Despite e-commerce companies in the country having frequent run-ins with regulatory authorities, ebay India plans to go steady on expansion. The online marketplace, one of the earliest entrants in India, will rapidly expand in the high-margin lifestyle category in months to come, besides keeping an eye on unique technology companies for investment and acquisitions.
?Lifestyle is a big initiative. That’s an area we unfortunately missed out on. We have seen very good growth this year in the lifestyle segment, which came from attracting a lot of brands. We want to focus on that part since it’s a huge growth opportunity,? ebay India managing director Latif Nathani told FE. ebay, which forayed into the lifestyle category last year, will now focus on becoming the largest online marketplace in India in terms of number of sellers, besides curating the largest collection of products and enhancing customer experience. In the lifestyle category, ebay has tied up with brands like French Connection, Puma, Cotton World and W, among others.
While it has managed to steer clear of any controversies owing to its marketplace model, online marketplaces like Flipkart and Amazon, which also happen to be among ebay’s nearest rivals, had recently run into trouble with regulatory authorities. The Enforcement Directorate has found Flipkart to be violating the country’s FDI laws while Amazon ran into trouble with tax authorities in Karnataka over value-added tax.
While Flipkart has not said much, other than that it would cooperate with investigating authorities, Amazon had labeled its woes as a case of the law not keeping pace with technological advancements in the country. ?We understand this to be a case where the laws have not kept pace with the new-age online business models. We look forward to an early resolution in order to avoid closing our local warehousing operations in Karnataka,? an Amazon spokesperson had said.
ebay India is working with the Centre to make life easier for the 15,000-odd Indian merchants who sell globally through its platform. While such merchants are not typically recognised as exporters, they are constrained to undergo a plethora of processes involving multiple forms and are deprived of privileges enjoyed by exporters. ?Inclusion of e-commerce in the law was made two years ago, but notification hasn’t happened. We are working with the customs department on that and a notification will be issued recognising such merchants as exporters,? Nathani added.
ebay will also look at making investments in technology companies or other horizontal players to propel growth. The global major has already invested in online and mobile classifieds portal Quikr and online marketplace Snapdeal, which also happens to be ebay’s nearest rival in terms of number of merchants on its marketplace. Snapdeal is eyeing 100,000 sellers by the end of the financial year while eBay already has over 50,000 merchants on board.
?We will not close our mind in terms of inorganic growth. We will consider investments in companies with good technologies. Being a horizontal player, we don’t go specific on categories. We look at horizontal players, technology companies,? Nathani added.