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Anjali Prayag

Tie-up with Indiaplaza seen opening up opportunites

Bangalore , May 15

Fabmall, a pure play e-tailer, is focussing on `NRI gifting' as a major business opportunity.

After having tied up with Indiaplaza.com, an e-commerce Web site targeted at NRIs, Fabmall hopes to tap business from 20 million NRIs all over the world.

Says Mr Vaitheeswaran, COO, Fabmall, "The US alone has one million Indians (about 250,000 families) living there. Every year, they are expected to gift products worth at least $100 each to their relatives here, which translates into business worth $25 million or (Rs 112.5 crore)." Mr Vaitheeswaran told Business Line that the company has plans to become the largest India centre for e-commerce in the world. "Our catalogue has the widest range of products, about 3.5 million at last count and growing very fast."

The value of goods transacted through e-commerce (B2C) in the country today is expected touch Rs 1,300 crore this year, though this is mainly driven by travel business: air and rail tickets. Apparel is of course, the fastest growing segment followed by books, electronics and gifts. Interestingly, even high-value goods such as electronics and mobile phones are being bought online now, which was not the case earlier, says Mr Vaitheeswaran.

He's upbeat about `e-tailing' picking up in the country and cites reasons for the same: India has the 4th largest population of Internet users. Fabmall is now considering providing `services' online, says Mr Vaitheeswaran. "We are still working it out, but definitely not matrimonial or recruitment," he clarified. Fabmall revenues ares expected to touch about Rs 22.5 crore during the year 2006-07.

More Stories on : E-Commerce & E-Business | Retailing | NRIs

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