How to Start Ecommerce in India (0 to 1 – Practical Guide)

This blog is written for beginners who want to understand ecommerce practically, not as a get-rich-quick scheme.

Why This Blog Exists

I have been doing e-commerce for 3 years. In the first year, I had started with a food product, the sales and everything was good. But I didn’t fix the right profit margin. The product was not able to survive the Ads cost and reached rock bottom. In the meantime, I have started a natural skincare business on the side, I rectified the mistakes I made on the first food product, set up a good margin for this skin care product, the first 6 months of this product was normal, from the 7th month, sales hit high. Till now I am running my skincare business with profit. The first business was emotionally attached to me, so I wasn’t able to leave that product. I was adamant on one thing that whatever mistakes I did on the first business, should not be there in the 2nd one. That was my simple and only motto.

The main reason to start this website is to make people aware about the reality of e-commerce. When I started this business from my native, no one was aware about this kinda business. I struggled when I had doubts in e-commerce, because I don’t have any contacts in this field to ask. So I wanted to build a community where no one should feel that they are left out alone without help. 

I don’t want to portray or sound like a “Guru”; instead I want to be like a go to friend when someone has a doubt standing outside an exam hall. Yes.. whatever I know, I will teach you in a short span of time in simple terms in order to make you understand.

If you prefer video (in Tamil), here’s the full explanation

What You Need to Start Ecommerce in India (0 to 1):

  1. Product 
  2. Brand
  3. Legal
  4. Tech startup
  5. Payment & Shipping 
  6. Order fulfillment 
  7. Marketing 
  8. Post delivery
  9. Accounting, Profile tracking 
  10. Scaling

Product selection:

  1. No fancy: I will tell you how I select a product in the market. The product should not be mainly about fancy or trending. because once the trend goes down, the product has no value to sell to many people. It doesn’t have the nature to scale.
  2. Problem solving: I will look for a problem-solving product so that there exists a demand for it every time.

Eg: There is a product of ₹1000, but the quality is not good, then introduce a product of higher quality for ₹500 or ₹1500 according to your profit margins and the available product. 

Don’t start something with very huge Medicinal claims initially, if you want to sell those, after scaling your business you can introduce it in your business.

  1. Amazon checking: check the product you are planning to sell on Amazon, is there similar type of product that is sold by a small scale business owner, if yes, go straight to the Reviews section and see the comments made by customers. If there are any negative comments, think whether it can be solved by your product.
  2. Target audience: This is the main one. Your product is for Men/Women/Babies? So that it will be easy to run Ads or to approach influencers to scale.
  3. Has Longer shelf life: The product should be courier proof. Yes, initially look for products which have more shelf life and are durable.

My theory:

A Hero product is a must to win.

How did I choose the 1-Hero product?

  1. The product must be weighed between 200 to 400 grams(Because courier charge is same for 0-500g, after which the courier charges are high)
  2. It has to be sold to at least ₹299

Don’t start with liquid products and short expiry ones. (Sometimes the time taken to reach the customer will take an extra 5-7 days, if they cancel, it will take again 7-10 days to reach us).

  1. Minimum there should be a 30% margin (ithu romba mukkiyam). Why? Ads, Return of orders, damaged returns or replaced goods cost us. 
  2. Promotable – Organically we should promote or create content around it easily
  3. Pricing- If you are planning to start at a low cost like ₹99, don’t do that because, 30% margin is a must. Ok bro, then what about ₹199 for 100g product? Again I will mention, if it is giving you 30% margin, very good go for it. In case you are running an e-commerce business successfully, then introduce your trial products in these ranges of prices (99rs or 199rs) to test the market.

Costing and profit:

  1. Product cost – Eg: ₹100 + GST
  2. Packing cost – Eg: Bottle, pouch, cover cost plus GST 
  3. Shipping cost – brand label, invoice, Box, courier cost, Cash on Delivery Charges plus GST 

you have to sit and write an amount for these requirements for a variant. So, you can finally decide how much you can charge to get that 30% profit margin.

  1. Payment Gateways cost – 2% plus GST 
  2. Shopify/Platform cost – 2% plus GST
  3. Ads cost (optional)
  4. Selling price 
  5. Net profit 
  6. Break even price

Cost of goods sold (COGS) (Product+Packing cost) should be a taken care of carefully. This will decide whether your business survives or not.

