Short answer: Start with one product people want and that still makes money after cash on delivery, returns, shipping and ads (ads alone can take 20–25% of revenue in India). Get GST and a current account, open a Shopify store on the ₹20-a-month trial, take payments through Razorpay, PhonePe or Cashfree, ship with Shiprocket, and find your first customers on Instagram. Then run it like a shop, not a side project.
We are a Shopify development and marketing company in Jaipur, and we have watched a lot of local brands start selling online over the last five or six years. Some have done really well. Others spent months on a website and never covered their costs. The difference was rarely the website. It was the product, the numbers and how much attention the owner gave the business.
This is the order we would follow if we were starting an ecommerce store in India today.
Step 1: Choose a product that can be the hero
Everything starts with the product. Before you think about a website, answer three questions honestly.
Do people actually want it?
Test it with friends, family and yourself before you spend on a store. Would they buy it again? Would they recommend it? If the people closest to you are lukewarm, strangers on Instagram will be too.
Why would someone buy it from you and not from Amazon, Flipkart or Meesho?
Indian shoppers trust the big marketplaces, and most products have a look-alike there. Even when someone is on your website and likes your product, they can open Meesho or Amazon and search for something similar in seconds. So your product needs something special: either it is not available on those platforms, or your product page is good enough to win the sale right there, before the visitor leaves.
Does it still make money after every cost?
This is where most new stores go wrong. Work out the real cost of one order before you start:
- the product itself, packaging and handling
- shipping, and the extra cost of cash on delivery
- returns and damaged parcels
- marketing: in our experience, ads alone can take 20–25% of revenue
- your own salary, or the income you need from the business
Marketing is the cost people underestimate most. There are two ways to get customers. SEO is cheaper but slow: it usually takes six months to a year before it brings steady sales. Ads on Google and Meta work faster, but they are expensive in India. Your margin has to carry that cost. If it can’t, a better website will not fix it.
Step 2: Register the business
This part is easier than it used to be.
- GST: visit a local chartered accountant’s office. They will tell you what you need and file it for you.
- Current bank account: talk to your bank. They will guide you through the documents.
If you like doing your own research, ChatGPT or a similar tool can explain GST and current accounts in simple words before you go. Your accountant still has the final say.
Step 3: Choose your platform
There are three common routes in India. Here is how we see them.
| Platform | Good for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Shopify | Testing a product quickly with little cost and no technical work | A monthly plan, plus a small percentage on online payments depending on your plan |
| WordPress + WooCommerce | Owners who want full control and already have someone technical | You pay for hosting and you own security, uptime and backups |
| Custom build | Proven businesses whose needs a platform cannot meet | Higher cost and time; only worth it once you know exactly what you need |
Our recommendation: start with Shopify
Shopify’s trial lets you run a store for ₹20 a month for the first three months. That is enough time to find out whether your product sells, without a big bill. After that you pay a monthly plan and, if you take online payments through another gateway, a small percentage per order (our Shopify plans guide shows the exact numbers and when a bigger plan costs less).
Buy your domain from a domain registrar and connect it to Shopify. That way the domain is always yours, and if you outgrow Shopify one day you can move platforms and keep your address.
WordPress and WooCommerce
WooCommerce is open source and a good option, but the backend becomes your job. You pay for your own hosting and domain, and site security, keeping the site up and taking backups are all your responsibility. That means you will need someone to look after it. We manage WordPress stores too, but it costs more than looking after a Shopify store, because there is more to look after.
A custom build
A custom website is a good choice later. First learn the business on Shopify: does the product sell, who buys it, what do customers ask for? Once you know exactly what Shopify cannot do for you, a custom build is money well spent. Before that, it is usually money spent on guesses.
Step 4: Set up payments
India has plenty of payment gateways: Razorpay, PhonePe and Cashfree are common choices. Compare their fees and pick whoever gives you the best deal. They will ask for KYC documents, usually your GST certificate and identity proof. It is not difficult; keep following up and the account gets approved. If you get stuck, we help clients with this as part of a store setup.
Most Indian stores also offer cash on delivery. Count its extra cost and the returns that come with it in your numbers from Step 1.
Step 5: Sort out shipping
We usually recommend Shiprocket. Besides booking couriers, its checkout has a feature shoppers like: when someone enters their phone number, it can fill in the address they saved while buying from another store that uses Shiprocket. Less typing means fewer people giving up at checkout.
If you are starting in your own city, consider delivering the first orders yourself. It saves money, and handing over a parcel tells you more about your customers than any report: why they ordered, what they expected, and, if they return something, why.
Step 6: Get your first customers
In India, Instagram matters most for a new store. Google Ads works well for people already searching for what you sell, and influencers build trust quickly. Most brands that grow use a mix of all three. Start with Instagram to find out which product people respond to. That becomes your hero product, and the one you spend on.
Make the store easy to trust as well. Show real photos, collect reviews from your first buyers (our guide to getting reviews explains how we do it), and put a WhatsApp number where people can see it.
What we have seen work in Jaipur
Three local brands, without names, that show what makes the difference:
- A fabric brand that gives customers a great experience. Its WhatsApp number is published on the site, every enquiry is followed up, customers get real support, and people can visit offline if they want to see the fabric.
- A ghee brand with a strong YouTube and Instagram presence. It invites customers to visit the farm, shows how the ghee is made, uses real photographs, and delivers the next day. You cannot find that quality and that trust on Amazon, which is exactly why people buy from its own site.
- A sauce brand that started on Shopify, did well in offline stores, moved onto Blinkit, and then came back to grow its own Shopify store. There is no single path; try channels and keep what works.
Run it like a shop, not a side project
Ecommerce has a great future in India, and more people buy online every year. But the costs of digital marketing, tools and AI are going up, so you need a product people will pay a fair margin for.
Keep it simple: it is a business that happens to be online, so run it the way you would run an offline shop. The biggest mistake we see is treating it as a part-time project. If you opened a shop, you would be there every day: checking the accounts, knowing your costs, talking to customers and helping them. An online store needs the same attention. Selling is only half the work; after-sales service is the other half, because people will call and email to ask where their order is. And just as you would show a customer your product in a shop and explain its features, your photos and product page have to do that online.
How much does an ecommerce website cost in India?
What we charge in India, so you have real numbers to plan with: a Shopify store with us starts from ₹65,000. That covers a store built on a quality ready-made theme, customised for your brand, with payments, shipping and the basics of SEO set up. A fully custom design, more products or integrations cost more; most of our projects fall between ₹65,000 and ₹5,00,000.
Every project gets a fixed, itemised quote before work starts. If you are in Jaipur, you can visit our office in Patrakar Colony and meet the team that would build your store: see our Shopify development services in Jaipur, or, if your store is ready and you need customers, our Google Ads and Meta Ads management.