Delhi Beats Maharashtra as India's Top E-Commerce Hub: eBay

Last year, Maharashtra was the top market of eBay. According to eBay's Census 2014, tier-II and -III cities are driving the e-commerce market in India with increasing number of shoppers surfing the eBay platform through mobile phones.

"Delhi rated as the number one e-commerce hub with the maximum number of mobile phones and accessories sold," eBay said in a statement.

The findings of Census 2014 are based on an analysis of all online buying and selling transactions by Indians on eBay between January 1, 2013 and June 30, 2014.

eBay said that e-commerce in India has seen a significant upsurge with its penetration into 4,556 hubs in the country. Online shopping trends observed in these hubs convey the rapid pace at which the 3,313 tier-II and -III cities (Bharat Hubs) and 1,233 Rural Hubs are catching up with the top 10 metro hubs in the country, it added.

There is an increase in usage of mobile devices to access Internet. Besides, the deep penetration of mobile phones in non-metros has led to an increase in the number of people shopping online through their mobile devices, it said.

"eBay India received 43 percent of traffic through mobile devices with 60 percent of products traded through mobile devices in India," it added.

Customers have been shopping more for products in the lifestyle category with women shoppers in the country being the prominent contributors to the category, eBay said.

The lifestyle category has increased its share in the pie to 45 percent, trailing the electronics category by just 2 percent now as compared to 7 percent in the previous Census, it added.

"There is a considerable demand in global markets for unique products like Indian jewellery and handicrafts. This growing demand has led to a growth in export hubs to 206 countries on eBay India, thus propelling Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Make in India' visionary campaign," it said.

Of all states and union territories trading on eBay India, 35 percent of shoppers came from the western region, while 30 percent shopped from the northern part of the country.

Considerable traffic came from South India standing at 27 percent, followed by eastern and north-eastern part of the country at 6 percent and 1 percent, respectively, eBay said.