Hyderabad, September 30: EBay’s annual census reveals citizens are as active as ever conducting business online; State itself is not far behind and has emerged as the fifth largest e-commerce hub in the country
Never mind the gloomy global economic outlook or for that matter, the ongoing Telangana stir, it seems Hyderabadis are on a shopping spree. Not at the malls and the innumerable stores in the city but online.
According to the fourth annual census of the online shopping and auction website eBay released here on Wednesday, Hyderabad retained its position as the sixth largest e-commerce hub in the country. What more, Andhra Pradesh as a State climbed one step to stand at fifth place.
The data reaffirms that Hyderabadis are a tech-savvy lot and splash money on electronic gadgets. The rise of the affluent middle class shows up in the numbers as the demand for home appliances topped the sales list in the city. Another interesting trend is that Hyderabadi youth bought the largest number of video games in the country and it also topped the list of items exported from the city.
Giving a snapshot of the popularity of online shopping, Vidmay Naini, head of international marketing at eBay India, says, “If eBay were to be a 24-hour store, every minute there will be four customers checking out.”
The eBay India Census which analyzes transactionsa across all states and 7 union territories and the top 20 cities in the country ranked Hyderabad below its rival Bengaluru and surprisingly, even Jaipur which stood at fourth place.
One of the interesting facts to emerge out of the survey is that Tollywood heads the exports list with Telugu movies and film magazines making it to the top five exports from the city. While lifestyle products ranked high on the list of items sold and exported from the state, electronic goods kept the cash registers ringing at the domestic and imported goods front. Andhra Pradesh moved up a notch from sixth position last year as an e-commerce hub according to the census, as Prakasam and Krishna districts followed the state capital as important export centres in the state ahead of Visakhapatnam. Major items sold in the domestic market and exported comprise largely lifestyle products capturing 59 per cent and 65 per cent of the markets respectively. At the national level, the online ‘marketplace’ has 1,267 rural hubs. The demand for luxury goods such as dual SIM phones and designer pens� as well as high volume of imported smart phones and notebooks contrasts sharply with the debate for chalking out a reasonable line which separates the poor from the better-off. Ease of transactions online at nominal costs has surely drawn small entrepreneurs to e-commerce in a big way. For those waiting to indulge in some shopping for the festive season, it might turn out to be another gateway for retail therapy.
Courtesy: Indian Express