The introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST) will mark a significant move in the field of tax reforms in India. By amalgamating major Central and State taxes into a single tax class, it would abolish double taxation in a simpler way and object the creation of a common national market. GST will replace all indirect taxes levied on goods and services by the Central and state governments.

As GST would be applicable on “supply” of goods or services as against the present concept of tax on the manufacture of goods, sale of goods and provision of services, same will lead to many benefits not only for the consumers in terms of a reduction in the overall tax burden on goods, which is currently estimated to be around 25%-30% but also it will mark significant leads in Trade.

GST will be categorized in two components with State and Centre as separate stakeholders. Components of Dual GST:

Out of 7 Union Territories*, UTGST is applied on only 5 of them, however, SGST can be applied in Union Territories such as New Delhi and Puducherry, since both have their individual legislatures, and can be considered as “States” as per GST process.

E-commerce organizations (Sellers & Marketplaces) are looking forward to the implementation of GST expecting high clarity, and dismissal of state specific rules and multiple Taxes.

*List Of 5 Union Territories considered under GST:

1. Andaman and Nicobar
2. Lakshadweep
3. Dadra and Nagar Haveli
4. Daman and Diu
5. Chandigarh

Sellers and Marketplaces have to meet basic requirements to run business post GST implementation.

Know more about: Plug ‘N’ Play Accounting System Integration

Below are the mandatory requirement from Sellers and marketplaces which will be implemented in Uniware to help sellers in smooth and issue free order processing from 1^st July, 2017:

1- GST Number/ Registration:

All sellers mandatorily require to register under GST. So now even e-commerce sellers whose aggregate turnover does not exceed the threshold limit for registration will still have to compulsorily register to sell online. 

Key Points for Registration:

• If a seller has business with same PAN in different states is now expected to register separately for each of the States where he has a business operation.
• If a seller has two business verticals in a state, he/she may obtain a separate registration for each business vertical.
• If seller has two different businesses with two TIN numbers in the same state, he can have common GST registration for both.

As per this mandatory requirement, seller has to update GST No. in Facility, Billing Party, Customer and vendor for order processing from 1^st July in Uniware. Validation of GSTIN will be done using state code & PAN rules which will be already stored in backend to validate the GSTIN filled by the supplier.

2- HSN Number:

HSN Code stands for Harmonized System Nomenclature. HSN number is mainly used for classifying goods to compute Value Added Tax in India. Now, same classification code (HSN) is adopted for classifying Goods and Service Tax for GST as well.

Under GST, the HSN code would be utilized by a taxable individual for classification of goods , but the format of HSN code will be based on the taxpayer’s turnover. When preparing Tax Invoice for GST, the HSN number must be mentioned on GST Tax invoice and also to be declared while filing the GST returns.

To mention HSN codes for the products will also become mandatory for sellers in Uniware as well. Same information will be saved under item type (products) created in Uniware.

3- Issue of Tax Invoice Under GST: 

Every registered person is required to issue a tax invoice at the time of supply of taxable goods/services and the invoice shall contain following particulars:-

Supply of Goods/Services

1. Description of goods/services;
2. Quantity of goods;
3. Value of goods/services;
4. Tax charged on Value of goods/services; and
5. Such other particulars as may be prescribed.

Further the invoice shall be prepared in triplicate, in case of supply of goods and duplicate in case of supply of services. Uniware will provide all above required changes and number of invoices as per supply of goods through its portal.

Below mentioned is the detailed information for the way of issuing Invoice after GST is implemented, which will be provided by Uniware as well. Invoices generated through Uniware will also have the prescribed format as described above.

Note:  Fetching of Marketplace Invoices:

Unicommerce would not only provide GST ready invoice templates for both B2B and B2C transactions, but also overhaul the architecture to fetch invoices from marketplaces, instead of pushing the invoices to marketplaces, wherever required. For example, Unicommerce is moving to the new version of APIs in case of Flipkart to be able to fetch their invoices, as well as pass on the HSN code to the marketplace etc. to comply with the GST regime.

4- Credit Note:

 Credit note will be reflected in the monthly return in which such notes have been issued.

When a Credit note should be issued:

When a registered dealer issues a tax invoice and in these invoices the tax amount is greater than the tax return filed for that period, seller has to issue credit note to the partner business owner containing such particulars as may be prescribed.

In Uniware as well, credit notes will be provided for Sale Order, Inter-state Gatepass and purchase order returns in the prescribed format set by Government bodies.

