Online firms cash in on IPL glamour

Come summer and IPL becomes the hottest property for brands across sectors. The latest to try and cash in on the country's biggest cricket carnival (valued at around $4 billion in 2011) are ecommerce companies.

Currently riding on high growth, ecommerce companies have joined the IPl bandwagon with team merchandise and cricket memorablia.

Online apparel retailer

Yebhi.com is running daily contests, and selling IPL merchandise, which will end in a ‘grand' contest before the finals. “We expect at least a 75 per cent jump in sales,” said Mr Manmohan Agarwal, CEO, Bigshoebazaar, a brand of Yebhi.com.

Tradus.in , another online retailer, is offering fan accessories, branded sports material, team jerseys by Reebok, and stadium accessories on its site. “Play, compete and keep winning,” is the retailer's theme for this year's IPL promotion.

Collectabillia.com will offer cricket fans a single window of purchase for Sachin Tendulkar's 100{+t}{+h} Century memorabilia, sporting goods from Nike, Adidas and Puma a live auction of Indian Premier League merchandise from 6 teams called ‘Deal of the Day'.

The ‘Deal of the Day' went live on April 4 with an opening bid of Rs 1. Each auction lasts for five days with one IPL item going on auction a day.

The merchandise on auction will depend on the match schedule and the winner of the auction will be the highest bidder on closing of the auction. A total of 45 items, one for each day of the IPL 2012 will be available on auction.

India's e-commerce business is currently valued at about $12 billion. According to estimates, there are about 400 e-commerce portals today, having almost trebled from about 120 in 2010. 

anjali@thehindu.co.in