continue to expand on that side as well," Wakankar said.
According to Wakankar, the company is working to improve its technology stack. "We continue to make significant investments in market intelligence, particularly in areas like machine learning and generative AI," he said.