For returns filing post July 1, 2017 credit note is required only if GST was applied on the corresponding invoice.

5- Return filing Process Under GST:

 Monthly billing will constitute filing of all below mentioned forms on prescribed dates:

• Form GSTR-1: Upload all invoice-wise details of supplies to registered taxable persons and aggregate value of supplies to unregistered persons made through the e-commerce platform must be provided. (By 10th).
• Form GSTR-2A: The aggregate amount of tax collected by e-commerce operators (Tax collected at Source or TCS)** in the previous month will be auto populated, based on Form GSTR-8*** filed by the e-commerce operators. (On 11th).
• Form GSTR-2: The details of tax collected by the e-commerce operator can be accepted or modified in Form GSTR-2 (On 15th).
• Form GST ITC-1: Any discrepancy in supplies furnished with supplies reported by the e-commerce operator is made available to a supplier. The discrepancy must be rectified in the return for the month in which it is communicated.If not rectified and the value of supplies furnished by the operator is more than the value furnished by the supplier, the differential amount along with interest will be added to the tax liability of the supplier for the succeeding month.(On 21st).

**tax collected by e-commerce operators (Marketplaces) – Every e-commerce operator should collect tax @ 2% of net value of taxable supplies, out of payments to suppliers (sellers) supplying goods or services through their portals.

***GSTR-8– Form GSTR-8 will be filed by every e-Commerce operator (marketplace), who is required to collect tax at source (TCS) under GST electronically through the https://www.gst.gov.in/.

 6- Compensation Cess-

A new cess with the name “GST Compensation Cess” for first 5 years on some specified items will be implemented which will be credited to the GST Compensation Fund. The need for this cess rise to compensate the manufacturing states, as GST is a destination cum consumption based tax, so in order to compensate states from this kind of probable loss this will be implemented along with CGST, SGST and IGST.

Refer below link to know the Compensation Cess rates defined by government as defined in Central Board of Excise and Customs: CBEC-Compensation Cess

Uniware will reflect this cess as on the Invoices as well.

7-Tax Calculation as per consumption of Goods supplied by Supplier Under GST:

Refer below table reflecting the tax to be calculated as per location of supplier and place of Supply, we have tried to cover all possible conditions containing all the calculations:

Note: Go Live date for these changes will be (Jul 1, 2017) in Uniware and if prepaid order is received on Jun 30 invoice is printed on Jul 1, GST will not be applied in this scenario. However, if same order will be COD, then GST will be applied.

8- Impact of GST on Warehouse Management Processes:

GST regime will not only affect the e-commerce operators and the sellers but will also have important effects on warehousing management processes.

As per current tax regime, there is no uniformity and ease in tax implementation across various warehouse management, logistics and supply chain management processes. Effect of taxation at every step of these processes majorly affect the utilization of available resources. In present scenario, the location of warehouse is generally chosen to evade the taxes and reduce the logistics costs.

With GST, warehousing processes will also become uniform with the introduction of common market for Goods and services, breaking the state barriers and borders. This will lead to reduction in number of warehouses, and more organized warehouses enhancing the overall efficiency.

Unicommecre’s warehouse management system, Uniware is also ready to handle all warehouse processes such as inbound, outbound etc. as per new GST rules. All such changes will reflect in intra state/ interstate transfer documents, such as Gatepass.

To sum up, the below table describes the compliance requirements for GST regime and how Uniware will help the sellers in incorporating the changes at their end:

Conclusion:

Taxation on e-commerce transactions in the current regime is confusing as different states have different levies of tax and there is no clarity on Taxes levied on goods and services. The GST regime will now bring uniformity in the taxation process for e-commerce platforms and sellers.

• Seamless availability of input credit will result in reduced cost of operations for suppliers such as warehousing, logistics, marketplace commission, etc. as they will now be able to take the credit of tax paid on inputs, which was until now adding up to their cost.
• Unified common national market in India for the goods and services, regardless of whether they are sold at physical stores or online. GST will bring greater access to the customers across the nation for sellers.
• Prevent cascading of taxes as Input Tax Credit will be available on goods and services at every stage of supply.
• Simplified and automated procedures for various processes such as registration, returns, refunds, tax payments, etc.

As a supplier, it is important to plan for the GST regime. Awareness of the compliance requirements under GST like registration for GST number, documentation, filing of returns etc., planning and preparation for entering into GST module of taxation will ensure that suppliers can capitalize on the new era of e-commerce in India.

