eBay India to Expand Refurbished Products Portfolio

"We are scaling up the refurbished products category to include white goods. We have seen a 100 percent rise in demand for such goods since we introduced it in August," head of retail exports and lifestyle category at eBay India, Navin Mistry, said here.

There were 6,000 refurbished product listings in August which has grown to 20,000 product listings, he said.

"We see good growth, demand for these items and hence will be expanding the portfolio," Mistry said.

A majority of the refurbished products offered presently are mobility devices which are priced 35-50 percent of a product's original price.

Presently, of the three crore products listed on its website, 95 percent account for new items while five percent comprise of second hand and refurbished units.

"We are trying to change it to 80 percent new products and 20 percent second hand and refurbished items in one-year time frame," another official at the company said.

Globally, 76 percent of the products listed are new and the rest 24 percent pre-owned and refurbished ones.

As per the company, the industry size for refurbished products in India is estimated at $15 billion (roughly Rs. 97,935 crores) with the e-commerce market having a potential to address $500 million (roughly Rs. 3,262 crores) of the market size.

"We have 15 sellers belonging to the organised sector for this category and products listed on the website carry a seller's warranty," Mistry said.

eBay India has 45,000 domestic sellers and another 20,000 sellers catering to the international market.

"We have seen a 33 percent growth in domestic sellers last year and hope to maintain the momentum," he said.

eBay clocked a revenue of $2.1 billion globally during April-June this year with the total value of goods sold figuring at $21.1 billion.

Fifty nine percent of this revenue came in from markets outside the US - where the company is based.