By Mashum Mollah
The top e-commerce company, Amazon, recently declared that Indian merchants have profited tremendously by selling and exporting products to overseas markets via the online portal. A fabulous increase of over 224% can be seen in the business growth of the merchants, in comparison to last year. All this has been possible via Amazon’s Global Selling Program (GSP).
Amazon has been facing a tough competition due to high competition from rival portal in India, Flipkart. However, despite the tough competition, the company has been successfully selling quality products at amazing prices to its customers. Various Amazon offers can be availed almost 24×7 on trending products through the website.
Amazon India has more than 32,000 sellers in the country, vending over 90 million products to the customers across various countries every year.
Top countries making up for most of their buyers include US, Mexico, Spain and Japan. The General Manager and Director of the Seller Services division of Amazon India, Mr. Gopal Pillai stated “India is in a unique position where sellers are seeing growth in their business, whether they serve domestic or international markets (through GSP)”.
Further, he also said “India has immense manufacturing strength in categories like clothing, leather products, gems and jewelry that account for the majority of demand abroad” during the launch of Amazon India’s Export Digest 2017 report. These words of acknowledgment certainly encouraged many merchants across the country.
Amazon India’s Export Digest 2017 report depicts the progress of Indian exporters, who ship their products under top categories across the globe. Out of the overall growth in 2017, 114% growth was seen in business by global exporters, hailing from Northern region, 112% in the business of exporters from Western India, 81% from South India and 74% from East zones respectively.
Exporting states that made among top global sellers and proved their mettle in selling their products abroad included Delhi, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh. Further, top cities that in-turn enhanced business from these states were Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Kolkata.
Apart from these, smaller cities such as Indore, Surat, Ahmedabad, Ghaziabad and Pune also depicted significant number of global sellers, using Amazon India as a platform for reaching out to international customers. Top selling products from India at the online portal were home decor, dinnerware, copper mugs, ethnic wear, women’s apparel et al.
A huge demand of Indian bedsheets can also be seen through the report. International customers are known to use them as beach towels, throws, and wall hangings. Additionally, the pure ghee or clarified butter, also known as Desi Ghee, is amongst the best choices of foreign citizens, who use it boost the flavor of their coffee blends.
The global merchants of India, who were present at the launch event of Amazon India’s Export Digest 2017 report shared their views and explained that their success would further multifold with the provision of relaxation in the custom policies for returned goods and norms prescribing a limited period for storage of goods abroad.
They added that the relaxation in the above policies will provide the sellers with enough time to sell their products without bearing any loss. They would also be able to import their products again, in case they are not sold in the prescribed time period of 15 months, as stated under the current policy framework.
Exporters are currently asked to pay for customs duty on the products sold to the consumers, and even on those returning back to India in case of return or unsold. This result in the sellers to incus losses in particular cases.
The exporters further added their concern over the difference in the inward remittance received and the declared value in invoice during exports. They stated that since the pricing is dynamic, such differences are obvious, however, RBI and other banks seek explanations and additional supporting documentation from the sellers in such cases.
Such hurdles impact their operations and affect in overseas selling to a great extent. However, they also acknowledged that measures taken up by the Indian government have already resolved many of the issues faced by the exporters.
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