Amazon, the US-based company, is looking to export about $5 billion worth of small-ticket items from India, to supply markets such as the United States and Britain, making a move away from China. This is according to the Economic Times.
The estimate of small-ticket items is reportedly higher than the $3 billion value in 2023.
"India is naturally one of the largest sources of selection for Amazon," Bhupen Wakankar, director of global trade at Amazon, told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.
Bhupen Wakankar reportedly said that Amazon and India's Commerce Ministry and Trade Associations are in collaboration to connect with thousands of small manufacturers across the country.
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The collaboration would see a variety of products being offered such as textiles, jewellery, household items and Ayurveda products. It is said that these items are usually easy to post directly to customers abroad and less affected by import taxes than costlier products.
Wakankar also said that Amazon, with its Global Selling Programme, initiated in 2015, has enabled about 1,50,000 small Indian exporters to sell roughly $8 billion worth of products directly to overseas consumers by the end of 2023.
The recent move by the world's largest e-commerce emphasises India's growing role in the global supply chain and casts a broader outlook among multinational conglomerates looking to diversify their sourcing from China.
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Amazon and Walmart have overhauled India's retail landscape in recent years, as they infused millions of dollars to source supplies from small businesses and attracting consumers through hefty discounts.
Amazon, last June, announced plans to increase its investments in India by $26 billion by 2030, including funds for its cloud business.
Similarly, Walmart is said to have plans to hike its supplies from India to $10 billion a year by 2027, up from about $3 billion in 2020 as per ET.
Despite all this, they have reportedly faced backlash from trading and political groups.
India's Union Minister for Commerce Piyush Goyal accused Amazon of its predatory pricing and said that the e-commerce sector's rapid rise comes at the cost of brick-and-mortar stores operating in the country.
