This auctioning site erstwhile known as Baazee.com in India was bought by eBay in 2004 and ever since inception the site has always had a jewellery section. Today it is India’s leading online marketplace that has jewellery as the fastest and hottest item sold on eBay India even through tough times like these. JCK India takes a closer look at the sales on an unlikely platform for the gem and jewellery industry.

Deepa Thomas, Senior Manager POB Culture of eBay explains that, “Jewellery is the most popular category over the last four years on eBay, jewellery sells every six minutes on eBay India. Within the jewellery category the biggest selling item is the loose gemstones and diamonds”

eBay India has a listing of 35000 gem and jewellery that gives the consumer a wide range of product to choose from out of which 200 listings are for gemstones. Diamonds are the most popular gemstones, followed by emeralds, rubies and sapphires, pearls and least demanded of them all being corals.

These gemstones are auctioned under subsections under the ‘Diamonds at Re.1’ tab or block. The bids could go upto Rs.3000 per stone or bulk depending on the carat, cut and size. Another benefit of this section is that it has free shipping is given to the products purchased here.

The site is the first to sell the most expensive gemstones transaction, a Ruby that weighed 3.69carats certified by the American Gem Trade Association (AGTA) which fetched a bid of USD19600 converting into Rs 820000 in August 2008 by Arvind Juneja an online Jaipur Jeweller to a US buyer.

eBay India has recognised listed jewellery brands like Adora, Gitanjali brands like Sangini and D’Damas, Tycarati Jewellery, Khanna Jewellers, Bello jewels, Ishqq, Asmi, Surat Diamonds and SK Exports and micro-entrepreneurs under the jewellery category.

The company charges a five percent commission on a successful sale of the product. The good thing is that if the product does not sell eBay charges just a Re.1 display fee after the first 20 listings for a period of seven days per listing.

The online sellers have a platform that include bulk listing tools too to list their products than the hassle to have the eBay to list them. If the seller isn’t savvy about how to list on the site they could avail of training assistants that would be charged 10 percent per product sold.

The average price range of the jewellery differs from time to time but it could range between Rs 8000 to 15000 and could go higher during the wedding season, Diwali, Valentine’s, New Year’s etc, confirms Thomas.

The online hub has the most traffic found during lunch time around 1pm where customers have some free time to browse and bid. Since jewellery is equally popular with international buyers in the UK and US, the category is also busy from 10pm Indian Standard Time.

As compared to the rest of the site jewellery tends to have a number of women buyers on it. It has mostly has 80 percent male and 20 percent female buyers on various sections on a whole but jewellery has alone 40-50 percent of women buyers on it.

Most jewellery on the site and all loose gemstones are certified by either the American Labs or IGL or GIA. In addition 99 percent of the jewellery sellers offer a seven to 14 day 100 percent money back policy over what eBay offers.

For further information log on to http://www.ebay.in/.