Sell everywhere
Amazon, quick commerce, ONDC, and offline retail: win every shelf, not just your own.
5 steps to get you moving, each with a resource worth your time and more waiting underneath
Think of this as a friendly starting line, not the last word. Each step gives you the gist, then a resource worth your time from founders who've been there. There's always more underneath, more questions and more resources, whenever you feel like digging in.
-
1
Selling on Amazon India
List, rank, and win the buy box.
How do I actually get started selling on Amazon India, account, GST, documents?The gist Head to sell.amazon.in and register as a Professional seller with your GSTIN, PAN, a business bank account and a cancelled cheque, GST is mandatory regardless of turnover once you're an e-commerce operator seller. Pick your launch categories and 3-5 hero SKUs rather than uploading your whole catalogue on day one; category approvals and barcode/UPC checks are what usually slow first-timers down. Signup itself takes minutes, but budget a few days for document and account verification before you can go live.
Amazon Seller, Sell Your Products Online on Amazon India sell.amazon.in The actual front door, register-now button, fee structure, category list. Everything else in this pool is commentary on what happens after you land here. -
2
Quick commerce
Blinkit, Zepto & Instamart, the new shelf.
How do I actually get my brand listed on Blinkit, Zepto and Instamart?The gist There is no self-serve 'upload your catalogue' button like on Amazon, every platform routes you through a category manager who decides if your SKU deserves shelf space, so getting a warm intro or a specialist to reach the right CM matters more than the form itself. Have your GSTIN, PAN, FSSAI/BIS licences, a registered trademark, EAN barcodes and compliant MRP labels ready before you apply, because missing docs are the single biggest reason onboarding drags to 6-8 weeks. Start with one or two cities and your hero SKUs, nobody gets pan-India distribution on day one.
Sell on Blinkit, Official Seller Onboarding Portal Blinkit The canonical starting point, this is where you actually raise your hand. It's the horse's-mouth reference for the document list and the fact that a category manager, not a dashboard, controls your listing. -
3
Marketplace operations & ads
Run the marketplace like a store, not a dump.
How do I structure my Amazon PPC campaigns without burning cash?The gist Start with Sponsored Products using a split funnel: an Auto campaign at a moderate bid to discover which search terms actually convert, then after 2-3 weeks mine the search-term report and move proven winners into tightly targeted Manual exact-match campaigns at optimised bids. Keep the Auto campaign running at 30-40% of total PPC budget for ongoing discovery rather than killing it once you 'know your keywords', new converting terms keep showing up. Run one campaign per product group, not one campaign for your whole catalogue, or you'll never be able to tell which SKU's ads are actually working.
Best Practices for Your Sponsored Products Ads advertising.amazon.com Straight from Amazon Ads, the campaign-structure fundamentals here apply on Amazon.in exactly as they do globally, and it's the source everyone else's blog post is paraphrasing anyway. -
4
Going offline: retail & trade
Modern trade, GT, and your own stores.
When is my D2C brand actually ready to go offline?The gist Not before your online business is profitable, if your D2C or marketplace unit economics are still bleeding, opening a physical store or chasing distributors will make the cash burn worse, not better. Go offline once you have clear demand signals from your online data (city-level order density, repeat-purchase pockets) that tell you where a store or distributor would actually get pull, not just presence. Start with a small pilot, one or two stores, or a handful of general trade outlets in a proven city, before committing capital to a wider rollout.
When Should a DTC Brand Open Their Physical Store GeoIQ A data-driven, location-analytics take on store timing and site selection, useful for grounding the 'where and when' decision in your own online order data rather than gut feel. -
5
Marketplace vs D2C vs omnichannel
Where each channel fits in one strategy.
Should I start on marketplaces or build my own D2C site first?The gist Marketplaces give you instant discovery and built-in trust, genuinely useful when you have no brand recognition yet, while your own site gives you full margin, customer data ownership and pricing control from day one. There's no universal right answer: a McKinsey-cited survey of Indian MSMEs found roughly a 53/47 split favouring D2C-first vs marketplace-first, which tells you both paths work depending on category and capital. If your product needs discovery (broad category, price-comparison shoppers) start on marketplaces; if it needs storytelling and repeat purchase (skincare routines, subscription-friendly categories) invest in your own site first and add marketplaces once you have proof of demand.
D2C vs Marketplace in India: Should Indian Brands Sell on Amazon and Flipkart or Build Their Own Channel? DecodeGrowth A practical, decision-oriented take squarely aimed at founders weighing exactly this choice, with less macro fluff than some of the trade-press coverage on the same topic.
