Digital marketing opportunities in India for Lankan exporters explored

Sri Lanka Export Development Board (EDB) and Sri Lanka High Commission in New Delhi, India, jointly organised an online briefing session with Amazon India recently, to explore the digital marketing opportunities available for the Sri Lankan exporters in the Indian market via the highly reputed e-commerce platform Amazon.in.

Upekkha Samaratunga, Minister (Commercial) of Sri Lanka High Commission in New Delhi, India, in her opening remarks emphasised the importance of trade through e-commerce platforms, especially in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic. During the briefing, Senior Business Development Manager Sidram Kaudaki, who is leading the International Brand Partnerships for Amazon India, explained the vision of Amazon.in bringing high-quality products from international brands through trusted sellers by offering prime benefits to them.

Amazon.in intends to collaborate with the EDB and Sri Lanka High Commission to guide Sri Lankan brands to enter the Indian market through www.amazon.in. as it is already partnering with countries such as Australia, Canada, Italy, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, the US, UK as well as Switzerland. Amazon.in works collaboratively with trade commissioners, embassies and associations to launch country-specific stores and therefore, it wishes to collaborate with the EDB and Sri Lankan High Commission in India to promote Sri Lankan brands aamong Indian customers.

“Amazon.in is India’s most trusted Internet brand. The market value of e-commerce in India is expected to reach US $ 200 billion by 2027 and the number of people using smartphones in India is increasing at an exponential rate,” Kaudaki stated. He invited the Sri Lankan exporter community to make use of the Amazon.in platform to reach the Indian market, which consists of a large number of upper-middle-class consumers. SME exporters from the Sri Lankan gift and handicraft sector joined this discussion to explore the opportunities for their products such as home decors, artificial flowers, wooden and bamboo products, clay products through Amazon.in digital platform. During the discussion, they were able to obtain first-hand knowledge on the procedure of promoting products in the Amazon.in platform, legal requirements as well as the challenges in using digital platforms.