Sales from large Indian exporters on eBay have grown 85 per cent year on year, the second fastest across the Asia Pacific region, Kashyap Vadapalli, Director – Categories, eBay India, has said. In contrast, large Asian exporters with an annual turnover of over US $100,000 present on eBay are experiencing only a 26 per cent year-on-year growth across the region.
While releasing the first eBay Asian Exporters Index in Delhi along with Chandranath Som, Director, Federation of Indian Export Organizations’ (FIEO), Vadapalli said: “eBay India is committed to encouraging more Indian entrepreneurs to benefit from the large export opportunity provided by eBay’s 97 million strong customer base. We hope the Asian Exporter’s Index and our partnerships with export promotion bodies like FIEO will inspire more Indian exporters to participate in this large global opportunity.”
USA, Australia, and the UK have emerged as the top three buyer countries for Asia’s exports over eBay while clothing and accessories; jewelry, gems and watches; and photos are the top three categories for Asian exporters.
The Indian export market is driven mainly by artisans and small-scale manufacturers who offer hand-crafted product lines such as diamonds, jewelry, ethnic Indian clothing and handicrafts. "Our e-commerce platform helps Indian exporters create a global market for categories where the country has developed particular manufacturing expertise, such as scientific instruments, optics, leather products, sporting goods and Bollywood-inspired fashions (silk sarees, salwar kameez and kurtis)," Vadapalli added.
Apart from jewelry, clothing and handicrafts, the other significant categories of Indian exports include photographic equipments, collectibles such as coins, stamps, Bollywood posters and LP records.
Vadapalli said that diamonds are the top product category for India in terms of exports from eBay, while for China it is electronics, for Thailand, gemstones, for Singapore, watches and for Malaysia, textbooks. "Some of the upcoming categories which can be further exploited for retail exports growth from India are nautical instruments from Dehradun, carpets from Kanpur, jewelry from Rajasthan and diamonds from Surat," he added.
Speaking on the occasion, Som said: "E-commerce is the revolution of the 21st century as Internet penetration is growing 95 per cent year-on-year in India. Having a retail marketing index is important to identify the growth potential of Indian exporters. The Indian retail exports are expected to grow by 47 per cent this year."
According to eBay officials, eBay India – a 100 per cent subsidiary of eBay Inc. of US– is India’s largest online shopping website with 2.7 million registered users spread across 3,296 cities across the country. Around 23,000 sellers sell on eBay India annually.
eBay Inc. sold goods worth $60 bn last year.
-IndiaRetailing Bureau
