<p>India is second most populous country and one of the largest consumer markets in the world. It has 354 million Internet users and 213 million mobile Internet users and these numbers are expected to reach a billion digital users by 2030. India is a country where 75 per cent of its Internet users are below the age of 35 age. These high number of young population and consistent healthy growth of new digital users will drive Indian e-commerce industry in a big way. It will take this industry to $ 300 Billion by 2030 from $20 Billion today. The e-commerce market will account for 2.5% of the India's GDP by 2030 and will grow by 15 times as per Goldman Sach report.<br><br>"If your business is not on Internet, then your business will be out of business" - Bill Gates, Founder of Microsof<br><br>As rightly described by Bill Gates, this industry has opened up an abundance of opportunity. This is amply clear that taking your business online is not an option rather this has become a compulsion to prove your existence.<br><br>There are various options available to bring your business online and start selling, whereas there are pros and cons of each of these options to fulfill your objective of going online. Among all these options 'Selling Thru Marketplaces' seems to be the best option for an SME manufacturer/wholesaler as this gives huge sales & branding and ready customers' traffic by incurring no fixed or variable cost. Apart from listing with online marketplaces, one may create a micro site to establish a virtual visage for the brand.<br><br><strong>How to sell online on marketplaces?</strong><br>Online marketplaces like Flipkart, Snapdeal, Amazon etc. are the best options for a seller, but there are processes/ stages to cover before you start selling online. These stages are:<br><br>1. Register with Marketplaces- A seller is required to have VAT No., Address proof, ID proof and other basic documents for registration and verification. Marketplaces also check for courier pick up facilities at the seller's location, if pick up is not available the seller can send the products to a warehouse where these services are available.<br>2. Product Listings- A seller needs to get the Photo-shoots done as per the marketplace guidelines, content writing and catalog creation as per each marketplace's format. This is a very important for maximizing the sales and reducing customer returns.<br>3. Price and inventory update- Competitive pricing will help sell more and proper inventory update means better sales and no cancellations. It is always preferable to block the inventory for online selling<br>4. Order Management- Generate Invoices, address labels and manifests and pack the items in marketplace specific packaging material. A strong and temper proof packing is required to ensure no damages or loss during transit.<br>5. Customer Service & Returns Management- Some Marketplaces handle the customer service themselves but for some marketplaces sellers have to handle it. Customer returns is another aspect to manage, products needs to be checked before restocking, returns to be confirmed on marketplaces, reconciled against payments and disputes to be raised for any discrepancies.<br>6. Warehousing & Fulfillment- If a seller doesn't want all the hassles of retail invoicing, shipments and returns etc. he can send the products to a third party warehouse, they can take care of orders and returns management.<br>7. Payment Reconciliation- Different marketplaces have different commission structures, different shipping policies and different payment cycles. This clubbed together with promotional pricing and order life cycle becomes a tricky task. But, undoubtedly this remains the most important part of the entire online selling process.<br><br>If a seller finds this process very tedious he/she can take the help of e-commerce enabling companies who are specialized in handling these tasks. In other words, it is possible to set up multiple stores, have an expert team work for you and generate great profits by online selling without even having to get up from your chair.<br> <br><strong>What is usually the charge structure of a marketplace?</strong><br>There are different marketing commissions for different category of products i.e. different rate card for Mobile phone and different for a Denim. Apart from marketing commissions, the marketplaces provide courier services to pick the product from seller's warehouse and deliver to the end consumers. For this transportation and delivery service, the courier charges are billed to the sellers. Most of the Marketplace charges include a combination of selling commission, shipping charges, fixed fee, payment collection fee, COD charges etc. Since the seller is billing directly to the customers, VAT remains a seller's responsibility.<br><br><strong>What are the challenges faced by a seller?</strong><br>Usually, these sellers are small & medium enterprises (SMEs) engaged in manufacturing/ distributing products either on behalf of a big brand or own label. They are accustomed of selling goods in bulk and many a times are naive in terms of managing the online store. They should understand that in retail stores customers can actually see the products, hold it in their hands, may be try it before making a purchase but , all these factors are absent in e-tail, so to generate trust among the customers some guideline and policies are to be followed. The first challenge that sellers face is in going live which includes registering on the panels, Photo-shoot & cataloging as per the requirement of the marketplaces. Second is shipping policy which means no order cancellation, 24hr. shipping, no customer complaints etc. Third is managing the multiple panels for listings, price update, inventory update etc. and fourth is reconciling the payments for multiple channels, different charges and different payment cycles. It is because of these challenges that sellers are not able to realize maximum benefits of these channels and become inactive at one of these stages. But they should not give up on these channels so soon, the fact that customers are increasingly flocking these websites, retail market has already started feeling the heat and the market is growing at 40% CAGR, means that this business is here to stay and those who will not join the bandwagon now will be left behind. Some sellers have successfully sailed through the rough waters and are reaping the benefits now. It is the turn of those sellers who were left behind to start on this wonderful journey now.<br><br><strong>What are those tools / tips suggested for online selling?</strong><br>E-commerce is a new age sales channel, it has its own challenges and advantages and sellers should understand that in order to make this channel work for them they need to understand the challenges and overcome them. Setting up this channel is like setting up a new offline store where the store owner is required to do feasibility analysis, has some marketing spend, stocks up inventory and does various things to generate footfall to his store. After some time the store becomes breakeven and then starts generating profits. Similarly a seller needs to study the online market and spend some time in understanding it to generate maximum benefits. It is a good idea to take advice from some experts and be well informed before starting this journey.<br><br><strong>How to increase sales</strong><br>Knowing the critical success factors paves the path for the sellers to have a smooth business procedure. Right display, competitive pricing, catalog size, freshness of catalog, inventory depth and customer delight all contribute significantly to a sellers GMV.<br><br><strong>Conclusion</strong><br>Online marketplace is the platform of survival for a business. Thus, it poses fierce competition for the sellers at each step. The naivety of the sellers about the platform further adds on to the difficulties. Here the support partners helps the sellers in conducting a smooth business without worrying about the technological technicalities of the platform.<br><br><em>The authors, Harish Singla and Dipti Singla, are director & co-founders of BluBox.in</em></p>
