The government has received five more applications to run pilots of the E-commerce Export Hubs (ECEH) of which three including DHL, have been shortlisted, a senior official said.
The other two shortlisted companies are Go Glocal and Lexship. With this, the number of companies that have been selected to run pilots for these hubs will rise to five.
Last month logistics enabler for e-commerce Shiprocket and air cargo handling company Cargo Service Centre (CSC) were selected.
Go Glocal and Lexship enable companies to sell on the global e-commerce marketplace by offering logistics solutions.
The new hubs will be coming up in Mumbai and Bangalore. The two companies that were selected last month will set up facilities around Delhi airport.
The ECEH will have facilities for expedited customs and security clearance in house. Provision for quality and certifying agency will happen with the hub which will also have the provision of easy reimport policy. Reimport policy will enable the return of e-commerce consignments and rejects without payment of import duty.
Based on the feedback received on running of these pilots, the government will come out with detailed guidelines for setting up more such hubs across the country. The guidelines may require policy or regulatory tweaks in different departments, Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BACS) and DGFT.
According to government estimates, e-commerce exports have the potential to grow to $ 100 billion plus by 2030 and then further to $ 200-250 billion in future years.
Global e-commerce exports are expected to touch $2 trillion in 2030 from $800 billion now. India’s exports through this medium is only about $ 5 billion as compared to China’s $ 250 billion annually.
China, which is a leader in e-commerce exports, is also a pioneer in export hubs for e-commerce. China’s exports through this route are 6.4% of its total merchandise exports in 2023 while for India this figure stands at $ 1.14%.
The (ECEH) will be a key element in furthering exports through e-commerce and allowing exporters from the hinterland to send a diverse basket of goods. The products that are most amenable for exports through e-commerce are pharma goods, textiles, home textiles, apparel, jewellery, ayush products and beauty products.
In the Foreign Trade Policy of 2023 the intent and road map for setting up e-commerce export hubs was outlined. The applications for setting these hubs for running pilots were called in late August.