Maharashtra ranks 2nd in eBay's India census of online shopping

Nashik, Nagpur, Pune and Dindori emerge as major buying hubs

Maharashtra has emerged as the second most active state in India vis-a-vis e-commerce, after Delhi, and followed by Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Karnataka according to online shopping company eBay's 'India Census 2014'.

Mumbai, the financial hub of the country, is among the top three cities in India when it comes to making online purchases, said the Census.

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

Besides Mumbai, Nashik, Nagpur, Pune and Dindori  were among the top five e-commerce hubs within Maharashtra. Several rural areas such as Jalgaon, Seloo, Jawali and Mahagaon have also taken the on line shopping route, eBay's census showed. The top five export hubs in Maharashtra are Mumbai, Nashik, Pune, Nagpur and Dindori.

“E-commerce in India has seen a significant upsurge in the number of people shopping online, with its penetration into 4,556 hubs 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," says Vidmay Naini, director and business head, eBay India.

Among products, consumers in Maharashtra shopped most for mobile phones and accessories, followed by women perfumes and beauty products, key chains, food items and men shirts and T-shirt. "Maharashtra likes to look and feel good with personal care products," eBay said.

As much as 70 per cent of the total shopping from online portals in the state was in the electronics segment, followed by 38 per cent  in lifestyle.

As per the report, the tier-II and tier-III cities that are contributing significantly to growth of e-commerce in the country, contrary to the general perception of metropolises having pushed this. Against the 10 metro cities where e-commerce has seen traction, there are as many as 3,313 tier-II and III cities, and 1,233 rural hubs, that are getting onto the online retail bandwagon, it said in its Census 2014 report based on actual transactions.