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eBay India, an arm of the US-based online marketplace, will sell refurbished goods, too. For this, it has tied up with a number of organised entities, such as Green Dust and My RetrunSolutions, which will sell these with a six-month warranty.
Listing of used goods is a major business for eBay globally, accounting for 24 per cent of the goods sold on the open marketplace.
“We are partnering with seven refurbishers (in India) who represent about $500 million of this $15-billion organised refurbished market,” Latif Nathani, managing director, said here.
The size of the refurbished market in India is twice that for e-commerce, he said. It has entered an agreement with companies including Green Dust, i2cworld, Baobab, Budli Int and Value Cart. These will give eBay consumers a choice of at least 1,000 live listings of refurbished mobile phones, laptops and tablets.
“We are entering in a big way because we can be a one-stop destination for the Indian buyer who has aspiration but might not have the budget to buy a brand-new product,” said Nathani.
The company has launched 'eBay Choices', wherein customers can buy new, refurbished and used products. Ninety percent of all listings in India would be new products and the refurbished ones the rest. "Over the next one year, the platform will not only see a 20 per cent increase in total listings in these categories but also a change in the mix -- 80 per cent new and 20 per cent refurbished," he said.
Adding: "We have been working with them (refurbishers) on a pilot basis. We have about 5,000 listings of refurbished products; 10 per cent of the listings on the mobile category were refurbished."
He said eBay India would ensure all refurbished products being listed on the platform had been scanned for defects and functioning issues before being retailed.The company said it had 3.5 million users in India across 4,556 towns and cities, and 65,000 sellers which had listed 30 million products on the website.
