More rural folks shop online: survey

Dec 10, 2010 - Correspondent

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If you had thought that e-commerce was meant for the geeks of the metros, you are in for a surprise. Rural Indians are active online shoppers and online shopping is active in 1054 rural towns in India, says a recent survey by one of the leading global e-commerce company.

According to the third edition of the eBay India Census 2010, rural towns witness active buying and selling trends and India’s top 5 rural hubs are Ambalapuzha (Kerala), Sajiyavadar (Gujarat), Adala (Gujarat), Abdalipur (West Bengal) & Kangayampalayam (Tamil Nadu)

All the four southern states along with Maharashtra are the most wired states in India where e-commerce originates and Delhi, closely followed by Mumbai, Jaipur, Chennai and Bengaluru are the country’s top five eCommerce hubs, reveals the eBay Census Guide which documents the key findings and trends in online buying and selling across Indians in the country.

Releasing the census, Mr. Rajesh Ramachandran, General Manager, eBay Global Development, said, eCommerce was witnesses across all 28 states and 7 union territories in the country and there were over 3,296 eCommerce hubs in India. Online marketplaces like eBay help create trade between rural towns, tier 2 and 3 cities and metros as well as global countries thus bridging distribution gap, he said.

These interesting trends were extracted based on the study of all transactions on its website over between July 1, 2009 and June 30, 2010, Rajesh added.

The census revealed that there are 545 export hubs and 1259 import hubs in the country from where Indians buy or sell a host of items. Among the most sold items are stamps, screwdrivers, herbal skincare, designer sarees and ethnic jewellery while the most bought items include WWII Photographs, movie DVDs, postcards and collectibles

Interestinlgy, South Indian constitute 38% of most active buyers followed by people in West India at 28%. However, when it comes to selling, it’s the folks of Western India who lead the pack with 40%, followed by North India at 37%.

Indian shoppers look out to buy technology products online that accounted for 48% of online transactions followed by products in the lifestyle category at 34%, the survey reveals. .

Throwing greater light on the trends of Chennai residents, the survey highlights that technology products get the lion’s share of Chennai online shoppers’ wallets at 45% while lifestyle purchases dominated imports at 43%. When it comes to selling, Chennaiites sold the most coins, currency notes, stamps and even tattoos and when it was their turn to buy, they bought the most pen drives and romantic books!

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