Author: Lucy

The online giant has declared the country to be the way ahead in the internet shopping ecosystem

One of the biggest online shopping companies in the world, eBay, may not yet be known as a leader in the Indian internet marketplace, but it intends to make its place through the use of mobile commerce.

The company feels it may have an advantage over local players within the smartphone marketplace.

According to eBay, it feels secure in its mobile commerce foundation and this will help to bring increased business through its platform in India. Marketing director, Alok Agarwal, and eBay India e-commerce evangelist, Deepa Thomas have both shared this opinion. They have shared their opinions about the road forward for eBay within the country.

At the moment eBay India has a large online marketplace position with more than 5 million users.

These users are from 4,306 different Indian cities. Comparatively, Facebook has 2.2 million users in India. The company has revealed that it feels that it has been a pioneer in the online marketplace and now intends to do the same for mobile commerce in India. The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IMAI) has said that the online shopping industry in the country is worth approximately $800 million and that this figure is growing at a rate of 70 percent. That said, according to the company, eBay India is growing at a rate that is faster than that of the online market as a whole.

According to Agarwal, they are currently welcoming competition in the country, as it will help the mobile commerce ecosystem to expand and thrive. That said, they feel that they are true online marketplace innovators, which will help to keep eBay differentiated from the rest in a number of directions.

The latest reports from the company have said that it boasts more than 2,000 selling categories with more than 30,000 sellers. An interview with Agarwal revealed that the company feels that as mobile commerce continues to grow in the country, eBay’s growth will only accelerate, as they have already established themselves thoroughly in the smartphone and tablet channels.

A Dutch test run in a retail store has shown that near field communication beat out quick response barcodes.

According to the fashion retailer, Vic, following an in store pilot program that used both NFC technology tags and QR codes, it was the former that was more popular among its customers.

The store feels that this is an important discovery in terms of what experience consumers find most appealing.

According to a release issued by Vic, “We have found that the NFC tags are more popular than the QR codes because they are very simple to use.” It went on to say that “It is definitely something we hope to keep in our store going forward into the future; it is our way of connecting our online and offline worlds.”

The NFC technology pilot program was used in the Groningen location in the Netherlands.

There were tags encoded with NFC technology located within the retail store location that allowed shoppers to use their smartphone to access additional information about products, as well as promotional videos and discount vouchers.

The program was managed by the provider of NFC technology tags and QR codes, SenseMe. It placed these tags and barcodes around the store location in various places that were felt to be relevant, as well as on some of the individual product items, themselves.

By using either form of tech through a smartphone, shoppers could view a promotional video or head to the website of the specific brand in order to learn more detailed information about that brand or its products. Vouchers and coupon offers were also available.

According to Jouke De Jong, the manager of the store that participated in this trial, “It is a very cool system, especially for some brands who have a lot of information on their websites about certain products.” The location also made sure to show customers how to take advantage of this digital material through the use of tablets.

They demonstrated both the QR codes and the NFC technology enabled tags so that customers would understand their benefits and could choose to use them when they were seeking additional information. What the store determined was that the tags were more popular than the barcodes simply because of the ease of their use.