Maximum online traffic in Mumbai & Delhi: eBay

Bangalore: Mumbai has emerged as the top e-commerce centre in India, followed by Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai, according to the eBay India Census Guide, which analyses the online behavior of shoppers and sellers in 28 states, six union territories and the top 100 cities. USB drive registered the maximum sales on eBay. Value mobile handsets, MP4 players, USB MP3 players and diamonds were the other popular items.

According to the census, online marketplaces are helping bridge distributions gaps in the country. For instance, over a third of all the products bought by customers in the hilly areas of the north-east, Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh were gadgets, which would not be easily available in these areas otherwise. Craftsmen belonging to smaller villages and towns have been using eBay effectively to retail their products, according to the census.

The company sees its business growing in the current market scenario where customer sentiments have been affected due to the global slowdown as it brings down the fixed costs of the sellers.���Over 2,427 cities had online transactions in 2007.

The IT hubs of Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka were the most wired states with the maximum number of towns where eCommerce originates,��� eBay India Director (Category Management) B Muralikrishnan said. Mr Muralikrishnan said eCommerce was helping bridge the demand and supply gap.

���The census includes data only from shoppers on eBay India but can be used to get some idea of the market as 42% of shoppers prefer eBay over other portals according to a survey by Juxt consulting,��� he said. Similar reports have been brought out for the US and Canada operations of the company, which has a presence in 39 countries. eBay India, formerly known as Bazee.com, is the wholly-owned subsidiary of the US-based eBay Inc.