Outright, marketplace, JIT — which AJIO model are you actually signing?
AJIO works with sellers under more than one arrangement, and the model you sign decides your cash-flow shape, who controls your price, and who eats the returns. This guide decodes each model in plain seller terms — and gives you the due-diligence questions to ask your category contact before anything gets signed.
- Three main shapes: outright/B2B (AJIO buys your stock on purchase orders), marketplace (you own stock, price, and dispatch), and JIT (stock stays with you, ships against demand). Consignment-style arrangements appear in some categories.
- Every model is a trade: outright gives bulk cash and no per-sale returns exposure but makes you dependent on POs and surrenders price control; marketplace and JIT keep control with you and the returns risk too.
- Models and terms vary by category and agreement, and they change. Treat this guide as the map, your contract as the territory — and take the due-diligence question list below into every conversation with your category contact.
Same marketplace, completely different businesses
Two sellers can both say “we sell on AJIO” and be running businesses that share almost nothing. One invoices Reliance against purchase orders, ships cartons to a warehouse, and waits on credit terms. The other dispatches thirty single orders a day from their own racks, watches a settlement cycle, and absorbs every return. Same platform, opposite cash-flow shapes, opposite risks — because the model, not the marketplace, is the actual business you are in.
That is why “how do I sell on AJIO?” is really two questions: how do I get approved, and under which arrangement? The second question gets far less attention and matters at least as much. Before comparing commission percentages, understand what each model does to three things: when money reaches you, who controls the selling price, and who pays when a product comes back. Every section below scores the models against exactly those three.
Each model, decoded on cash flow, control, and returns
Read all six cards even if you think you know your model — the last two are about how sellers move between models and what to ask before signing anything.
- 01
Outright / B2B — AJIO buys your inventory
You receive purchase orders, invoice against them, and ship in bulk. Cash flow: lumpy but large — bulk margins on agreed credit terms. Price control: AJIO's, once stock is theirs. Returns: customer returns are not your per-sale problem, though quality rejections against the PO are. The real risk is dependence — a quarter with no POs is a quarter with no revenue.
- 02
Marketplace — you own stock, price, and dispatch
The standard commission model: you list, the customer buys, you dispatch each order against an SLA, and settlement lands per cycle after commission and freight. Cash flow: steady drip, delayed by the cycle, dented by return reversals. Price control: yours. Returns exposure: fully yours — and in fashion, that is the number that decides the model's profitability.
- 03
JIT — stock stays with you, ships against demand
Just-in-time: no bulk transfer upfront; your warehouse holds the stock and orders ship as demand arrives. Cash flow: settlement-based, similar to marketplace. Control: you hold the inventory, so it works across channels. The catch is discipline — the model exists to serve demand fast, so dispatch SLA performance is not optional hygiene, it is the whole deal.
- 04
Consignment-style — paid as it sells
Where offered, stock sits with the platform or its partners but stays on your books until sold — you are paid on sell-through. Cash flow: the slowest shape, with unsold stock eventually returning. Suits deep catalogs testing demand, punishes thin working capital. Confirm the exact mechanics in your agreement; arrangements under this label vary the most.
- 05
How sellers start, and how they graduate
The common arc in seller reports: start on marketplace or JIT, where onboarding is more accessible and you keep price control; build a sell-through and quality record; then category teams open outright/B2B conversations once your numbers make the buying case. Treat marketplace performance as the audition for PO economics — and do not abandon the steady channel the day the first PO arrives.
- 06
The questions to ask before you sign
Due diligence, not suspicion: Which model is this agreement, exactly? Who sets and changes the price? What are payment terms, and what triggers deductions or reversals? Who bears return freight and damaged-return losses? What SLAs and penalties apply? Any exclusivity, minimums, or PO cancellation clauses? Terms vary and change — the current answers live in your contract and with your category contact, nowhere else.
The same ₹1 lakh of stock earns differently in every model
An illustrative comparison — invented numbers, real shapes. Put ₹1 lakh of finished goods into outright, and it converts to one invoice at bulk margin, paid on credit terms: less per unit than retail, but certain, and returns are no longer your per-sale cost. Put the same stock into marketplace, and it retails higher per unit — but the money arrives order by order across settlement cycles, commission and freight come off every line, and a fashion-typical share of it comes back as returns you fund. JIT sits between: retail economics on the revenue side with inventory kept flexible on yours.
