diff --git a/opentelemetry-sdk/src/opentelemetry/sdk/trace/export/__init__.py b/opentelemetry-sdk/src/opentelemetry/sdk/trace/export/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..0c011f9976
--- /dev/null
+++ b/opentelemetry-sdk/src/opentelemetry/sdk/trace/export/__init__.py
@@ -0,0 +1,78 @@
+# Copyright 2019, OpenTelemetry Authors
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
+import logging
+import typing
+from enum import Enum
+
+from .. import Span, SpanProcessor
+
+logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
+
+
+class SpanExportResult(Enum):
+    SUCCESS = 0
+    FAILED_RETRYABLE = 1
+    FAILED_NOT_RETRYABLE = 2
+
+
+class SpanExporter:
+    """Interface for exporting spans.
+
+    Interface to be implemented by services that want to export recorded in
+    its own format.
+
+    To export data this MUST be registered to the :class`..Tracer` using a
+    `SimpleExportSpanProcessor` or a `BatchSpanProcessor`.
+    """
+
+    def export(self, spans: typing.Sequence[Span]) -> "SpanExportResult":
+        """Exports a batch of telemetry data.
+
+        Args:
+            spans: The list of `Span`s to be exported
+
+        Returns:
+            The result of the export
+        """
+
+    def shutdown(self) -> None:
+        """Shuts down the exporter.
+
+        Called when the SDK is shut down.
+        """
+
+
+class SimpleExportSpanProcessor(SpanProcessor):
+    """Simple SpanProcessor implementation.
+
+    SimpleExportSpanProcessor is an implementation of `SpanProcessor` that
+    passes ended spans directly to the configured `SpanExporter`.
+    """
+
+    def __init__(self, span_exporter: SpanExporter):
+        self.span_exporter = span_exporter
+
+    def on_start(self, span: Span) -> None:
+        pass
+
+    def on_end(self, span: Span) -> None:
+        try:
+            self.span_exporter.export((span,))
+        # pylint: disable=broad-except
+        except Exception as exc:
+            logger.warning("Exception while exporting data: %s", exc)
+
+    def shutdown(self) -> None:
+        self.span_exporter.shutdown()
diff --git a/opentelemetry-sdk/src/opentelemetry/sdk/trace/export/in_memory_span_exporter.py b/opentelemetry-sdk/src/opentelemetry/sdk/trace/export/in_memory_span_exporter.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..b536120560
--- /dev/null
+++ b/opentelemetry-sdk/src/opentelemetry/sdk/trace/export/in_memory_span_exporter.py
@@ -0,0 +1,58 @@
+# Copyright 2019, OpenTelemetry Authors
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
+import threading
+import typing
+
+from .. import Span
+from . import SpanExporter, SpanExportResult
+
+
+class InMemorySpanExporter(SpanExporter):
+    """Implementation of :class:`.Exporter` that stores spans in memory.
+
+    This class can be used for testing purposes. It stores the exported spans
+    in a list in memory that can be retrieved using the
+    :func:`.get_finished_spans` method.
+    """
+
+    def __init__(self):
+        self._finished_spans = []
+        self._stopped = False
+        self._lock = threading.Lock()
+
+    def clear(self):
+        """Clear list of collected spans."""
+        with self._lock:
+            self._finished_spans.clear()
+
+    def get_finished_spans(self):
+        """Get list of collected spans."""
+        with self._lock:
+            return tuple(self._finished_spans)
+
+    def export(self, spans: typing.Sequence[Span]) -> SpanExportResult:
+        """Stores a list of spans in memory."""
+        if self._stopped:
+            return SpanExportResult.FAILED_NOT_RETRYABLE
+        with self._lock:
+            self._finished_spans.extend(spans)
+        return SpanExportResult.SUCCESS
+
+    def shutdown(self):
+        """Shut downs the exporter.
+
+        Calls to export after the exporter has been shut down will fail.
