Opening a Marketplace Store
Marketplaces are multi-vendor online stores. It is a business model that focuses on facilitating trade between buyers and sellers. It creates a link for sellers to sell products and buyers to buy products on a common platform. It is based on offering a variety of different products and services to a large number of buyers by third-party sellers operating in many different sectors.
Physical workplaces, stores or shopping malls are the most basic example of a traditional market. Unlike traditional marketplaces, in online marketplaces, the buyer can find different brands or products from multiple sellers on a single platform. This helps the consumer to get the best quality product at the most affordable price. Therefore, traditional markets may find the opportunity to sell their various products in online marketplaces.
The Importance of Opening a Store in Marketplaces
Marketplaces, which are multi-vendor stores, have made significant progress in recent years. The national and international online business model is very extensible and flexible. Opening a store on marketplaces allows you to sell goods without setting up an online store. Therefore, selling on online marketplaces provides a flexible business opportunity with economical start-up costs.
E-commerce marketplaces are about doing business in every industry and redefining e-commerce. Each market is known for its unique marketing strategy. Thus, it helps in increasing the demand to create an e-commerce marketplace store. Consumers have now started to prefer marketplaces where experts and professionals in the sector come together, instead of a generalized offer in online marketplaces. For example; Marketplaces where only handmade products are sold or only furniture from many brands are increasingly preferred.
How to Open a Store in Marketplaces?
To open a store in online marketplaces, certain conditions and criteria must be met. Marketplace optimizations can make opening a store easier. Online marketplaces provide great convenience for companies that want to do e-commerce to open stores. There are certain conditions for opening a store in online marketplaces in India. These conditions may vary depending on the marketplace.
Some of the conditions for opening a store in marketplaces are as follows:
- In order to open a store in the marketplaces, it is necessary to have a Republic of India tax number, corporate e-mail address and a commercial or private bank account.
- Companies that want to engage in e-commerce must become members of marketplaces. For this, the information requested in the form must be filled in completely. The information requested in the membership form may vary depending on the online marketplace.
- After completing the membership form, some documents are requested from the businesses. These documents, prepared digitally, must be uploaded to the marketplace’s system.
- The approval process begins after the membership form and documents are reviewed in the marketplace. If no problems arise during the approval process, which continues for a certain period of time, the store membership in the marketplace is approved.
- Businesses with tax exemption can also sell on online marketplaces. For this, the “Tradesmen Tax Exemption” document must be submitted. Tradesmen with income up to 30 thousand lira can benefit from tax exemption and sell in online marketplaces.
- Companies that open stores in online marketplaces must issue invoices for orders. Capital companies with tax exemption can issue invoices based on the VAT rate.
- Ordinary partnership companies that open stores in marketplaces must provide an official company name and tax number. A commercial bank account belonging to the partnership must be defined for payments.
- Payments for sales made in online marketplaces are made after a certain period of time. This period may vary between 7 and 15 days. Payments are transferred to the bank account of the company that performed the registration. For the payment account name, the name specified on the tax plate is taken into account.
- Certain categories must be selected to sell products in online marketplaces. Category selection is made in the membership form. Commission rates in marketplaces are determined by category. Some marketplaces allow sales outside of the selected category.
- Product categories that can be sold in online marketplaces may vary. No products or services that are prohibited by law can be sold in all marketplaces.
Documents Required to Open a Store in Online Marketplaces
The documents required to open a store in marketplaces, depending on the type of company, are as follows:
Private companies:
- Tax certificate obtained within the last year
- Signature Circulars
- Photocopy of the identity card of the company owner
- Agreement on financial terms and principles of employment
- Seller agreement made with the marketplace
Capital companies:
- Tax certificate obtained within the last year
- Current activity document for the last 6 months
- Signature Circulars
- Establishment Trade Registry Gazette
- Partnership agreement for ordinary partnerships
- Agreement on financial terms and principles of employment
- Seller agreement made with the marketplace
