FIEO ties up with eBay, PayPal to boost exports

New Delhi, April 12 (IANS) The Federation of Indian Export Organisation (FIEO) Thursday signed an agreement with e-commerce portal eBay and online payment provider PayPal to boost exports, said a top official.

"Exports through e-commerce in the last three years have increased by 400 percent to $1.4 billion. It is expected to grow many-fold in the coming years," said FIEO President Rafeeque Ahmed. FIEO is the apex body for export promotion set up by the government.

He said the tie-up with eBay and PayPal would provide FIEO members an access to a target audience of over 100 million active eBay and PayPal users across the world.

Ahmed said the tie-up would help especially the small and medium enterprises, who don't have enough resources to reach to customers outside the country.

"The marketing effort, which is quite a costly affair, will be drastically reduced for these companies with elimination of markup cost of intermediaries," Ahmed said.

Muralikrishnan B., country manager of eBay India, said the three institutions together would help small businesses grow through online exports.

"This tie-up is a significant first step in helping the smallest of Indian retail exporters increase sales and sell directly to global customers, who want to buy Indian goods but prefer the convenience of shopping and paying safely online," Muralikrishnan said.