Karnataka - Bangalore

Gung-ho over shopping

BANGALORE: eBay, the online market place, generated transactions of $59 billion last year with 86 million users. And no, they will not share how much ebay.in, as its Indian subsidiary is now called, contributed to this.

Perhaps among the highest in the region; definitely the most varied in the merchandise bought and sold.

Online sales are not just low-value items such as books and music albums on eBay. Diamond jewellery and even uncut diamonds have been offered and bought, according to Category Management Head, Sharat Digumarti. Bangalore is the fourth largest in terms of online shopping, according to the eBay India Census, which has mapped transaction trends across 28 States and 100 cities and towns during 2007.

While Mumbai has the largest number of diamonds on sale, Bangalore leads in computer components.

Apparently, online shoppers in this city love nature, but abhor insects; they bought the largest number of picnic ware and insect repellents. Perhaps to be used together. Bangalore eBayers bought the most maternity wear and books on pregnancy, across the country.

The city is definitely going to get even more crowded. Another item where the city leads in is face and skin care products. Other product categories where Bangalore overtook the bigger metros include furniture, home fragrances and MP3 players. However, within the city too there were variations, added Mr. Digumarti. North and West Bangalore bought the most mobile and gaming consoles. Men shoppers in Central Bangalore bought more Blackberry handsets, laptop accessories, electric shavers and, hold your breath, ‘puja’ accessories. South Bangaloreans snapped up old coins and stamps, as also Telugu movie DVDs. East and South East of the city are tech savvy, spending on MP3 players, USB drives and memory cards.

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