)
Online marketplace eBay India today said the government should grant 'exporter' status to its retailers selling their products abroad, so that they can avail the benefits and facilities given to domestic exporters.
Speaking on the sidelines of the launch of 'Online Business Index' here, eBay India Managing Director Latif Nathani said such retailers should be identified as exporters as they are contributing to the Indian economy.
"There should be recognition of this sector which is contributing so much in terms of India's growth but the government is not recognising it as exporters and they are not getting the benefit of exporters in terms of documentation, tax breaks," Nathani said, adding that several representations have been made before the government for it.
A domestic exporter enjoys variety of export incentives that include cheap credit, less paper work and fiscal incentives.
"Similar benefits should also go to the retail exports. If they are recognised as exporter they would get custom benefits of up to USD 25,000. Single page of documentation would help as they all are small business house and do not have staff to go through these regulations and documentations," he added.
EBay India has recently entered into an MoU with the Federation of Indian Export Organisations.
According to the online business index launched by eBay today, entrepreneurs are exporting apparels, collectibles, jewellery, home decor, perfumes, cosmetics and health products. Jewellery and apparels constitute 81 per cent of the total exports.
He further said that India has a huge opportunity in mobile commerce and the company plans to invest in multiple ways in this segment.
"We have made a lot of investments in mobile commerce. We have presence on the mobile web and have mobile applications for android. At present, we are selling one product every minute on mobile," he said.
However, Nathani refused to reveal the share of revenues from mobile commerce in India.
On its global rival amazon.Com's full scale foray into the Indian e-commerce space, Nathani said the company is confident over the experience it has got in the last nine years in the Indian market.
"The e-commerce market in India has widened. It is a very vibrant sector and there are a lot of new entrants in the last nine years. Many new companies (Amazon) are entering as well. We feel very confident of what we have learnt over the last nine years," he said.
When asked whether eBay would have advantage over amazon.Com in the Indian market, Nathani said "absolutely".
EBay has introduced a new system called 'Paisa pay', which is an escrow account, and routes the the payment between a buyer and seller. A seller receives payment after certain time when the buyer has received the product.
Nathani further said Indian consumers are very new to e-commerce and their requirements are very different from the advanced markets.
He said there are logistics challenges, on which eBay is working. It has introduced 'PowerShip' programme, which ensures faster delivery through its assigned logistic service partners. It also provides a tracking number through which a buyer can access the status of his consignment during transit.
EBay, does not have any inventory as other business players and follows pure market model, Nathani said.
The company sells 2,000 product categories, ranging from technology, lifestyle, collectible as coins and stamp and media items.
EBay sells 95% products through debit cards and other modes and roughly 5% are through 'cash on delivery' mode.
EBay in its 'Online Business Index' report has captured key trends of the sectors from entrepreneurs domestic and retail exports point of view.
"Domestic sellers, on an average, employ approximately 4.8 full time staff and 1.6 part time staff. This number is projected to increase to 5.2 full time staff and 2.1 part time staff over the next one year," the report said.
