News and entertainment portal rediff.com is eyeing strong revenues from online book sales with focus on the Tier I and II cities of the country.

"People from tier-II and III cities have limited options in the neighbourhood book shops. We've seen a large increase in the number of people from these cities buying books online," Rediff.com Vice-President (Marketing) Manish Agarwal told PTI.

The Nasdaq-listed company started selling books online just two months back and has collected good revenue so far. It has made a catalogue of 1.7 million books for its portal, which would caters to all the age groups, he added without sharing the revenue details.

"The total retail market for books in India is about 800 crore (Rs 8 billion) and only 10 per cent of the total demand is completed by retail vendors, 60-70 per cent of the need is completed by top 10 retail vendors. It means there is enough opportunity for rediff.com in this field," he said. "We have tied with all the major book vendors like Granth, Landmark across the country and within seven days the consumer can get the book," Agarwal said.

The consumers can search for books through its name, author's name and publications. The wesite, besides showing the name of the book, would also carry reviews which would help readers make his choice. "The book reviews would help the company build the concept of social shopping, where we can connect one reader with other," he added.

The company is receiving orders from different parts of the country and our vendors are delivering the books at the customers doorstep. Consumer can order new as well as second hand books, as per their choice.