Starting an online store in India: what to settle before choosing a platform

A cousin says, "Just put it on the platform I used." Do not answer yet. Five things decide the platform, and you can settle them on paper first: how many products you sell and how they vary, how customers pay, how parcels reach them, what happens when something comes back, and how each sale becomes a GST invoice. Choose last, and the shortlist is short.

Why the platform comes last

Many owners start by asking which platform is best. The question has no answer in the abstract. A platform that is excellent for a shop with fifty simple products can be tiring for one with fifty thousand parts, each fitting different machines. Another that handles huge catalogues may be overkill for someone selling twenty hand-made candles.

Settle the facts about your trade first. They are cheap to settle and expensive to discover after launch. Take a sheet of paper and answer the five questions below in your own words. Then take the sheet to anyone who quotes you.

The five questions

1. How big and how varied is the catalogue?

Count the products, and then count the variations: sizes, colours, grades, pack sizes. Fifty products in five sizes is two hundred and fifty items for stock purposes.

Ask three further things. Do prices differ by customer, for example a dealer rate and a retail rate? Do customers need to search by something particular, such as a vehicle model or a thread size? Will you add items daily from a sheet, or occasionally by hand? A store that cannot take a spreadsheet upload will turn a large catalogue into a standing chore.

2. How will customers pay?

Buyers in India commonly expect UPI, cards, net banking and, in many trades, cash on delivery. Cash on delivery brings returns and refused parcels, so decide whether you offer it for all products or only below a certain order value. Some sellers also take advance payment through a bank transfer for bulk orders.

Find out how a payment provider settles money to your account and how refunds work, then read the terms yourself. Fees and rules differ between providers and change, so do not rely on a blog, including this one. Also decide who in your office will reconcile the day's payments against orders.

3. How will orders reach the customer?

List where you ship, what you ship and from where. A seller in Surat sending light garments across India faces different needs from a seller in Coimbatore sending heavy motors to a few states.

Decide on three points: do you ship from your own premises, do you use a courier aggregator or a fulfilment service, and how will you calculate charges: flat, by weight, by pin code, or free above a value? A platform must be able to express your rule. Check that it can show "delivery not available" for pin codes you do not serve, or you will learn it from an angry customer.

4. What happens when something comes back?

Write your return rule in two lines before you open. Which products can be returned, within how long, who pays for the return, and how is the refund made? Perishable, made-to-order and personal products need their own wording. Some categories, such as food, cosmetics or electrical goods, carry legal requirements, so ask your adviser if yours is regulated.

Then check that the platform can record a return against the original order and update stock. If it cannot, returns will live in a notebook.

5. How does a sale become a GST invoice?

Each order needs an invoice with the right details, and if you are registered, the right tax treatment for sales within and outside your state. Ask whether the platform produces compliant invoices automatically, or whether a plug-in or your accounts software must do it. Check also whether it records the buyer's GST number for business orders, since many business buyers will ask for it. The post on GST invoices and local payment methods at checkout goes into the practical details. Rules differ by case and change, so confirm with your chartered accountant.

Turning the answers into a platform choice

If you are not sure whether to start with a marketplace at all, read marketplace or your own website.

An incense maker in Mysuru

An invented example. A family in Mysuru makes incense sticks in fifteen fragrances, each in three pack sizes. They want to sell across India, and a cousin suggests the platform used for the cousin's own shop.

The wrong start is choosing. The right one is their sheet. It says: forty-five items; UPI and cards, with cash on delivery only for small orders; light parcels by a courier aggregator; returns only if a pack arrives damaged, with a photograph; a GST invoice on every order. With that sheet, the questions put to each platform change. Can it handle pack-size variations? Can it offer cash on delivery only below a set order value? Does it print the invoice, and can a return be marked against the order? One of the three shortlisted could not print a compliant invoice and was dropped. They chose in an afternoon rather than by reading reviews for a month, though the chosen platform charged extra for the courier tool, which they had not priced.

When not to build yet

If you have no product photographs, no packing routine, and no one to answer messages on the day they arrive, wait. A store open without those is an unattended shop. Do the dull work first and list three or four products before you list forty.

Fill in the sheet this week

Fill in the five answers this week, even roughly, starting with the return rule, because owners put it off. That sheet is a useful brief for a developer or a platform seller. A store sells only if people find it. Decide how it sits within your wider marketing. For the build itself, see e-commerce website development, and if you want a second reading before you spend, tell us what you need.