Tthe Indian consumer is finally ready to leapfrog to a new world which provides a great shopping experience, exciting deals and hard-to-find products. A quick glance at the eBay India Census 2012 report indicates that e-commerce is here to stay. At eBay India today, every one minute a mobile accessory changes hands and every two minutes a mobile handset. It has 4,306 e-commerce hubs today, of which 1,015 are hubs in rural India, indicating that consumers in the smaller towns of India are a major force in this online growth story. In a conversation with FE BrandWagon’s Anushree Bhattacharyya, Muralikrishnan B, country manager, eBay India, talks about the key trends that have emerged in the study and how eBay is wooing the India consumer by being an open marketplace. Edited excerpts:
What are the trends that have emerged from the eBay India Census 2012 report?
The biggest change is that e-commerce has now become mainstream. We have consumers and entrepreneurs from all 28 states and seven union territories covering 4,306 unique locations ? a 70% growth over our first census released in 2008. The second trend is that of the increasingly important role that rural India is playing. While our report does not give an actual growth number, I can definitely tell you that the kind of traction we are witnessing taking place from rural cities is very real. The rural consumer has access to information and has disposable income, what she don?t have is access to products. That is where eBay and e-commerce step in and help fulfill that demand providing a wide variety of choice. The trend that we are witnessing is the growth of the lifestyle category including shoes, apparel, perfumes, etc.
Traditionally women shoppers have been under-indexed. But in the last couple of years we have seen a very distinctive change in that. Women are visiting eBay and other e-commerce sites more regularly, in fact, they are shopping online more regularly. The fourth trend which has been observed is in the area of import buying. There is certain amount of inventory available in India which people buy but increasingly people are now opting for more sophisticated deals which mean they are now ordering for products that are available out of India. The number of import buying-hubs has doubled on eBay in the last two years touching 2,638 locations. People are now increasingly buying from eBay?s global site and getting the products shipped to India.
E-commerce seems to be relying on deals and discounts as its business model. Is this a sustainable model?
Focusing on deals is a tactic and if you think, focusing on deals is going to be your strategy it is not going to work. When it comes to eBay, the value proposition to the consumer is, ?eBay is the destination with the widest variety of products coupled with some of the fantastic deals?. We deliver some of the most fantastic deals by being a platform, market gate and by getting more sellers on the platform. We have this inherent competition between sellers which enables them to offer products at a reasonable rate to the consumer. This kind of model allows one to scale up where an open market operates and is not about cutting your margins.
How has eBay helped mid-sized businesses in selling their products online?
In the last few years, we have witnessed a rise in how small entrepreneurs are using eBay to scale up their business. eBay allows them to sell their products to consumers over 200 countries. For example, Jaipur has been a growth story for us over the last three-four years. When we conducted our first census, Jaipur was eighth or ninth in the entire list of cities, and this year the city has grabbed the third position. And this is not only due to increase in domestic demands but also the fact that entrepreneurs are leveraging the eBay platform to cater to the need of international consumers.
The way the system works is that the Indian entrepreneurs registers for a Paypal account which is what one requires to sell their product on eBay and then he goes and lists on the portal. When the international buyer buys the product, he/she pays through Paypal. We have tied up with large international couriers such FedEx, DHL, UPS, etc., that deliver the product.
Where does the typical eBay consumer reside ? rural towns or urban cities?
In terms of transaction, metros, tier I and II cities still occupy the list. Having said that, e-commerce players should not forget consumers in tier III, IV and V cities as these are the cities from where the next phase of growth is going to come. What has or is going to lead the growth of rural market is the growth of wireless internet. The increase in usage of internet dongles or 3G services on mobile is perhaps driving the growth of e-commerce in the rural part of the country.
What time of the day you see most of the transaction taking place. Is there any pattern?
Males in the 18-34 years age group are our largest segment of users in terms of traffic, followed by females in the 18-24 years age group. Also, we have users beyond the age of 25, who too shop from eBay. Interestingly, the youth segment is growing really fast. In terms of time of access, from morning till about lunch time, we witness normal flow of users. The first peak usually happens between lunch time and 4 pm as we witness a huge increase in traffic during this time of the day. The second peak happens 7-10 pm, that is, after people get back home from work and log on to the site before or after dinner.