Branding:

You have selected a product and are ok with it. Then comes the Branding, it has certain things you should take care of.  Branding alone cant save a product. Product quality always comes first.

  1. Business name – This is the name registered for GST and legal purposes. 
  2. Brand name – You have chosen a business name, the same name can also be used for brand name. But the domain should be available in that name. To find the availability of a domain, visit GoDaddy or Hostinger, and search your preferred brand name to check whether it exists or not.
  • uncheckedIf the site ends with .com, it usually costs around Rs.1599/yr (may vary)
  • uncheckedIf the site ends with .in, it usually costs around Rs.899/yr (may vary)
  1. Logo design – Keep it simple. Yes.. don’t spend much on the logo design. I know a person, he is just using xerox black and white name for his business and is making a good profit. 

Simple way: Go to ChatGPT or your desired AI, and say about your product and business name, explain how you want your logo to be, like specify the color and designs you need. Tada!! You will get a simple and decent logo for your brand new business.

I am still using the same logo I got from ChatGPT for my 2nd business, and running it smoothly for 1.5 years.

  1. Brand purpose – What is your product going to solve in the market? You should be able to answer this question in a single line.
  2. Always 2.0 can be done – For example, you are running a business, you think that the brand name or logo is not suitable for your business. No worries. You can always rename or redesign your logo. Don’t spend much time on deciding these for too long. Because in the end, only your product speaks in the market.
  3. Label design – Go to Canva and search labels, and specify your type of product like food or skincare or health related business. And then add your logo, brand name on the label to customize. In case you have obtained FSSAI, there are certain rules and regulations to follow. Like, you have to put the green vegetarian symbol on the label, if your product is pure vegetarian and nutritional value of the product, if there are any ingredients which can cause allergies, you have to specify that and how to store the product for customer usage.

Marketed and manufactured by, FSSAI number details must be mentioned. FSSAI is a 14 digit number which is used to gain trust among customers.

To get a more clear idea on how to do this, go and buy a similar product like yours from a top brand and see the details mentioned on the label of their product. And devise a plan on how to do that for your product in budget.

3. Legal Basics:

  1. UDYAM– visit “UDYAM” (make sure the site ends with .gov.in) website and enter the details of your PAN card, Aadhaar card, business category and address of the business to get a UDYAM certificate. Using this certificate, you are eligible to attain certain subsidies, bank accounts etc.
  2. GST Certification
  3. FSSAI licence certificate (required if you sell food or edible products)

      4)  HSN code (HSN code is mainly required for GST filing and invoice generation)

  1. 4 digit code for small scale business 
  2. 6 digit code for large scale business 

For example, 1513 signifies Coconut oil and its fraction

151319 signifies Coconut oil ( not chemically modified)

15131910 – Edible coconut oil (food category); GST – 5%

15131920 – Non-Edible coconut oil (skin,hair & cosmetics category); GST – 18%

4.Tech Setup:

  1. Domain – I have been using these two predominantly. So, I am suggesting this. GoDaddy or Hostinger.  If you are interested in some other sites, please go for it also.
  2. Website – Decide in what way you are going to sell your product through your own website or platforms such as Amazon / Flipkart / Meesho. Marketplaces are easier to start, but margins and control are lower compared to your own website.

To build my own websites, I use both Shopify and WooCommerce for my businesses. For beginners, Shopify is easier to start and manage. 

  1. Website structure – SSart with 1 hero product and 1-2 supporting products with maximum 3 or 4 variants to achieve the average order value (AOV).

 For example,
In most cases, your average order value (AOV) should be above ₹700 to maintain healthy profit margins after courier, PG charges etc.

  • Home page: It has to be simple and explain about your product and offers if any.
  • Product page: This must contain your 4-5 clear images of your product with clear price and quantity. Don’t spend too much on photoshoot, the photo should be clear with proper lighting that’s all. If you feel you don’t have a quality phone, borrow your friends’ mobile, take the pic and upload. Simple. Make sure that the whole photo of the product is visible as the first pic, then the 2nd pic has to contain the details like handmade, organic, and your uniqueness of the product to attract the customers. The next image should explain how to use your product, if your product has ingredients, please mention that too. You can use scale or debit card to show the size of the product so that customers can understand how it will look in real
  • Cart page – If you have any best selling product or want to sell another product, use this page to convince the customers(upsell method)
  • Checkout page – This is where the customers fill the address details 
  • Payment page -payment gateway page where buyer can pay for the order
  • Thank you page – Once the order is placed, display thank you and order number. So that it will be easy for both the seller and the buyer.


