eBay optimistic amidst economic slowdown

Online business index showed 80% of 30,000 sellers on eBay feel very optimistic

Economic slowdown has not bothered close to 25,000 sellers on eBay's India platform, out of a total of more than 30,000. An online business index released by the company today showed more than 80% feel "very optimistic" about the growth prospects in e-commerce. A mere 3% has expressed pessimism.

 

According to the first such eBay index, 53% sellers on the site wanted to continue with online stores without feeling the need to have an offline shop. The sellers cited high costs of rent as the biggest hurdle in opting for offline stores. Over 30% want to target the international market.

 

The index has come just three months after the India entry of the world's largest e-commerce company Amazon. But an eBay official said, "we need to give the sellers a voice".

 

“Indian market is a very vibrant one. Many players come and go. We will continue to focus to strengthen our buyer and seller base”, argued Latif Nathani, Managing Director, ebay India.

The objective is to let the small Indian entrepreneur have a voice and listen to him more closely, according to Nathani. He also hoped that soon India would witness reforms that would recognize the small entrepreneurs selling abroad as ‘exporters’, enabling them to get the benefits of being exporters.

 

Out of the thirty thousand sellers on ebay, only about 1000 are big companies. Rest of the sellers are people running business from home and employing 8-10 people. In the last five years, the number of online sellers on eBay has more than doubled. 

A recent Internet & Mobile Association of India (IMAI)- KPMG report said the e-commerce industry had grown by 150% since 2009, from $3.8 billion (Rs 19,249 crore) to $9.5 billion (47,349 crore) end of 2012.