Karnataka ranks 5th in eBay's India census of online shopping

Mysuru, Mangalore and Udupi emerge as major buying hubs

While silicon city Bengaluru has been among the top three cities in India when it comes to making online purchases, Karnataka has emerged as the fifth most active state in India vis-a-vis e-commerce, following Delhi, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan, according to e-tailing firm eBay's 'India Census 2014'.

Besides Bengaluru, Mysuru, Mangalore, Bantval and Udupi were among the top five e-commerce hubs within Karnataka. Several rural areas such as Gadag, Thirthahalli, Shahapur, Somwarpet and Huvinahadagali also took to e-commerce, eBay's census showed.

eBay's census is based on analysis of all online buying and selling transactions by Indians on eBay between January 2013 and June 2014.

"Increased internet penetration coupled with a surge in usage of mobile phones has made India one of the fastest emerging ecommerce markets in the world," Latif Nathani, managing director of eBay India said. "India has the third largest internet user base in the world clocking over

243 million users . The rapid surge in the number of mobile devices across the country has complemented internet penetration in the tier II and III cities along with rural areas of the country. This has enabled people to explore and get exposed to the ecommerce opportunity."

Among products, consumers in Karnataka shopped most for mobile phones and accessories, followed by laptops and peripherals, memory cards and pen drives, digital cameras and kitchen storage and containers, the census showed. "The home to India's silicon valley buys the most technology products," eBay said.

As much as 79% of the total shopping from online portals in the state was in the electronics segment, followed by 17% in lifestyle, three% in collectible, and two% in media.