LP is Landing Page, for example, if you are planning to sell coconut oil, you can describe about the product in product page in a minimal way, but you want to explain and give more details of the product, ingredients and its usage, how long will it take to ship and images of your product, create a landing page and use this single page for the whole description. Don’t create LP without basic trust elements like contact details, and return policy. (This will increase customer trust)

You are running Ads, through which you are making the audience visit the landing page about your product, in that page, make sure your website is visible to place the order if the audience is convinced enough to buy and are ready to become your customer.

5. Payment and Shipping:

Payment gateway

          PG in short form. If the customer wants to buy, they have to use this way to pay through UPI/Cards/NetBanking. PG takes care of everything from the receivement of the amount till it reaches your bank account. For this smooth transaction to take place, they usually charge around 2% plus GST for each transaction.

Type of PGs available in the market:

  • Cashfree currently offers pricing starting around 1.6% + GST (at the time of writing).
  • Razorpay
  • Phonepe PG
  • Paytm PG, etc.

Documents needed to setup a payment gateway account:

  • PAN card
  • Aadhaar card
  • Website with contact details
  • Privacy Policy
  • Return / Refund Policy
  • GST details (if applicable)

If you don’t have GST, some payment gateways may allow account setup using address proof, depending on your business type.

Shipping Partners

Courier companies you should be aware of,

  1. DTDC
  2. Delhivery
  3. Amazon shipping services
  4. Ekart Logistics
  5. Ecom express 
  6. Xpressbees
  7. Indiapost
  8. Blue dart 

These all have online booking available.

Courier Aggregators like Shiprocket, and Nimbus post 

It means, they have all combinations of courier companies in a tie-up. Like you know about Redbus, right? All bus travels will be there when you go to book a bus in that app, based on your preference and budget you can book a courier service for your product.

You can be a master through the practice of booking. Yes, for example DTDC will deliver by 1 day for Chennai City( around 70% of time), whereas Amazon shipping delivers the product in 5 days. If the customer is from Bangalore, you will know what courier to use based on the practice. So don’t worry buddy.

Now let us see the difference between Shiprocket vs Nimbuspost. Initially go for Shiprocket because its UI is very easy to use, after some time you can go for Nimbuspost based on your product’s weight and the budget.

Shipping Label –

Label preferred size – 6 x 4 inches

If you are like, “bro I don’t have a printer, is it compulsory to go for proper label print?”

No need bro, I am running a business for 3 yrs, I have shipped over 15000 products’ labels, I didn’t use label print, I am using the normal Canon printer on Adhesive label sheet in A4 size, 

When you are going to print using this sheet, while selecting Ctrl plus P to print, select multiple pages(4 pages per sheet)so that you can print 4 labels in a single sheet.

Let me breakdown the cost of my printer and labels:

For label: 100 sheets – Rs.400(4 Rs/sheet)

Printing cost – Rs.1

To print 1 label, it roughly costs around Rs.2 

Invoice setup – It is easy, you can set up through Shiprocket or Nimbuspost. Many people are not using invoices to save costs, but it is not a proper way.

RTO charges – Return to origin, the courier which you have sent, returned to you due to some reasons instead of a customer.

Courier charges are of 2 types – forward shipping and return shipping. For both of these, charges are almost the same.]. 

How do I reduce the RTO?

In Shiprocket, there is an RTO score shown for each order. If the score is high and in red, either call or WhatsApp the customer to confirm the order before shipping.

In Nimbuspost, IVR calls and automated whatsapp messages will be generated for COD orders to confirm customer’s availability and address for the delivery.

By following these, I have significantly reduced the RTO rate.

COD charges – To explain this in detail, I will put a separate micro blog. As of now I will tell you in short, Rs.30-45 charged per COD order. So plan accordingly to charge at least extra Rs.35 from the customer, if you want to include the COD option in your payment page.

6.Order Fulfillment:

You received an order from the customer. How do you fulfill that? Let’s jump in.

Go to shiprocket and see the order, and click which courier company you want to use for this one, and generate the shipping label. Download the label and keep it separate in a desired folder.

