How to Start Selling on Marketplaces

Many are migrating from offline business to online selling. And others are diversifying their business by juggling the two. If you’ve been meaning to join either category you’re probably wondering “how do I start?” That’s easy! But, before you launch your brand online, you need to make your ecommerce entry from multiple directions. That is, join multiple marketplaces. This will give your maximum exposure and better chances of spreading your risks.

To help the modern seller set up his business online we have put together a how to guide for selling on India’s 5 main online marketplaces.

The Prerequisites (Requirements)

To register your seller account there are a particular set of documents that must be made available. Scanned copies or photographs of these documents are a must to create an account:

1. According to marketplace

*VAT certification is not compulsory for unstitched material or clothing. This is the case for all the above marketplaces except Snapdeal.

*Flipkart and Amazon have made it mandatory for sellers in the food category to provide an FSSAI certificate. This document should include resellers and the manufacturers.

*To sell jewelry a BIS/Hallmark Certification image must be provided

*Flipkart requires a diamond certificate image from sellers who want to sell real diamond jewelry. In case of jewelry made from real silver, silver purity certification is mandatory.

2. According to business type

*The address of registrations and pickup/shipment can vary. However, in these addresses the state should not change.

How To Start Selling

Starting your online sales journey on Snapdeal, Amazon, Flipkart, Paytm and Shopclues is pretty much the same. It takes 4 common steps.

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Here’s how

The Registration Process

We have illustrated the step by step process of registering on an online marketplace with the help of pictures. These images were acquired from Amazon’s seller registration link. The procedure depicted below is more or less the same for every marketplace.

1. Creating a seller account

2. Registering

3. Seller information

4. Identity Verification

5. Setting up Your Seller Account

6. Creating Listing

7. Brand Registry (In case you do not possess UPC/EAN codes for your products)

What Can You Sell?

You can sell absolutely anything on an online marketplace. Clothes, shoes, accessories, groceries, books, furniture, homes, handicraft and much more! Despite having the liberty to sell whatever you like you still need to obtain marketplace approval for gated categories. This is particularly the case with Amazon.

Gated Categories

The gated category refers to the product categories that need marketplace approval before online sellers can list them.

*Amazon does not allow the sale of pure gold, diamond and platinum jewelry.

Commission And Payments

To avail of marketplace facilities you will need to pay a commission. The commission and fees are deducted from the money collected by the marketplace at the time of delivery. No payments are necessary at the time of registration on the following marketplaces:

Before Registering

Make sure you have all the essential resources required to sell online, like inventory, logistics and legal documentation. The absence of these necessities will prevent you from starting up your online retail dream. You can acquire ecommerce assistance as well and outsource your ecommerce operations. This will take the edge off and give you time to focus on your selling.