Discover Unicommerce’s Success Story with Leading Brands –

• Mamaearth Attained 99.99% Order Fulfillment Rate
• Dhani Healthcare Streamlined Operations Across 166 Facilities
• Urban Company Achieved 8X Growth in Sales Volume
• Plum Goodness Streamlined Inventory Operations with 69% Growth Rate in Sales
• Marico Achieved 100% Growth in Sales
• Bulbul Simplified Selling Across 200+ Vendors
• Chumbak Lifestyle Boost Sales Across 58+ Retail Stores
• TCNS Achieved 9X Growth in Sales
• Hamilton Housewares Attained 96%+ Pick Accuracy Rate
• Vidiwell Health Achieved 230% Sales Order Growth

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The seller meet was organized in Hyderabad on 3rd September, 2016, which was another grand success for Unicommerce after its Pune event, earlier this year.

The main objective of the event was to discuss issues faced by sellers in online selling, and how Unicommerce is helping to solve those issues, especially through launch of some new features like Payment Reconciliation and collaboration with quality listing partners.

The Seller Meet took place at The Golkonda Hotel in Hyderabad, where a good mix of sellers including those starting just now and sellers already selling on multiple marketplaces took part. It was a 3 hour interactive session, where the audience discussed in depth about the challenges they are facing and were very happy with the solutions they got from the Unicommerce team conducting the event.

The event also featured some of the existing customers of Unicommerce who spoke very highly about the product and support provided by the entire Unicommerce team.

The session came to an end with high tea arrangements for the sellers, which served as a good networking opportunity for sellers.

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India, August 29, 2016: Lendingkart Group has announced a strategic partnership with Unicommerce, the Delhi-based multichannel order fulfillment platform. The partnership will enable Unicommerce’s consumer base to get access to collateral-free working capital loans through Lendingkart Group’s NBFC within 72 hours of application at a discounted rate. Both players make an ideal synergistic match as they have been closely involved with SME merchants and understand the immense potential that lies untapped in this segment due to inadequate financial support.

The tie-up between Lendingkart Group and Unicommerce is aimed to provide working capital loans to Unicommerce retailers. The technology-backed Lendingkart Group’s NBFC enables loan disbursement process that comprises minimal paperwork and offers collateral-free loans to online retailers within 72 hours. It assesses the creditworthiness of a candidate through API scrutiny and online data scraping to ensure credibility rather than conventional methods that promote red-tapism. The swift assessment process takes a few hours and NBFC ensures that loan amount reaches the borrower within 2-3 days of the loan application. Unicommerce retailers will be offered discounted working capital loans enabling them to increase their inventory, pay for their liabilities and scale up their businesses.

At the announcement, Harshvardhan Lunia, Co-Founder and CEO, Lendingkart Technologies, said, “There are massive growth prospects for Indian retailers within the rapidly changing retail scenario of the country. Businesses often register losses and face challenges related to cash flows owing to their capital deficits. The tie-up with Unicommerce will help the Group to eliminate such challenges for its customer base and will moreover, enable retailers to increase their efficiency, scalability, and profitability with quick and easy working capital loans.”

Ankit Pruthi, CEO, Unicommerce said, “We understand that working capital finance is one of the key needs of SMEs in growing their business, and we believe that this partnership with Lendingkart Group will further boost our customers’ business. We are already helping the SMEs to improve their online sales through our product, and with this partnership, we are hoping to provide more avenues for growth to our customers.”

Lendingkart has developed technology tools, to provide lending solutions to lenders, which utilizes a unique mix of Big Data analytics, decision science, and other proxies to derive credit comfort and assess the creditworthiness of small business owners. Most of the credit risk analysis at the Group’s NBFC, is done digitally so that loans can be disbursed within 72 hours from the time of application.

About Lendingkart Group
Lendingkart Technologies is a fin-tech startup in the working capital space. It has developed technology tools based on big data analytics that facilitates lenders to evaluate borrowers’ credit worthiness. Aadri Infin Limited, a Lendingkart Group Company, is a non-deposit taking NBFC, offering small business loans for SMEs in India. The NBFC aims to transform small business lending by providing easy access to credit for SMEs. The NBFC uses technology and analytics tools, analyzing thousands of data points from various data sources to assess the creditworthiness of small businesses rapidly and accurately. Lendingkart Group aims to make working capital finance available at the fingertips of entrepreneurs, so that they can focus on business instead of worrying about the gaps in their cash-flows. We are currently based in Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Mumbai, but have a service reach across India. To know more, please visit http://lendingkart.com/