Weight – the weight of product plus the packing box

Volumetric weight – (L x B x H in cms) ÷ 5000 (you don’t have to calculate all this, but you must enter the details of the product measurement.)

Based on the comparison of actual weight and volumetric weights, the higher of the two is considered and the shipment is charged under brackets like 0-500g, 501-1000g, 1000-2000g and so on.

Packaging – Make sure to pack properly, keep in mind that the courier handling can be rough. So according to your product’s nature, use bubble wrap, inflatable balloon packaging (for glass bottles, electronics etc),etc. to secure the product. And paste the label over the box

Order pickup– confirm pickup time with the courier

Customer communication – How to do this?

If you use platforms like Shiprocket or Nimbuspost, they will send the message to the customer about the order status along with the tracking details. In case you are choosing local couriers like ST courier or professional couriers, sometimes the message may not reach the customer. For that you can use WhatsApp messaging through WhatsApp business API, it is a tool approved by Meta like wanotifier, wati, interakt, etc.

Per messaging cost – (without markup by plastforms)

  • Rs.0.8631 for marketing 
  • Rs.0.115 for utility
  • Rs.0.115 for Authentication

Email & SMS are usually handled by the courier or Shipping platform. 

7. Marketing: 

 Free(organic) and Paid

Free: Organic marketing – You can promote the product through an Instagram/ YouTube/ Pinterest/ Quora account for your product or you can promote through your personal brand.

Paid – 

  1. Meta Ads – Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp (In most cases, Video ads perform better than image ads)
  2. Google Ads – Through search Ads (when someone searches on google), Video or image Ads (Display Ads)

Influencer – Approach a few influencers in your product niche, their charges are usually based on followers they have. So based on your budget partner with a few to promote your product.

WhatsApp marketing – You can use this for your previous customers. You have a contact list to send the offers or deals related to the product. Through bulk messaging options, you can market the product. Use WhatsApp marketing only for existing customers or opted-in users.

8. Post delivery:

WhatsApp message – Send a whatsapp message to confirm whether the order is received

Review collection – It’s very important. Be bold and ask for review from the customers. Don’t be afraid of what if they gave the worst review. These are the ways to improve yourself and the product. If it’s a positive review, be happy about your selection of the product and try to improvise a little better.

Upsell or cross sell – Try to promote your best selling product or relevant products to your existing customer. 

Retention – some customers forget your product after purchasing because they don’t save your contact details. When they want to buy, they will be searching our product through keywords, difficult for them to find us again in rare cases. To overcome this, based on your product’s usage cycle, text them like “hey! Hope you are enjoying our product. It might be getting over in 1–2 weeks. Just a gentle reminder to place your next order if needed”.
Messages like this help customers remember your brand and product. 

9. Accounting & Profitability:

  1. GST filing(monthly/quarterly)
  2. GST on rent( need more details)
  3. Checking bills
  4. Revenue vs profit – sales can be 50 lakhs, but if the profit is only ₹5990, there is definitely a mistake in the business.

You should aim for at least a 20% profit margin to sustain the business. Check about the cash flow.

10. Scaling:

  1. Before scaling, you have to check whether your product is good for scaling or not based on the customer reviews about your product
  2. Operations – Can you manage higher order volumes with your current team, and packing capacity?
  3. Shipping – Analyze the delivery performance, RTO and complaints related to courier.
  4. Unit economics – how much profit you are making per order?
  5. Average order value (AOV): Make sure CPAis lower than your margin
  6. Marketing – Ad creatives are important to run the ads and scale ads. You have to find the right Target audience for your product.
    A small suggestion from my Ad experiences – don’t increase your ad budget drastically, if you are currently running ads at Rs.2000/day, increase the budget step by step ( around 10 to 20%) to scale safely.

It is not easy to endure this journey. Don’t jump in this fully without having a proper plan. Because if I say that I am doing Ecom business means, no one will believe or respect you at the start, society will notice the materialistic things you buy through that business, then only they will believe you and your business, I am not saying it is impossible, just difficult.That’s all. Because this is not a quick rich scheme to buy all your desires like home, car and go on international trips. But with consistent hard work and time, all of that is possible

Don’t be greedy at the start. 

Start small

Try, learn from your mistakes

Fix them.

Scale only what works, buddy.

All the best and best of luck!

~aarpee

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