Neither is simply better; they fail differently. Outright fails quietly when POs stop — sellers describe healthy months followed by dead quarters, with production planned against orders that never came. Marketplace fails noisily, one deduction at a time: reversals, freight, penalties, each small enough to ignore and collectively large enough to matter. The seller who wins is the one who knows which failure mode they signed up for and watches the numbers that predict it.
Whatever the model, the daily work is orders and numbers
Strip away the agreement language and two jobs remain in every model: ship what must ship, on time, with the right documents — and check that every payment matches what was promised. Robnu does both for AJIO and Meesho sellers. On marketplace and JIT terms, it runs the dispatch pipeline end to end: order pickup, labels, invoices, manifest, with every order watched against its SLA so the model's speed demand is met without a human refreshing the panel.
On the money side, it reconciles settlements against expected values line by line and raises claims where the numbers drift — fully autonomous filing is rolling out, and the rare claim still asks for one approval click. Model choice is strategy; Robnu handles the part that is just work.
AJIO seller models, answered
Sellers commonly describe three main shapes, plus a fourth in some categories: outright or B2B, where AJIO buys your inventory against purchase orders and owns the retail sale; marketplace, where you own the stock, set the price, and dispatch each customer order yourself; JIT or just-in-time, where stock stays in your warehouse and ships against demand as it comes; and consignment-style arrangements in certain categories, where you are paid as stock actually sells. Which of these is offered to you depends on your category, your brand, and your agreement — verify the current options with your category contact.
Ownership and exposure. In outright/B2B, AJIO purchases inventory from you — you invoice against a purchase order, get bulk-order economics, and once stock is sold to AJIO the customer returns are not your per-sale problem. But you depend entirely on POs arriving, and pricing on the platform is out of your hands. In marketplace mode, you keep ownership: you set the price, dispatch every order, earn per sale after commission and freight — and carry the returns exposure that comes with fashion. One trades control for predictability; the other trades predictability for control.
Just-in-time: your stock stays in your own warehouse and ships when demand arrives, rather than being bought in bulk upfront or committed to a marketplace listing-and-dispatch cycle in the usual way. For a small seller, its appeal is inventory efficiency — you are not locking stock away or manufacturing against a PO — but it demands dispatch discipline, because the model only works if you ship reliably the moment orders land. Exact mechanics vary by agreement and category, so confirm how JIT is implemented in your specific arrangement before committing stock plans to it.
There is no universal answer, but there is a common pattern in seller reports: many start on marketplace or JIT terms, where the barrier is lower and you keep price control, then graduate toward outright/B2B once AJIO's category team has seen their sell-through and quality record. Outright looks attractive — bulk orders, no per-sale returns exposure — but a small operation that becomes dependent on POs has concentrated its risk in one buyer's ordering pattern. A blend, where the economics allow it, keeps both cash-flow shapes working for you.
Framed as due diligence, not suspicion: Which model exactly is this agreement, and can it change later? Who sets and can change the selling price? What are the payment terms and cycles for this model — and what triggers a reversal or deduction? Who bears return costs, and how are damaged returns handled? What are the dispatch SLAs and penalties? Are there minimum commitments, exclusivity clauses, or PO cancellation terms? Models and terms vary by category and evolve over time — the answers live in your agreement, not in any guide, so read yours before signing.
Wherever your model puts you on dispatch duty — marketplace or JIT — Robnu runs the daily pipeline: orders picked up from the panel, labels and documents generated, every order tracked against its SLA so the model's speed requirement is actually met. On the money side it reconciles what AJIO paid against what each order or PO should have paid, whichever shape your settlement takes, and raises claims when lines do not match — fully autonomous filing is rolling out, with the rare claim asking for one approval click. The model decides your economics; Robnu makes sure the economics are honoured.
Where this comes from
- AJIO and Reliance Retail seller-facing material describing seller arrangements and onboarding.
- Documented seller accounts of outright/B2B, marketplace, and JIT arrangements in public seller communities and trade discussions, 2024–2026. Terms described vary by agreement; treat all model descriptions as general shapes.
Related guides & pages
How to sell on AJIO
The application, the wait, and your first dispatched order.
AJIO seller operations
The daily panel rhythm once you are live, end to end.
AJIO payout mismatch
Reconcile expected vs actual, order by order, and dispute the gap.
Order processing
How Robnu runs the whole dispatch pipeline for you.