Good news to the crafters!

The widespread news that Pakistan has gotten approvals to be enlisted on Amazon has sparked a new era of Ecommerce in Pakistan and the business community at large. Amazon can be your gateway to start selling your products internationally and seeking buyers easily without any intermediaries.

What does this mean to the Art & Crafts industry of Pakistan?

It will help fill the gap between the handicraft industry of Pakistan and the international markets. Right now Amazon is in the process of setting up and enlisting Pakistan as an approved country of sellers along with other international markets that are buying and selling through Amazon.

The Rural artisans will be able to sell and market their products through an eshop on Amazon. Previously, only a handful of Pakistanis were able to sell through Amazon because it was not easy for everyone who was keen to sell through Amazon, internationally. One of the basic reasons were that your business could not be offshore, which means, you had to have a business entity and prove your physical presence as a business or retailer in the country of origin or countries that were enlisted in the approved list of markets on Amazon. Secondly, another challenge was that you had to have an international business bank account in the US or European countries, in other words you had to prove that you were a registered business or an individual residing in their country.

By allowing Pakistan to be enlisted, it means that we no longer need to have a physical presence, or a registered business internationally. Now we can sell through Amazon while doing business directly from Pakistan and market our products from Pakistan without the need to partner with someone living in another country and worry about the funds and profit distribution.

This opens the gateway to many opportunities for other professionals as well, such as Marketing agencies, lawyers and accountants whose services will be required to scale up your business once you setup an e-shop on Amazon.

Cultural and traditional products are loved by international buyers who buy our products because they are not easily available in their country. So this gives the buyers a chance to buy new kinds of products and those who love to explore other culture and admire the art of other countries will allow them to choose between our products with the products of our neighboring countries. Currently, countries like India and Bangladesh have been very active in promoting and exporting their handicraft products internationally, and due to lack of facilitation and support for exporting in our country, it was a hassle and wasn’t that easy to export handicrafts from Pakistan, especially if you were operating a small scale business or a micro level business.

Stay tuned for more news and information regarding Amazon.