eBay to expand operations in Sri Lanka

by Rohana Jayalal

There are about 3,000 people in Sri Lanka using the eBay platform to showcase around 9,000 products to over 162 million people across the globe. The products included gemstones, healthcare and natural remedies, handicrafts and men's clothing. The USA, Canada and Germany were the top export destinations, a Vice President at eBay, Latif Nathani told the media in Colombo recently.

The US-based eBay tied up with Sri Lanka's HelloCorp, a Colombo based technology service company, to bring in new sellers, as retail export sales from the island are growing, despite the lack of remittance services such as Paypal.

Every 10 minutes somebody buys a health product from Sri Lanka. Every 30 minutes someone buys a jewellery item from Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan entrepreneurs were innovative and had found various ways to earn money, Nathani said.

In many countries governments had helped 'reduce friction' for online transactions and he expected progress in the area in Sri Lanka as well. It will help online retailers if Paypal is allowed in Sri Lanka, he said.

In India, the post office was facilitating online sales with logistics. There are 65,000 sellers from India on eBay. On average, retail exporters employed 4-5 people full-time and one or two people part time, he said.

Though eBay started as an online auction of used goods, about 80 percent of the items now on sale were new, Nathani said. He said that the entrepreneurs are familiar with the payment, logistics and the ethics regime on the eBay platform. "In fact, the level of logistics we have in India is good as the government of India is interested in promoting retail exports.

For example, we have partnered with the postal service in Punjab for despatch, and similar things could be introduced in Sri Lanka, probably at a quicker pace because the government is keen to export local products across the globe," Nathani said adding that 54% of their revenue comes from trade outside the United States.

eBay has signed a master agreement with HelloCorp (Pvt) Limited to launch its cross border trade operations in Sri Lanka, and this tie-up will permit merchants from Sri Lanka to export retail products to over 39 countries where eBay has operations.

eBay has mandated HelloCorp to undertake all business development activities including seller acquisition, account management, training on eBay tools, workshops and seminars on behalf of eBay. Head of eBay operations at HelloCorp, Trevin Speering said, "We are confident that we will grow eBay's business in Sri Lanka."

An exporter of gemstones from Sri Lanka, Kazhim Cader, was the first eBay seller from South Asia, when he joined the platform in 1999, Nathani said. "Selling gemstones was easy on eBay. It was an international platform and it was open for business 24 hours of the day. Entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka were selling on eBay despite inward remittance services such as Paypal not being allowed in the island. In many developing countries people are poor and have no opportunity to get out of poverty due to State restrictions," Cader said.