Chennai: Following the integration of the Indian online market portal ebay.in (formerly baazee.com) with that that of other eBay online marketplaces in 32 countries, eBay India Pvt Ltd is planning to aggressively move into smaller markets across the country. The company plans to promote online marketplace concept in small Indian towns. Currently there are around one million users of eBay.in spread over 240 cities.

"The integration of eBay.in with other eBay portals is expected to result in exports. The Indian company has migrated to the parent company''s global database and has simplified the seller tools," said Gautam Thakar, director, category management and marketing, eBay India.

According to him, while migrating to the global database, eBay India has taken into account the Indian sensibilities and has blacklisted adult category products from being traded in eBay.in. Similarly in line with the parent company''s focus on internet marketing, eBay India too plans to go aggressive on online marketing of its services.

Interestingly the trading pattern in the Indian portal is quite different from that on eBay''s other online marketplaces. "While auctions account for a major share on other online marketplaces, in India 70 per cent of the trade happens in fixed price categories, while auctions account for just 20 per cent," remarked Thakar.

Similarly, nearly 85 per cent of the online purchases made on eBay.in are for new goods whereas in other markets used goods account for the majority of trades. Again, in India the items purchased are practicals-those used regularly whereas in other markets the items bought are collectibles.

In order to ensure reliability of the sellers and the quality of goods, eBay India also blacklists vendors based if negative feedback is received from buyers. "We blacklist around 1 per cent of registered vendors every month for supplying poor quality products or non payment of fees to us," Thakar said. According to him, eBay India will refund money upto Rs10,000 to buyers if they are not happy with the product. "This we do as a buyer protection measure. In 2004 we made around 60 such payments."

The Indian online marketplace generates an annual business of around Rs180 crore (1 lakh transactions per month each averaging around Rs1,500) and accounts for 35 per cent of the country''s online trade.

The company is also planning to increase the payment gateway tie ups with banks from the nine banks it has tie-ups with.

Jewellery is the most popular category on eBay.in with a piece of jewellery selling every 6 minutes. "A digital camera is sold every 34 minutes and a laptop every 2 hours," Thakar adds.