Calcutta is learning to log on — to travel or look trendy, to book movie tickets or shop for music.

“The east is conservative and has been slow in adopting e-commerce, but things are changing. In recent months, there has been a boom in transaction on the Net, where one can get anything from garments to commodities to jewellery,” says Rahul Sharma, executive director, Web Development Company (WDC).

E-commerce — the buying and selling of goods and services on the Internet — is catching on in Calcutta, slow but steady. Chandrani Pearls, a client of WDC, was among the first to go online for buying and selling of jewellery. “We started the site two years ago. The pace is slow, but this is clearly the future and so one must be patient,” says Chandrani Pearls CEO Kuldeep Nayar.

All the multiplexes in the city offer online booking of tickets. “At INOX (Calcutta), online booking is about 10 per cent, while in Chennai, Bangalore and Mumbai, it is a little higher than 10 per cent,” says Vijay Basrur, vice-president, information technology, INOX Multiplexes. Prashant Srivastava confirms that the trend of clicking for tickets “is definitely on the rise” and accounts for “about 15 per cent of the total tickets booked” at 89 Cinemas in Swabhumi, where the patron books online but pays at the counter.

The other sector where e-commerce is making a difference is travel and tourism, with more and more Calcuttans going online to book tickets and hotels. “Around 45 per cent of the total national revenue from e-commerce, estimated at $1.1 billion, comes from travel. Consumers get great rates and a wide range of offers that a travel agent will not be able to provide,” says Sachin Bhatia, co-founder and chief marketing officer of MakeMyTrip.com.

The one snag in the e-commerce boom is credit card fraud. “Cyber crime has had an effect on the growth of e-commerce in the city. People are apprehensive about divulging their details online. But a cyber lab will be set up to make these transactions safe,” promises Gyanwant Singh, the deputy police commissioner (detective department).