About Unicommerce
The SaaS based multichannel order fulfillment platform allows ecommerce merchants selling on multiple marketplaces like Snapdeal, Amazon, Jabong, Flipkart, eBay and so on, to manage their entire inventory and order fulfillment process through one single platform. In a short span of time, Unicommerce has built a strong customer base of 10,000+ sellers in more than 220 cities including big brands such as Monte Carlo, Swiss Military, Classic Polo, House of Anita Dongre, Reliance, Mahindra Retail, Carat Lane, Raymond etc. Ecommerce sellers love this product, as it helps them grow their sales, reduce costs and improve their seller ratings. For further information about the company or the product, please visit https://unicommerce.com/

Economic Times: Lendingkart Group Partners with Unicommerce to Facilitate Easy Loans to its SME Customers

Business Standard: Lendingkart Group Partners with Unicommerce to Facilitate Easy Loans to its SME Customers

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Hi everyone, I am Satya Singh from Satya Shoes. I am selling online from last two years. And it’s been one year I am doing with Unicommerce. And I would say that it’s a wonderful stuff to increase your business multiples.

I am a seller from Agra and I am doing footwear business from last 20 years. I used have a manufacturing house, but from last 3 years I am doing it online. And the best way to get online is through Unicommerce. You can start your business with no inventory.

Earlier I used to sell around 60-100 pairs of shoes on an average. But after Unicommerce, the best part is that of inventory management. I don’t have to block the inventories for different different channels.

So I can even sell a single pair of shoes across all two or three or four or five market places without blocking my money or inventory. So the best part is the inventory only that I can manage inventory without any hassle and also the order management of Unicommerce is perfect.

It’s been year now, and my business has been increased 5 times. My average selling been has reached to around 500 pairs. And I would say that it’s only due to Unicommerce due to which I am able to manage the orders and each and everything.

Thanks to Unicommerce. Specially, the team is very much dedicated. You can call the support team any time, they ready to help us out at any stage, at any issue. I got training to my staff and to me also, which was easy and hassle free.

The post Seller Success Story 2 #SellmorewithUnicommerce appeared first on unicommerce.com.

My name is Md. Adil. I am a shoe seller from Agra. I have been into online selling for past 3 years. And I am associated Unicommerce from last 1 year. We have family business of shoes and hence, I thought online selling would be better as we can see -these days, sellers are using online platform for their business. And also because Unicommerce is an excellent solution in online multichannel inventory management, better than the other available options in the market.

The advantage that I got from Unicommerce is their customer service, which I liked very much. Whenever, there is any issue whether technical or other, you can immediately reach them through email or call them directly for help.

Besides, through Unicommerce I am able to sell on multiple channels- as it got almost all the major channels integrated, like –Paytm, Flipkart, Amazon, eBay, obviously Snapdeal and so on. At least on the channels I am selling at are available in Unicommerce. That’s why Unicommerce is a better option for me to sell on multiple channels, for multi-management.

Another advantage of Unicommerce – it is very economic (cost effective). Spending 2-3 rupees per order, even if your product is low priced, range between of Rs.500 to Rs.600 then also it’s very economic, very much cost effective.

I don’t think, one should think twice to use Unicommerce.

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The recent incidents of misuse of CCTVs in big brand showrooms have made us worried about the safety and security of woman in India.

Last month, a girl in a Van Heusen showroom in Southeast Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar, found a mobile camera in video recording mode inside the trial room. That was quite shocking to us.

That’s just one incident.

A few days later, another similar incident happened with our HRD Minister Smriti Irani in a popular Apparel store in Goa while she was on a family Trip. She spotted a camera allegedly recording the insides of the dressing room. She immediately informed the local police about it and subsequently an offence had been registered.

And the preliminary investigations reveal that – the camera was installed four months ago and recorded people from the waist up. However, the latest updates on the incident come up with something new.

Management said the installation was without their knowledge. Now question is – how is it possible?

In this scenario, I feel, e-commerce has emerged as a safer option.

First of all, she gets to try her apparels at her own place, whenever she wants. Home is the safest place where she doesn’t have to worry about any spy camera while trying out the new outfit.

These days almost all brands are available online. She can either buy apparels from the brand’s own online portal or go for popular ecommerce sites like amazon, flipkart, snapdeal, Jabong etc. where she will find them all. In case, she orders a dress and its fitting is not according to her expectations, she can always return it within 30 days of her purchase.

