Amazon ties up with FICCI for enabling SMEs to sell globally via e-commerce

E-commerce giant Amazon has partnered with FICCI-CMSME (Confederation of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) to educate exporters and manufacturers on B2C exports via e-commerce.

At the inaugural event held in Mumbai today where the partnership was announced, Amazon has said that it will conduct various such training events and workshops across the country with FICCI-CMSME.

The effort is focussed on Amazon’s Global Selling Program that enables easy and convenient access for all Indian exporters - including entrepreneurs, SMEs, manufacturers — to sell their products to millions of consumers across the globe through 10 international marketplaces.

A press release from Amazon states that these events will bring in experts from Amazon, FICCI-CMSME and various service providers to help the manufacturers and potential exporters in understanding the procedures and requirements related to areas such as logistics, taxation, cataloging, and will guide them through the entire process of exporting through the e-commerce route. It further adds,

The exporters and manufacturers will be educated on the digital business opportunity, brand building, documentation, listing methodology and Amazon services such as Fulfilment by Amazon and Sponsored Ads.

The announcement comes immediately after the Union Budget 2018 which has allocated Rs 3,794 crore to MSME sector for credit support, capital and interest subsidy, and innovations. Amazon’s latest initiative is sure to get them in the good books of the government which they have been keen on.

According to Sanjay Bhatia, President, FICCI-CMSME, the number of digital buyers worldwide is expected to grow to 2.07 billion in 2019 from 1.3 billion in 2014. He says that global e-commerce transaction in 2016 was $1.9 trillion accounting for 8.7 percent of the total retail spending worldwide. This is expected to grow to above $4 trillion by 2020, making up to nearly 15 percent of the total retail spending.

He continues:

Realising the potential of the sector and the opportunities for the B2C product manufacturers especially MSMEs, FICCI-CMSME has partnered with Amazon to create the awareness about the potential and take the maximum benefit of this platform.

FICCI-CMSME aims to connect MSMEs with mentors, incubators and accelerators and assist them through capacity building programmes, besides helping them explore different government schemes.

It looks like a good year is coming for the MSME sector in India. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had mentioned in his budget speech that massive formalisation of MSMEs is taking place in the country after demonetisation and introduction of GST. According to him, it has been generating enormous financial information database of MSMEs’ businesses and finances. The Minister had said,

This big data base will be used for improving financing of MSMEs’ capital requirement, including working capital.

Amazon’s Global Selling programme launched a few months ago is a step in that direction as well. Talking about the partnership, Abhijit Kamra, Head - Global Selling, Amazon India, said that the partnership will help Indian exporters take their ‘Made in India’ products to millions of customers across the globe.

“Categories such as apparel and accessories, leather, beauty and health products, toys and household goods have a great demand internationally. Indian exporters have a comparative advantage and immense potential here. From few hundred sellers during our launch to over 32,000 sellers offering over 90 million products, Amazon Global Selling has grown and supported thousands of exporters till date and we look forward to enabling thousands more through the programme,” he added.