Amazon today announced a slew of new initiatives to enable Indian exporters have a successful holiday shopping season with Amazon Global Selling program. These exporters are geared to showcase millions of ‘Made in India’ products to customers across the world during the annual Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) sale event. Indian exporters have launched over 50,000 new products on Amazon’s global marketplaces for the sale event, which starts globally on November 21 and ends on December 2.
To enable more businesses to leverage e-commerce exports and sell globally during the upcoming holiday season, Amazon has slashed the subscription fee for Indian exporters joining its Global Selling program and selling on Amazon marketplaces in the US, Canada, and Mexico for the first three months from $120 ($39.99 per month) to just $1. This limited time offer is available to exporters joining the program on or before December 31, 2024.
Export Navigator – a one-stop dashboard for exporters
Additionally, Amazon has launched Export Navigator – a one-stop dashboard designed to help exporters understand, manage, and comply with regulatory requirements at both origin (India) and destination markets. It is part of Amazon’s efforts to simplify exports for small businesses and startups across India by addressing key pain points like cross-border compliance, logistics, and payments, among others. The dashboard is available to all Indian exporters irrespective of whether they are registered on Amazon or not. Amazon Export Navigator is currently live for exporters looking to ship products to the US and will soon be enabled for other global markets. For any successful exports business, it is critical to guide exporters on compliance requirements in India as well as foreign import requirements, and Export Navigator has been designed to guide exporters on compliance requirements in six areas:
- Export registration requirements such as Importer Exporter Code (IEC)
- Product certification and licenses
- Taxation guidelines in India and destination countries
- Shipping requirements across courier and cargo custom channels
- Payment reconciliation of export proceeds and key documents such as the e-bank realization certificate
- Export incentives such as Duty Drawback, RoDTEP, etc., provided by the Government of India. It also provides them access to a curated network of third-party service providers that offer a range of support services with faster SLAs and better-than-market rates.
In addition, Amazon has expanded its flagship cross-border logistics program, Amazon Global Selling SEND, with the addition of three new carriers on air and ocean lanes from India to the US, the UK, and Germany. Additionally, to enable a cheap and bulk storage facility for Indian exporters, SEND is now integrated with Amazon Warehousing and Distribution (AWD), a low-cost bulk storage solution that helps sellers with more efficient inventory deployment and distribution. Through SEND, Indian exporters can avail cross-border logistics services from multiple third-party service providers across air and ocean to ship their goods to Amazon fulfillment centers outside India. In addition to competitive rates and Amazon-facilitated shipping, the entire process is integrated within Amazon Seller Central, where booking, tracking, and payments are made seamless, along with door-to-door pickup and delivery and hassle-free documentation support. SEND was launched in 2022, and thousands of exporters are already benefiting from the program, with shipment visibility and on-time delivery allowing them to have more efficient inventory management plans.
Bhupen Wakankar, Director, Global Trade, Amazon India, says “The upcoming global holiday season, which starts with the BFCM sale, presents a pivotal growth opportunity for Indian exporters on Amazon’s Global Selling program. With a vast array of ‘Made in India’ products showcased by tens of thousands of exporters to global customers, we anticipate the 2024 BFCM and holiday shopping season will be successful for our sellers.” The launch of Export Navigator, the expansion of SEND, and the reduced subscription fee offer are initiatives aimed at making exports more accessible for businesses of all scales. We remain committed to expanding e-commerce export opportunities for entrepreneurs across India as we work towards enabling $20 billion in cumulative exports from the country by 2025.”
Amazon customers globally will be able to discover and shop from a range of products across categories including home and kitchen, STEM toys, apparel, health and personal care, office products, jewellery, beauty, and furniture by exporters across India. Black Friday and Cyber Monday are significant events marking the beginning of the holiday season globally and, at this time, customers look to buy products to use at home and to gift to friends and family.
Multiple peak seasons for Indian exporters with Amazon Global Selling
Amazon Global Selling provides exporters access to multiple peak shopping seasons and global events throughout the year. These events, like the BFCM sale, Prime Day etc., have traditionally been periods of high growth for Indian exporters. In the recently concluded Prime Big Deal Days Sale on October 8 and 9, Indian exporters on Amazon Global Selling saw their business grow almost 2.3X vs business as usual (BAU) period. The highest growth was seen in categories like home (about 2.8X vs BAU), apparel (about 2.3X vs BAU), beauty (2.2X vs BAU), toys (over 3.8X vs BAU), kitchen (over 3.5X vs BAU), furniture (about 2.1X vs BAU), with the US and the UK driving a major portion of the business for Indian exporters. The top 5 products sold by Indian exporters during the sale included bedsheets, scrub apparel sets, oral care products, area rugs, towel sets, and kitchen products.
Advaith Ramesh, Sr. Director, OD E-commerce, Himalaya, says “Himalaya has consistently leveraged Amazon’s tentpole events, such as Prime Big Deal Days, to achieve significant sales growth and increase brand awareness. These events provide excellent opportunities not only to boost revenue but also to expand our customer base and build long-term relationships with shoppers. We offer compelling offers to customers to drive immediate sales; this helps us attract a mix of existing Prime members and new-to-brand shoppers, allowing us to reach a wide, fresh audience. For the 2024 Black Friday Cyber Monday event, we are preparing for a major push with great deals across 75% of our catalog. Combined with an increase in advertising spend, we are setting ourselves up for a significant sales lift. Our goal is to double our daily average sales during the peak days of the 12-day sale period.”
