Last week, India’s two leading e-commerce players made news, one for raising fresh investments in a round led by eBay and the other for crossing the $ 1 billion mark.
Clearly, more people in India are shopping online and e-commerce is an industry that’s on the rise. But who’s actually doing the spending online? Google’s search trends, shared exclusively with The Hindu , for the 90 days ending February reveal that it isn’t the metros or the big cities that are fuelling this growth. Google’s trends for the period reveal that Meghalaya leads the pack, followed by Goa, Odisha and Puducherry.
The trends also find that south India trumps the list when it comes to a comparative analysis of cities, with small towns such as Coimbatore, Vishakhapatnam, Thiruvananthapuram and Thrissur leading the list. Analysts at Google say the trends signify that online shopping websites have come as a boon to people living in “remotest locations”, who would have otherwise had to travel to cities nearby.
But do companies agree that the majority buys are from these small towns and cities? When contacted, a Flipkart representative didn’t concur with Google’s findings. In fact, the spokesperson said, their analysis showed that about 50 per cent of traffic came from non-metros, tier 1 and tier 2 cities. “Books, mobiles, computers and computer accessories and footwear generally do well in these markets. In terms of trends, we see an increasing number of customers visiting us through the mobile platform in these cities,” the spokesperson said.
Deepa Thomas, eCommerce evangelist at eBay India, points to the IAMAI report that estimates the industry to have exited 2013 at $1.8 billion with a growth rate of 53 per cent.
eBay’s own census reveals that a majority of e-commerce is driven from rural and tier 2 cities. But, contrary to Google’s findings, northeastern States begin at rank 17, and the pack is led by Maharashtra, Delhi, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Gujarat. Ms. Thomas said the Technology category contributes to 48 per cent of all transactions on eBay India, followed closely by lifestyle products which form 41 per cent of the pie. Among rural shoppers, electronics is the most popular purchase, she added.
