Smaller towns fuel growth of e-commerce, says eBay study

It is Tier-II, III cities that are contributing significantly to the growth of e-commerce in the country, contrary to the general perception of metros having pushed this, says online retail entity eBay India. Against the 10 metros where e-commerce has seen traction, there are as many as 3,133 Tier-II , III cities, and 1,233 rural hubs, that are getting onto the online retail bandwagon, eBay said in its Census 2014 report based on actual transactions.

Their findings are based on analysis of all transactions by Indians on eBay between January 2013 and June 2014. The census covers trends in online buying, selling and exporting across all the 28 states and seven Union Territories here in this period, and export trends in 206 countries across the globe. “E-commerce in India has seen a significant upsurge in the number of people shopping online, with its penetration into 4,556 hubs,” eBay India said. The top 10 rural hubs for e-commerce are: Guntur and Tada in Andhra Pradesh, Karthikappally in Kerala, Ghattia in Madhya Pradesh and Chorayasi in Gujarat. Budgam in Jammu & Kashmir and Cachar in Assam are also among these.

Delhi topped the list as the number one e-commerce hub, with maximum number of mobile phones and accessories sold. It was followed by Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Karnataka. Delhi was also first among cities followed by Mumbai, Jaipur, Bengaluru and Chennai. “Bengaluru gained a position due to higher sales on electronic items like laptops, tablets and cameras,” the report said.

Female buyers fuelled use of e-commerce. And, the lifestyle segment remained one of the hottest categories for buyers. “The lifestyle category has increased its share in the pie to 45 percent, trailing the electronics category by just two per cent now as compared to seven per cent in the previous census.” Ebay's report also said that use of mobile phones had been fuelling e-commerce in India — the devices' increased use is allowing internet access to people in rural and semi-rural ares. It got 43 percent of traffic through mobile devices during the survey period.