Indian exporters look beyond US, UK amid global uncertainties: PayPal's Abid Murshed

India’s micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are increasingly looking beyond their first international sale and focusing on building sustainable global businesses. In an interaction with The Economic Times Digital, Abid Murshed, Market Leader-India at PayPal, a global digital payments platform, discusses the challenges Indian exporters face while scaling globally, emerging export opportunities, the role of trust in cross-border commerce, and how data and artificial intelligence (AI) help merchants make better business decisions. Edited excerpts:

Economic Times (ET): Even though several Indian MSMEs win their first international order, few manage to scale globally. Where do you see the biggest drop-offs, and what differentiates firms that build sustained global businesses?
Abid Murshed (AM): While securing a first international order is an important milestone, the bigger challenge is sustaining that momentum and generating repeat demand. Many MSMEs see drop-offs from international customers when operational realities, such as unexpected shipping costs, pricing frictions, and overall cost competitiveness, begin to affect the customer experience.

This is particularly relevant in the current environment, where evolving geopolitical dynamics and trade-related developments, including tariffs and pricing pressures, can influence consumer demand and purchasing behaviour across markets. International buyers often become more selective in their spending, which makes consistency and trust even more critical for businesses.


In many cases, friction points, such as payment failures, cost sensitivity, or limited visibility into customer behaviour, prevent merchants from moving beyond one-off transactions. Businesses that successfully scale globally are those that build trust with international customers, provide a seamless checkout experience, and understand where repeat demand is coming from.

ET: As more Indian businesses enter global digital trade, what key shifts are you seeing in product categories and priority international markets?
AM: We are seeing a clear broadening of both services and goods categories as Indian merchants expand globally. On the services side, IT services, professional services, such as tax, consulting and training, travel, and edtech continue to witness strong international demand. On the goods side, apparel and jewellery remain strong performers across global markets.

We are also seeing early momentum in AI-led services, which is emerging as an important sunrise segment for Indian exporters.

Beyond the US and the UK, major trade corridors for Indian merchants include Australia, Canada, and Germany. These trends are being driven by greater digital adoption and the ability of MSMEs to connect directly with consumers across borders. With a presence across over 200 markets, we are able to identify these shifts through transaction trends and convert them into insights that help merchants.

ET: For relatively unknown Indian brands, trust can be a barrier in global markets. How does PayPal help improve conversion rates and reduce friction at checkout?
AM: Trust plays a critical role in cross-border commerce, especially for businesses that are relatively unknown in international markets. For many first-time buyers, the decision to complete a transaction depends heavily on their confidence in the payment experience. We address this by embedding trust directly into the checkout process. Global brand recognition, combined with buyer protection and dispute resolution mechanisms, helps reduce hesitation and build confidence at the point of purchase.

A seamless payment experience is equally important. Friction at checkout, whether through limited payment options or complicated payment flows, can result in customer drop-offs. By enabling intuitive, secure and easy-to-integrate payment experiences, we help merchants improve conversion rates. The combination of trust and seamless payments allows Indian merchants not only to reach global customers but also to convert and retain them more effectively.


ET: PayPal’s cashback-led initiative targets MSMEs early in their export journey. What strategic gap does this address?
AM: As global competition intensifies, speed and operational efficiency have become increasingly important for MSMEs, particularly those beginning their export journey. Our cashback-led initiative is a performance-linked programme designed to incentivise early cross-border transactions by offering cashback on transaction fees for eligible payments of up to $2,500. It addresses a key barrier: hesitation around the perceived cost-value equation of cross-border payments.

For eligible merchants, the effective transaction fee can reduce to nearly 1.9% for a limited period, improving early-stage economics and encouraging participation in international trade. It acts as an entry catalyst that encourages trial, supports onboarding momentum, and allows merchants to experience the broader benefits of global reach, trusted payments, and seamless cross-border commerce.

We are already seeing strong participation from Indian MSMEs. In 2025, more than 197,000 Indian businesses sold internationally through our platform, reflecting both the scale of the opportunity and the need to support merchants early in their global expansion journey.

ET: Are Indian MSMEs still overly reliant on a few key markets like the US and UK? How should they prepare themselves for the evolving geopolitical and trade dynamics?
AM: The US and UK continue to be important markets for Indian MSMEs, particularly for goods exports, and remain among the leading corridors on our network alongside Australia, Canada, and Germany. We are seeing encouraging signs of diversification, with merchants increasingly exploring newer markets. This reflects a broader effort to build resilience and reduce dependence on a limited number of geographies.

In an environment of evolving geopolitical and trade dynamics, MSMEs are becoming more conscious of concentration risks and are actively looking for new demand corridors.

Diversification is not only about managing risk; it is also about unlocking new growth opportunities and creating a more sustainable path to scale.

ET: How is PayPal leveraging data and AI to provide MSMEs with actionable insights, whether on pricing, customer behaviour, or market selection?
AM: Facilitating over seven million cross-border payments for Indian businesses provides valuable visibility into customer behaviour, pricing trends and market opportunities.

By analysing transaction data, we can identify meaningful patterns that help inform how solutions are tailored locally and how merchants can make sharper business decisions. These insights can support decisions around customer acquisition, market prioritisation and growth strategies.

Our AI and machine learning systems continuously strengthen security and trust across the ecosystem. As MSMEs expand internationally, these technologies help ensure they can grow with confidence in a secure and reliable environment.