US, UK, Australia Top Export Hubs For India: eBay.

NEW DELHI: The US, the UK and Australia rank as the top three destinations for export of Indian goods at the online marketplace, eBay, says a study.

According to eBay's 'Asian Exporters Index', sales from large Indian exporters on eBay has grown by 85 per cent year-on-year, the second fastest across the Asia Pacific region.

"The Indian export market presents a story of exuberant growth, driven mainly by artisans and small-scale manufacturers.

"India has a unique strength in hand-crafted value oriented product lines such as diamonds, jewellery, ethnic Indian clothing and handicrafts. Exporters can use eBay's platform to reach out to customers globally," eBay India Director (Categories) Kashyap Vadapalli told reporters here.

Canada, Germany, France and Italy are some other major destinations for exporters using eBay for transactions.

In terms of products shipped, books, fashion earrings, pendents and Indian stamps were the top categories, followed by PC games, movie DVDs and belly dancing apparel.

However, in terms of the top Asian export markets, India does not make it to the top 5 countries.

China leads the Asian export market on the website, while Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand and Korea follow in the tally.

"The e-commerce market in India offers tremendous potential to the business community. It is expected to grow by 47 per cent to reach the value of USD 10.3 billion during the year 2011 from USD 7 billion during 2010," FIEO Director Chandranath Som said.

High internet penetration will further drive the potential, he added.

He said the Indian government is targetting exports to double to USD 500 billion in the next three years (2013-14).

"The long-term prospect is to increase our share in world trade to four per cent by 2020. The world trade is expected to be USD 38 trillion in 2020 and we have to touch over USD 1.52 trillion," Som said.

Thus, Indian economy will be export-centric and platforms such as eBay will play an important role, he added.

Source : economictimes.indiatimes.com