Comments
Mumbai girls grabbed the most handbags sold on eBay India while IT hub Bangalore – living up to its tech image – cornered the maximum webcam imports on the site. Consumers in Kolkata bought the most calling cards on eBay, and Chandigarh accounted for the maximum cricket bat sales. Also wiring up to the e-commerce marketplace now are users from rural India.
The fourth annual edition of the “eBay India Census” that tracks online buying, importing, selling and exporting behaviour on its Web site between July 2010 and June 2011, threw up some insightful, and, somewhat strange, shopping habits of netizens. Delhiites, for instance, bought the most “body art” in India, Uttarakhand imported the majority of encyclopedias, while the Jaipur youth accounted for the most fashion socks purchases on eBay. On an all-India basis, cellphones, wrist watches and solitaire pendants were the top three items traded on eBay's online marketplace.
So far as Delhi's e-shoppers were concerned, “belly dancing gear” topped the list of items exported on eBay, whereas smartphones led their import checklist. In the city rankings, Delhi and Mumbai continued to be the top two eCommerce hubs, maintaining last year's position - so no surprises there. Bangalore improved its ranking this year filling up the third slot, with Jaipur and Chennai in the fourth and the fifth place, respectively.
Consumers and entrepreneurs in rural India seemed to be slowly warming up to e-commerce, with one in every 10 purchases as well as one in every 20 sales on eBay India, coming from the rural hubs. About 1,267 rural hubs were transacting online this year against 1,000 rural hubs last year. Metros, of course, continued to account for maximum share of purchases.
“New products that get launched may take a few months to reach some of these rural locations, and, then again, the price of the item may be high. But an online marketplace allows buyers to overcome these hurdles and purchase a product online and get its delivery in a matter of days. Increasing internet penetration and mobile penetration is further fuelling this trend,” Mr Muralikrishnan B, Country Manager at eBay India, said. The eBay Census also revealed that women shoppers are increasingly getting e-savvy. They are buying cosmetics, jewellery, watches, fashion and fitness equipment, online.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.