How to start an ecommerce website in India

How to start an ecommerce site in India?

India’s e-commerce business is estimated to grow from US$30 billion in 2016 to US$100 billion in 2020 according to a recent study! A part of this success must be attributed to m-commerce. Mobile e-commerce is complementing the online retail industry perfectly and India has become the second largest smartphone market after China. The country had a massive 450 million internet users in 2016, so one can easily identify the potential opportunity for the coming years.

We look at some of the basic requirements of starting a full-blown e-commerce business in India:

Build your Online Store: 

A paid domain and hosting service will easily turn up on search networks, thus adding to business. One must make sure that the website is mobile friendly.

Get a Secured Payment Gateway: 

Compare the various gateways available and choose one which suits your business structure and revenues:

• Payment gateways through local bank
• Payment gateways through hosted services like Paypal, PayU, etc.
• Non Hosted payment gateways
• Cash Transactions

Search Engine Optimization: 

This is most crucial part as many companies underestimate this. Make sure you optimize every product and section names to help them turn up organically on search engines. Organic searches are one of the driving forces of sales. Take care to use keywords based on trending searches by customers The SEO of an Ecommerce website is very much diffrent that typical generic or static website due to number of products and number of pages. .Hiring an expert to do this job is always advisable since SEO requires dedicated and skilled resources.

Implement Social Media Marketing: 

It gives an additional limelite to your website as it can target large number of people through entertaining and informative way.

Specify the Terms & Conditions clearly: 

Purchasing policies, payment terms, refund policies, shipping and delivery processes, to name a few should be clearly defined.

The e-commerce industry is witnessing a tremendous growth in India backed by increasing smartphone and internet penetration. With further increase in internet service providers and the launch of 3G and 4G services, at affordable prices – the e-commerce and m-commerce industries are set to record even higher growth in india.

Step : 1

 Legal Formalities for Starting an Ecommerce Business

To start an ecommerce business, proprietary ecommerce website or become a seller on a marketplace, the following registration are required:

Company or LLP Registration

While starting an ecommerce venture it good to have a company or LLP to have limited liability protection and improve the ease of doing business. Having a company or LLP would ensure that opening of bank accounts in the name of business or obtaining a VAT / Service tax registration are easy and fast.

Almost all marketplaces allow Proprietorships and Partnership firms to sell on their website. However, there would be no limited liability protection in case of a litigation. Hence, it is best to start selling with a LLP or Company.

VAT Registration

A VAT Registration is a must for becoming a seller on a ecommerce portal or while starting a proprietary ecommerce website. VAT registration is required for anyone selling goods or products in India and must be obtained from the State’s Sales Tax Department. IndiaFilings can help you obtain VAT registration in India.

Bank Account

Once the Company or LLP is incorporated, a bank account can easily be opened in the name of the business by contacting a Bank. In case of Proprietorship firm, VAT registration must first be obtained to open a bank account in the name of the business. Opening of bank account is essential to list on a ecommerce marketplace or obtain payment gateway for a proprietary ecommerce website.

Step : 2

 Document require for ecommerce Business

1. PAN Card
2. VAT / CST
3. Address Proof ( Electricity Bill , Voter ID , Adhar Card)
4. Bank Account
5. Company Registration Document
6. TIN Number

Step : 3 

Creating a proprietary (own) ecommerce website

Creating a proprietary ecommerce website is one of the hardest method of starting an ecommerce business. Starting a proprietary ecommerce business requires a web development team, online marketing team and a payment gateway for receiving payments. Starting a proprietary ecommerce website is a long-term initiative and requires a good amount of investment in terms of money and effort to build up a successful business.

Step : 4

 Joining an established marketplace

Joining an established marketplace is an easy way to start an ecommerce business or sell products/services online. Joining an ecommerce marketplace as a seller often requires only a bank account and VAT registration, making the process easy and simple. Further, on an ecommerce or mcommerce platform aspects such as technology development, marketing, payment gateway, logistics, etc., are taken care of by the marketplace platform, reducing the workload on the seller. In addition, sellers can often join multiple marketplaces and sell their products, making it the easiest way to start an online or ecommerce business.

Some of the popular ecommerce or mcommerce marketplaces are:

• Flipkart
• Amazon
• Snapdeal
• Shopclues
• PayTM
• Ebay
• Ask me Bazaar

In case of selling through online marketplaces, the marketplace would accept the payment through their payment gateway and credit the money to the bank account of the seller directly. Hence, a payment gateway is not required and only a bank account is necessary.

Step : 5 

Building Your Store

Without a well-thought strategy, you won’t get a result. Every step, every action should be leading to your final goal. Remember this rule.

1.Product descriptions give voice to your products.

They are basically a way to pitch your product to the visitors. Since they can’t feel the product, the description should be convincing enough to make the worth. Write every necessary detail regarding the product because if you miss one, you’ll miss quite a few sales. One doubt and you’ll lose the customer.

• Focus your description on your buyers
• Bolding present the benefits of your product
• Social proofs in the description is a good catch

Describe the people, you can even give them names. Do whatever it takes to understand your target audience.

2.Decide on your online business model

It’s a very important question – what your business model will be.

Do you want to stock your inventory or you prefer dropshipping? If you don’t know yet, it’s time to decide.

3.Develop a complete marketing plan

There are so many questions you should find the answers to.

Think about these questions:

• How are you going to drive traffic to your fresh-baked online shop?
• How much can you afford to pay to acquire a customer?
• Is there a story behind your eCommerce business?
• Are you ready for your eCommerce brand evolution?
• Is your team ready to carry out your internet marketing strategy?

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Conclusion:

E-commerce is a one of the fast-growing sectors. E-commerce is a means of conducting business,where the buying or selling of goods and services can take place. E-commerce allows small startups to grab a hold of market share. Nowadays,E-commerce is increasing day by day.

With an internet user base of over 300 million, India has third largest internet population after US & ChinaAccording to eMarketer, India’s retail e-commerce sales are estimated to grow 80.3 percent year-over-year. The largest increase worldwide. e-Commerce's share in total retail sales is estimated to leap to 3.3 percent by 2019.