Mumbai lags Delhi in online shopping
17 Dec 2009
Mumbai is the second largest ecommerce hub in the country after Delhi, reveals the latest survey by eBay India, the Indian arm of online retailer and auctioner eBay Inc.
India's Top 5 ecommerce hubs are Delhi, closely followed by Mumbai, Chennai, Jaipur and Bengaluru, the survey, eBay India Census 2009, shows.
Mumbai also ranked highest for domestic trade in the eBay Census, overtaking last years leader Delhi.
The survey was released by Kashyap Vadapalli, director, marketing, eBay India today unveiled the eBay Census Guide, which documents the key findings and trends in online buying and selling across Indians in the Top 100 ecommerce hubs, 28 states and 7 union territories. The eBay Census also revealed export trends to 172 countries.
Highlights:
- Online shopping is showing a pan-India trend: India had over 2,471 ecommerce hubs in with Lakshadweep making its debut this year. According to the survey, all 28 States and 7 union territories witnessed ecommerce transactions. The IT hubs of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Maharashtra and Gujarat were the most wired states in India with the most cities where ecommerce originates.
- Rural Indians are actively trying out online shopping. Online shopping is active in 747 rural towns in India. Rural areas featured in the eBay Census for the first time with towns like Bundi in Rajasthan, Thevaram in Tamil Nadu and Tezpur in Assam showing active buying and selling trends. In fact, 181 rural towns are active entrepreneurial hubs - selling to buyers in India and abroad.
- Online global trade is well established: India has 226 export hubs where Indian entrepreneurs sell a variety of products to millions of eBay users in 172 countries around the globe. Indian exports include horse saddles, Freemason collectibles, Bollywood memorabilia, steel dabbas and cricket bats.
- Technology dominates imports, lifestyle dominate exports: Technology is India's favourite traded vertical category contributing to 44% of transactions in eBay Census. Lifestyle category at 35% came second in popularity for online Indians. For global trade, lifestyle is the clear winner at 64% of all transactions followed by Media & Collectibles at 15% each.
- South India buys, west India sells: South India has the most active buyers at 41% of all transactions, followed by West India at 27%. West India has the most active sellers at 46%, followed by North India at 28%.
- Urban and rural areas have distinct product prefernces: Distinct product preferences emerged amongst eBay users in the metro, other urban and rural areas. Metro India bought the most Blackberry and dual sim handsets, other urban areas bought the most touch screen cell phones while rural sho[ppers bought the highest number of value handsets.
- Profit buying: Entrepreneurship is the new trend in India as four out of the six metros - Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata - are all profit buying cities which sold more items on eBay than they bought.
- Bridging Distribution gaps: Online marketplaces like eBay help create trade between rural towns, tier 2 and 3 cities and metros as well as foreign countries. Artisans of wooden ethnic furniture in Jodhpur used eBay as a distribution channel to sell to buyers in metros and export internationally to USA and Singapore. Craftsmen in Ludhiana exported golf clubs to international eBayers in USA, Germany and France.
The eBay Census also revealed many interesting trends about the online shopping habits of Mumbaikars including:
