eBay is expanding its apps for m-commerce segment

eBay India has leveraged its marketplace-related model as well as introduced several customer-centric applications to stay ahead of peers. In a conversation with Harsh Suman, Latif Nathani, Managing Director, eBay India, highlighted their strategy.

The e-retail sector is getting increasingly competitive. And, to stay ahead of peers, kindly highlight your latest initiatives?

We had recently introduced ‘my feed’, which enables customers to personalise the web page based and only a relevant product range from our wide offerings is displayed. Apart from that, we had also launched a new mobile web experience and mobile-specific deals, and we plan to launch several more apps for various segments, shortly.

I would also like to highlight that we are planning to launch more apps and related solutions for leveraging the opportunities via smartphones.

A consumer boom is currently underway in smaller towns across the country. How are you leveraging this trend, and what is the geographical distribution of your sales?

We ‘engage’ with our customers via a number of initiatives, and with limited presence of brick-and-mortar retailers in Tier-II-and-III towns, it has contributed significantly to the growth of e-retailers.  As a result, we derive more than half of our sales from smaller towns across the country.

Logistics and tax-related issues are the major challenges for e-retailers. What are your expectations from the new government in this regard?

The logistics network in our country has improved over the years, but the forms and allied legal requirements in certain states on entry of goods, needs to be simplified. In addition, I am optimistic that the new government would pay significant attention to policies and regulations related to e-commerce.