ikman.lk has been conferred as Sri Lanka’s most popular market place for second-hand items according to a quantitative research done by TNS, a world leader in customized market research. The research revealed ikman.lk has established its brand name as the leading online trading site in Sri Lanka.

The primary objective of the research was to understand ikman.lk’s awareness and usage for buying and selling among Internet users in Sri Lanka and to assess its position against other trading competitors, both traditional and online. It looked at brand awareness, usage and future consideration of ikman.lk against other choices people would use for buying or selling second-hand goods and services. The objectives were assessed on six main categories on ikman.lk; namely, used cars & vehicles, electronics, house & property, jobs & services, home & personal items and leisure sports & hobby.

In selecting the sample group for this research, 544 people aged between 16 to 50 years, from 9 main districts representing a fair all island presence were selected. The sample size consisted of Internet users who connect to the Internet at least once a week from any location using any devise. One-on-one interviews were carried out with people who worked or resided in and around the city centers to identify the correct profile needed for the sample. This approach enabled a fair representation of urban, semi-urban and rural users.

The research findings revealed ikman.lk to have high top of mind and aided brand awareness for both buying and selling across all categories compared to other online and traditional options. Findings across the categories are illustrated in the table below.

Research on the long-term sustainability of ikman.lk, reveled on average 72% of the sample will use ikman.lk to buy and 80% will use ikman.lk to sell in the future. Top reasons for not using ikman.lk in the future were unawareness and familiarity of using traditional methods.

In 2012, when ikman.lk was introduced to Sri Lanka, Internet penetration was at 3 million and the site attracted close to 600,000 unique visitors a month, within the first 6 months of operations. Today, the Internet penetration is close to 4.5 million and ikman.lk secures 2.5 million unique visitors to the site each month, making it the most visited local website in Sri Lanka. Having recently celebrated its second year anniversary, ikman.lk has expanded to meet the growing needs of its users. As such the research conducted by TNS confirms the sites position as the most popular market place for used items.