Real questions Indian retail & e-commerce business owners ask us during scoping calls. Detailed answers, no fluff.
Should I use Shopify or build a custom e-commerce platform?+
Shopify can work for stores doing under ~₹3-5 crore annual revenue with standard product catalogues — it's fast to launch and reliable. We recommend a custom platform when you have non-standard pricing (B2B tiers, contract pricing), complex inventory (lots/batches/expiry), tight ERP/POS integration, multi-vendor flows, or transaction fees on Shopify Payments / third-party gateway commissions exceeding ₹4-6 lakh/year. Many of our clients run a hybrid: Shopify for the storefront and a custom backend for inventory and B2B. Custom builds typically pay back in 12-18 months once monthly GMV crosses ₹40-50 lakh.
How do you optimise checkout for Indian customers and reduce drop-off?+
Indian checkout has its own playbook. We default to UPI as the primary option (it now handles >80% of digital retail payments), enable RBI-tokenised card storage for repeat customers, support EMI on debit cards, and offer COD with prepaid discounts to absorb COD risk. Address inputs use Google Places + auto-fill from PIN code, and we ship guest checkout because forced signups kill 20-25% of conversions. WhatsApp OTP login is supported for repeat buyers. These patterns typically lift first-time conversion from ~1.6% to 2.4-2.8% on apparel, beauty, and electronics catalogues.
Can you integrate ONDC (Open Network for Digital Commerce)?+
Yes — we onboard sellers and buyer apps on ONDC by integrating with a registered Network Participant (NP). Seller-side onboarding includes catalogue mapping to ONDC schema, fulfilment provider selection, and order-status webhooks. We've helped retail and grocery clients list on ONDC to reach buyers via Paytm, Magicpin, and Mystore without paying marketplace commissions of 18-30%. Typical seller onboarding is 4-6 weeks including KYC, GST, and FSSAI verification. ONDC works best as a complement to your own D2C site, not a replacement — we set up both with a unified order-management layer.
How do you handle inventory across online and offline stores?+
We build an inventory-of-truth approach where every SKU has one canonical stock count per location, and every channel (storefront, app, marketplace, POS) reads from and writes to it through a central API. Reservations are handled with short-TTL holds during checkout to prevent oversells. Barcode scanning at GRN and dispatch keeps the count honest, and a daily reconciliation report flags anomalies. For chains, we add inter-store transfer workflows and per-store fulfilment routing so a Mumbai customer's order ships from the nearest store with stock. This pattern reduces oversell-cancellations by 70-85%.
How important is page speed for an Indian e-commerce site?+
Critical. Indian shoppers are mostly on 4G with mid-range Android devices, and Google's Core Web Vitals directly affect rankings. Sites that load in under 2.5s on 4G see 40-60% higher conversion than 4-5s sites. We hit Lighthouse mobile scores of 85+ by using Next.js with image optimisation, edge caching on AWS CloudFront, code-splitting per route, and lazy-loading non-critical scripts. Product pages are statically generated and revalidated on stock changes. We also strip third-party scripts ruthlessly — chat widgets, analytics, and pixels are loaded after first interaction so they don't block the critical render path.
Can you build a marketplace where multiple sellers list products?+
Yes. Multi-vendor marketplaces add seller onboarding (KYC, GST, bank verification), commission and tax-collection logic, vendor dashboards, payout cycles, ratings, and dispute workflows on top of a regular store. We use Razorpay Route or Cashfree Easy Split for direct vendor settlement, which keeps you compliant with RBI's payment-aggregator rules. Typical timeline is 5-7 months for a focused marketplace MVP and 9-12 months for a full multi-category platform with hyperlocal delivery. We also help define seller policies, listing-quality rules, and fraud-detection workflows so the marketplace stays trustworthy as it scales.