Secondly, She can always give her feedback in Review section depending on her shopping experience or quality of the products she received.

Whatever problem she faces small or big, she can make a noise about it she buys her outfit from. Sellers always take seriously this kind of noise from customers.

In many physical shops if you don’t like something, sometimes the only option you have is to leave the shop. You cannot really ‘change’ or ‘make them change’ anything. But with Review facility in ecommerce, its completely different scenario. In a way, Ecommerce has empowered the end customer.

The post Dear Smriti Irani, That’s Why I Prefer Ecommerce! appeared first on unicommerce.com.

Unicommerce – the Delhi based Tech Product Company, which takes care of every aspect of back-end of e-commerce, co-sponsored the India’s largest e-commerce conference “Techcircle Ecommerce Forum 2015” held in Mumbai on 26th February.

It was an annual summit where all the top ecommerce entrepreneurs, mentors and investors were present. The summit hosted 300+ delegates including ecommerce enablers, investment bankers, service providers, marquee investors and mentors.

Techcircle Ecommerce Forum is one of the most significant ecommerce conferences across the nation. It provides enormous opportunities for ecommerce aspirants to get a quick update on ecommerce industry of India, learn from industry experts, meet & network with like-minded people.

On being asked why Unicommerce chose to sponsor this event, Manish Gupta- Co-founder of Unicommerce said, “Since Unicommerce is literally shaping the Indian e-commerce from Technology perspective. We felt we should encourage such event, which bring all relevant people on same platform.”
The event was full of activities. There were discussions & debates on the prospects for the Indian e-commerce space and way forward where industry veterans like Sanjay Sethi – CEO & Co-Founder of Shopclues, Sundeep Malhotra – Founder & CEO of HomeShop 18, Avnish Bajaj – MD, Matrix Partners, Prashanth Prakash – Partner, Accel Partners, Yashish Dahiya – CEO & Co-Founder of PolicyBazaar, Ambareesh Murthy – Founder & CEO, of Pepperfry and many others participated.
Besides, the Exhibition & Stall facility by Techcircle Forum allowed the ecommerce participants to present their products to prospective investors, product pitch to the investors and so on.

Unicommerce had its stall in the exhibition where Md. Shafee and Kalaivanan Mariappa from its Mumbai branch were present and attended the visitors.

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It was a grand event where ecommerce industry leaders across the globe came together to connect on a common platform to share their insights, map the industry trends and identify the underlying opportunities in the sector.

Though eTailing India named the event as “Mumbai Expo”, it was not just restricted to the exhibitions. There were sessions for Panel Discussions, Round Tables, and Workshops where the largest number of industry CEOs were present and formed the ‘eTailing India Think Tank’. Their prime objective is to drive the theme of the year, i.e., “Bridging the Gap between Policy, Trust & Infrastructure “. Besides, the Think Tanks’ is on a mission to facilitate and exchange the best ideas & practices by sharing the vision and experiences, driving policy advocacy and guiding both the students and entrepreneurs.

Along with other industry experts, Mr. Manish Gupta- one of the Co-founders of Unicommerce and his team members from Mumbai branch Mr. Kalaivanan Mariappa, Md. Shafee and Jaspreet Singh Nandre were present at the event that continued to 26th Feb, 2015.

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Ever since Amazon entered the country in June last year, ecommerce in India has shifted dramatically towards the online marketplace model. Because India did not allow foreign direct investment (FDI) in online retail, the global giant restricted itself to being a sales channel for Indian retailers, without stocking and selling its own merchandise.

Amazon made a virtue out of that necessity, causing the marketplace model to catch on in a big way. Indian ecommerce biggies like Flipkart, Snapdeal, and Jabong have joined the race to sign on retailers across India to their platforms.

Sellers are now spoilt for choice: 60 online marketplaces in India vie for their attention, ranging from specialized ones, like the recently-launched engineering goods portal Tolexo to the large diversified ones, like Flipkart. This presents great opportunities for small retailers to hawk their wares across multiple channels. But it has also made things much more complicated for them.

Sellers now struggle to keep track of invoicing, inventories, deliveries, payments, catalogs and so on for one channel – now, imagine doing that for five or more places where your merchandise is listed.

Technology is the obvious answer to deal with this complex web of ecommerce. But a retailer lacks the resources, time and focus to develop sophisticated software in-house and upgrade it constantly.

Jazzmyride, a portal for auto accessories, faced this problem two years after they started up. They wanted to scale up without sullying their user experience. That’s when they turned to a SaaS (software as a service) product called Uniware.

