Sarees to shawls: Soon, ethnic merchandise to be sold globally via Amazon

Amazon on Friday said it partnered the Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India (TRIFED) to take tribal products to global customers.

TRIFED is the apex organisation under the ministry of tribal affairs, and the partnership will expand presence of TRIFED’s brand ‘Tribes India’ to Amazon users in 190 countries.

As part of Amazon’s Global Selling Program, Tribes India will initially sell products such as door hangings, table mats, decorative items, necklaces, earrings, cotton and silk sarees, stoles, shawls and mufflers, among others. It will gradually add products across categories in the coming months.

“TRIFED aims at improving the livelihoods of the tribal community by creating a sustainable market. The availability of TRIFED products on Amazon.com will create opportunities for tribal artists based on their cultural knowledge and traditional skills while ensuring fair and equitable remuneration to the tribal artisan community,” said Pravir Krishna, managing director, TRIFED.

TRIFED’s expansion to Amazon.com will benefit more than 1,000 tribal entrepreneurs who source their products from nearly 60,000 tribal families across India.

TRIFED and its suppliers procure products from more than 500 tribes across India such as Santhals of West Bengal, Bhils of western Gujarat and tribes of Kinnaur in Himachal, among others.

To smoothen the selling experience for Indian sellers, Amazon offers fulfilment services under the programme that allows sellers to focus on their product and pricing.

It offers imaging and cataloging support to sellers by getting their photo shoots done as per Amazon standards at nominal costs.

It also provides access to third parties that can provide tax guidance services and other export-related modalities by connecting them to concerned advisory agencies.

“For example, when orders come from customers in San Francisco, either sellers can fulfill delivery of products directly and ship each product, or they can use our warehousing. We provide warehousing all over the US. It is all pay per use. So, if you send 20 products, you will be charged for 20 products kept in the warehouse per day. Tomorrow, if you sell 19 products, you can pay for that one product (which is left in the warehouse), instead of paying for all 20,” said Abhijit Kamra, head, Global Trade, Amazon India.

Amazon launched its Global Selling Program in India in May 2015 to help small entrepreneurs and sellers grow and scale through e-commerce exports. Currently, over 50,000 Indian manufacturers, traders and brands use the platform to sell over 140 million products across 12 Amazon marketplaces worldwide such as Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and so on.

Products sold outside India are hot selling ones among the Indian diaspora but several everyday use products find surprising and often unconventional uses with people from other countries.

Small businesses often cash in on such trends.