IndiaMart is one of the largest shopping platforms, and many businesses today are trying to get their products on this large B2B marketplace. The idea of beginning IndiaMart belongs to a former HCL employee Dinesh Agrawal and his business partner Brijesh Agrawal. They started the eCommerce platform in 1999. They strived to simplify business and with time IndiaMart became one of the leading business-to-business marketplaces. The B2B eCommerce platform generated INR 9.8 billion in revenue through sales during the 2023 fiscal year.
IndiaMart follows affordable and easy methods of sourcing raw materials and services from trustworthy manufacturers. They allow buyers and sellers to connect across India. From industrial appliances and machines to clothes, IndiaMart has it all.
This article outlines everything you need to know about IndiaMart and how you can quickly start selling your products on the platform.
What Makes India Mart a Viable B2B Marketplace?
IndiaMart registered providers, vendors, and suppliers aid customers with their goods and services. They make the procurement process a whole lot easier as they allow consumers to conduct research for a specific product or service. When a customer looks for a specific item, a list of potential suppliers that come under that category is displayed. This makes it easy for them to push past their research phase and find what they want to source. IndiaMart also allows them to communicate with one another.
You can start selling for free on IndiaMart in just 3 simple steps that do not take more than 5 minutes to complete. Moreover, there are more than 72 lakh suppliers and over 15 crore buyers on IndiaMart.
IndiaMart being one of the biggest B2B marketplaces in India, allows a seller to gain great visibility and reach their target buyers easily. Moreover, it offers a critical benefit over other platforms with its Payment Security option. This option gives the sellers and buyers the freedom to talk, negotiate, and settle on a price based on their convenience. They simply have to deposit on IndiaMart. Upon order confirmation and receiving the receipt, the payment will be processed to the vendor in less than 24 hours. IndiaMart also gives them a refund where there is a dispute. This allows both the buyers and the sellers to gain some security and trust.
Free and paid listings are the forms of listings in IndiaMart. Paid listings are very successful at generating leads for the sellers. All they need is a GST number and bank account details to enrol for a paid listing. These conditions, however, do not need to be met for free listings. IndiaMart gains a major portion of its revenue through the subscription fee levied on the vendors and through their pay-per-lead models. Moreover, the B2B eCommerce marketplace’s revenue from operations has significantly increased from 2016, when it was less than Rs. 2.4 billion.
IndiaMart has grown over the years and has now become India’s biggest B2B marketplace having over a hundred million buyers and right million suppliers. It is a brilliant avenue for physical retailers and suppliers to expand their business and earn money over the Internet. Moreover, customers are exposed to a diverse selection of goods and services without the notion of time, as IndiaMart is available 24/7 to assist with inquiries.
Start Selling on IndiaMart: Step-by-Step Process
If you are interested in selling on IndiaMart, follow the following steps to begin the registration process:
a. Create an Account on IndiaMart Seller Central
The registration process is a basic step for all those who wish to sell on IndiaMat. The below detailed steps are to be followed to register on the portal:
An account must be created on the platform. This can easily be done by logging on to IndiaMart’s official website.
- You must then enter a valid phone number, email ID and your name
- All your login details will be sent to your registered phone number.
- Add the OTP to the tab.
- Complete the details relevant to your business along with the address.
- After successfully entering all your information, verify your account with the verification link sent to your email ID.
b. Create Your Product Listing
As soon as the registration is complete, the very next step would be to enter all the relevant details of the products that you intend to sell on the platform. There are several elements to consider while updating the product details, use the following hints:
- Ensure you enter the most accurate details about your product descriptions
- Upload pictures of your products from all angles with high-resolution
- The pricing must be well-planned and they must have a good price-profit ratio
- Categorise your products into similar groups such that they can be easily accessed.
- You must clearly describe in case your products must be handled specially or with extra care.
c. Advertise Your Product Leads
After your products go live on IndiaMart, promoting your products is the next task to tackle. IndiaMart itself offers several tools for marketing your products to attract potential buyers. It has SEO-friendly tools that aid in reaching your target audiences. By promoting on social media, you can gain maximum visibility.
Advantages of Utilising IndiaMart as a Platform for Your Business
Here are some of the major advantages of using IndiaMart for your business:
- 24/7 availability: The all-time availability of IndiaMart is an extra benefit for both retailers and vendors who are transitioning from offline selling to online selling. Sellers and buyers can contact each other at any time due to the availability. Time and space are no longer concerns for building supplier-buyer relationships. This enables businesses to increase profits and revenue. Moreover, holidays and other such issues also do not cause halts. Thus, this type of benefit makes IndiaMart so popular.
- Better profits and greater sales numbers: With an enormous user base, IndiaMart connects vendors and suppliers of any product to numerous potential buyers. Thousands of inquiries are received daily thereby exposing the seller largely. This is a greater avenue for sales, thereby increasing profits.
- Fast, rapid, and secure payments: Indiamart has some of the fastest and most secure payment options integrated into the platform. When a buyer approaches a seller, the parties negotiate and agree on a final price. The suppliers exchange the payments directly or submit invoices. IndiaMart processes these payments extremely quickly. It can occur just within 2 to 3 hours.
- User-efficient and friendly platform: IndiaMart keeps an eye out on all the inquiries and they manage their online leads diligently. Here are some elements that show how they track and maintain records:
- Dashboards
- Premium and upgraded services
- Lead managers
- Manager of products
- Documents and photos
- Company profile handling
- Support and help: IndiaMart has an efficient support team that is always available. They assist sellers with their queries and issues at all times. The process is rather straightforward and their issues are solved via articles or support executives. A few hundred articles are published to help users with their queries along with guidelines for resolving issues.
Conclusion
IndiaMart is one of the finest and largest business-to-business marketplaces in the country. It is a very simple and user-friendly platform that easily connects both buyers and sellers from any part of the country. The best part of the platform is that they are not involved in the negotiations between the two parties and they only facilitate the networking. They have efficient tools that enable quick and effective marketing of your products and also have a secure and quick gateway for payments integrated into it. Selling on IndiaMart is easy. It is simple and any novice transitioning from offline to online selling can easily master it in no time.
If you want to get started as an IndiaMart seller, you’ll need some documents for registration on the site. These include your photo, identity proof, bank statement or cancelled cheque, electricity bill, your CIN, a NACH form, and a GGST certificate.
No. IndiaMart does not charge commissions from sellers. The online marketplace is free to use and you don’t have to pay any listing fees or commissions on sales.
You can start selling on IndiaMart only if your business has a GST registration. Moreover, you’ll need to be GST registered if you want to become a verified seller on IndiaMart.