+        """
+        self._stopped = True
diff --git a/opentelemetry-sdk/tests/trace/export/__init__.py b/opentelemetry-sdk/tests/trace/export/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..d853a7bcf6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/opentelemetry-sdk/tests/trace/export/__init__.py
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+# Copyright 2019, OpenTelemetry Authors
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
diff --git a/opentelemetry-sdk/tests/trace/export/test_export.py b/opentelemetry-sdk/tests/trace/export/test_export.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..ef9786ca63
--- /dev/null
+++ b/opentelemetry-sdk/tests/trace/export/test_export.py
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+# Copyright 2019, OpenTelemetry Authors
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
+import unittest
+
+from opentelemetry.sdk import trace
+from opentelemetry.sdk.trace import export
+
+
+class TestSimpleExportSpanProcessor(unittest.TestCase):
+    def test_simple_span_processor(self):
+        class MySpanExporter(export.SpanExporter):
+            def __init__(self, destination):
+                self.destination = destination
+
+            def export(self, spans: trace.Span) -> export.SpanExportResult:
+                self.destination.extend(span.name for span in spans)
+                return export.SpanExportResult.SUCCESS
+
+        tracer = trace.Tracer()
+
+        spans_names_list = []
+
+        my_exporter = MySpanExporter(destination=spans_names_list)
+        span_processor = export.SimpleExportSpanProcessor(my_exporter)
+        tracer.add_span_processor(span_processor)
+
+        with tracer.start_span("foo"):
+            with tracer.start_span("bar"):
+                with tracer.start_span("xxx"):
+                    pass
+
+        self.assertListEqual(["xxx", "bar", "foo"], spans_names_list)
diff --git a/opentelemetry-sdk/tests/trace/export/test_in_memory_span_exporter.py b/opentelemetry-sdk/tests/trace/export/test_in_memory_span_exporter.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..01d4487e2e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/opentelemetry-sdk/tests/trace/export/test_in_memory_span_exporter.py
@@ -0,0 +1,97 @@
+# Copyright 2019, OpenTelemetry Authors
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
+import unittest
+from unittest import mock
+
+from opentelemetry import trace as trace_api
+from opentelemetry.sdk import trace
+from opentelemetry.sdk.trace import export
+from opentelemetry.sdk.trace.export.in_memory_span_exporter import (
+    InMemorySpanExporter,
+)
+
+
+class TestInMemorySpanExporter(unittest.TestCase):
+    def test_get_finished_spans(self):
+        tracer = trace.Tracer()
+
+        memory_exporter = InMemorySpanExporter()
+        span_processor = export.SimpleExportSpanProcessor(memory_exporter)
+        tracer.add_span_processor(span_processor)
+
+        with tracer.start_span("foo"):
+            with tracer.start_span("bar"):
+                with tracer.start_span("xxx"):
+                    pass
+
+        span_list = memory_exporter.get_finished_spans()
+        spans_names_list = [span.name for span in span_list]
+        self.assertListEqual(["xxx", "bar", "foo"], spans_names_list)
+
+    def test_clear(self):
+        tracer = trace.Tracer()
+
+        memory_exporter = InMemorySpanExporter()
+        span_processor = export.SimpleExportSpanProcessor(memory_exporter)
+        tracer.add_span_processor(span_processor)
+
+        with tracer.start_span("foo"):
+            with tracer.start_span("bar"):
+                with tracer.start_span("xxx"):
+                    pass
+
+        memory_exporter.clear()
+        span_list = memory_exporter.get_finished_spans()
+        self.assertEqual(len(span_list), 0)
+
+    def test_shutdown(self):
+        tracer = trace.Tracer()
+
+        memory_exporter = InMemorySpanExporter()
+        span_processor = export.SimpleExportSpanProcessor(memory_exporter)
+        tracer.add_span_processor(span_processor)
+
+        with tracer.start_span("foo"):
+            with tracer.start_span("bar"):
+                with tracer.start_span("xxx"):
+                    pass
+
+        span_list = memory_exporter.get_finished_spans()
+        self.assertEqual(len(span_list), 3)
+
+        memory_exporter.shutdown()
+
+        # after shutdown no new spans are accepted
+        with tracer.start_span("foo"):
+            with tracer.start_span("bar"):
+                with tracer.start_span("xxx"):
+                    pass
+
+        span_list = memory_exporter.get_finished_spans()
+        self.assertEqual(len(span_list), 3)
+
+    def test_return_code(self):
+        span = trace.Span("name", mock.Mock(spec=trace_api.SpanContext))
+        span_list = (span,)
+        memory_exporter = InMemorySpanExporter()
+
+        ret = memory_exporter.export(span_list)
+        self.assertEqual(ret, export.SpanExportResult.SUCCESS)
+
+        memory_exporter.shutdown()
+
+        # after shutdown export should fail
+        ret = memory_exporter.export(span_list)
+        self.assertEqual(ret, export.SpanExportResult.FAILED_NOT_RETRYABLE)