Less is more

The software gives retailers a single panel to track orders on multiple channels. Inventories are synced across all of them. SKUs (stock keeping units) are allocated automatically to each channel depending on how fast a product is moving there, to avoid both idle inventories and stock-outs. It also integrates with more than 25 shipping services for timely deliveries.

Jazzmyride is among 1,000 merchants who have signed up so far with the Delhi-based Unicommerce, which came up with the SaaS solution for them late last year. One of the four partners in the firm, Manish Gupta, who was in Bangalore a few days back to open a southern hub of Unicommerce, told Tech in Asia that most of the retailers on their platform come from Delhi. With the number of online retailers across India expected to exceed  100,000 within two years, Unicommerce is spreading its net: its target is 15 percent of the Indian market, before going global.

Manish Gupta believes their product, hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS) in Singapore, will help small retailers in all multi-channel markets. In the US and Europe, ChannelAdvisor and BrightPearl provide similar services. But Unicommerce’s experience in an emerging market like India with its diversity and large population may give them some unique insights.

Fixing payments

Right now, the focus is on adding new features to the product. Payment reconciliation will be an important pain-reliever, because following up on delayed or missed payments is time-consuming. This feature is currently undergoing beta testing.

Automatically updating catalogs across multiple channels, each one with its own idiosyncratic on-boarding process, would remove another headache for sellers.Gupta summed up: “We are in this space to smoothen the relationship between marketplaces and vendors.”

Already, Unicommerce processes over a million orders a month, which represents 10-12 percent of ecommerce in India, excluding travel. It has integrated more than 45 marketplaces on its panel, and vendors can simply choose as many of them as they want to be on.

Large-scale SaaS success stories from India are rare, but Unicommerce does have competition. Goa-based Browntape, which recently secured seed funding, also offers a multi-channel order fulfillment and inventory syncing solution.

Unicommerce too received funding last year from Nexus Venture Partners for its expansion, and hopes to maintain its lead. The company was founded in 2012 by three batchmates from IIT Delhi, who shared the same wing of their hostel. Ankit Pruthi, Karun Singla, and Vibhu Garg went their separate ways after college, before coming together again to start up Unicommerce.

They wanted to apply their technical expertise to solving problems in a buzzing domain, and ecommerce was taking off in India. They found a mentor, Ankush Mehra, with 20 years’ experience in retail, to help them come to grips with the nitty-gritty of order and inventory management.

Uniware changes its shape

When they came up with Uniware in 2012, it was a warehouse management system. Their customers were large ecommerce companies like Snapdeal and Groupon. Last year, when the marketplace model got going, they shifted their focus to solving the problems of small retailers in a multi-channel market, and Uniware took on a new avatar.

The marketplace model gave many sellers the chance to opt for drop-shipping: their margins improved when, instead of holding inventory, they took large orders on the site and arranged for shipments to customers directly from a wholesaler or marketplace.

Unicommerce co-founder Ankit Pruthi explained to Tech in Asia:

“When we observed the percentage of drop-shipments increasing in the industry, we went to visit several drop-ship sellers. That experience was really enlightening and we learnt a lot of their pain points and how they could be solved through technology. We did exactly that and came up with a technology product for sellers.”

It was around then that Pruthi roped in Manish Gupta as a fourth partner. Gupta had cut his teeth on launching and growing IndiaMart, a business-to-business (B2B) marketplace connecting buyers and sellers from the early days of the commercial internet in India. Unicommerce needed his expertise when it adapted to online marketplaces last year.

Overcoming technophobia

It took some persuading for marketplaces to work with Unicommerce. Gupta said:

“Every marketplace likes to keep their vendor information close to the chest. So that made it difficult at the outset. But eventually it was driven by the market. Just yesterday a marketplace approached us, saying they wanted to collaborate with us because so many of their vendors were using the Unicommerce panel.”

The bigger challenge, according to Pruthi, is getting small businesses to overcome their technophobia in adopting SaaS. “We’re resolving this by training them to use the product,” he said.

Going forward, Gupta sees consolidation happening in the Indian ecommerce space on the lines of Flipkart’s acquisition of Myntra recently. But even if there are only three or four large marketplaces left standing in the end, small retailers will need even smarter automated systems to keep up with newer models of ecommerce in a fast-changing landscape. And these sellers would increasingly turn to SaaS providers like Unicommerce to help them keep up with technology.

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