Every document you need to sell on Indian marketplaces
Marketplace onboarding is a document check, and it stalls the moment one paper is missing. Here is the complete list — GSTIN, PAN, bank proof, address proof, brand authorization and the category extras — what each one is for, the traps inside each one, and the folder habit that gets you approved in days instead of weeks.
- The core stack is the same everywhere: GSTIN, PAN, a business bank account proven by a cancelled cheque or penny-drop, and address proof for both your registered business and your pickup location.
- The two traps that stall most applications: a bank account name that doesn't match the registered business name, and a home address without the owner's consent letter or NOC behind it.
- Brand names need paperwork — your own trademark (often acceptable as an application under examination) or an authorization chain for someone else's brand. Category extras like FSSAI and BIS apply to specific products; verify each on the seller panel.
Onboarding is a verification pipeline, not a form
Every marketplace runs the same underlying checks before it lets you sell: is this a real business (GSTIN, PAN), can we pay it (bank verification), can a courier physically collect from it (pickup address), and is it allowed to sell what it wants to sell (brand and category approvals). Each check is handled by a different team or an automated verifier, and each one queues independently. That is why a single wrong document doesn't just cost you one correction — it costs you a full trip back through that check's queue.
The sellers who get approved fast aren't lucky; they submit a complete, matching set on the first pass. Matching is the key word. The name on the bank account, the name on the GST certificate and the name on the marketplace application must line up exactly. The address on the GSTIN and the pickup address must be explainable. Verification systems don't reason about near-matches — they reject and send you to the back of the line.
Seven documents, in the order you should collect them
Work top to bottom — the later items depend on the earlier ones. Scan everything as a clean, flat, readable PDF the day you receive it.
- 01
GSTIN — the one that unlocks everything
Marketplaces collect TCS at 0.5% under section 52 of the GST Act, and they can only do that against a registered GSTIN — so onboarding treats it as mandatory. Register with the composition-vs-regular question already answered (most marketplace sellers need the regular scheme), and make sure the trade name and principal place of business are exactly what you'll use on every seller application.
- 02
PAN — personal or business, but consistent
A proprietorship sells on the proprietor's personal PAN; a partnership, LLP or company uses the entity's PAN. Whichever it is, the same PAN must sit behind your GSTIN, your bank account and your marketplace application. Marketplaces also deduct TDS at 0.1% under section 194-O against this PAN, so mismatches here ripple into your tax credits later.
- 03
Bank account + cancelled cheque or penny-drop
A current account in the business name, proven by a cancelled cheque, a bank statement header, or the marketplace's penny-drop check (they deposit ₹1 and match the account-holder name). The name-match is the killer: “Sharma Enterprises” on GST and “Rahul Sharma” on the account will bounce on some platforms. Sort the account name before applying, not after.
- 04
Address proof — and the home-office NOC nuance
Electricity bill, rent agreement, or property tax receipt for the registered place of business. Selling from home is fine, but if the home is rented or in a family member's name, keep a signed consent letter or NOC from the owner plus their ownership proof. GST officers and marketplace verifiers both ask for this, and it's the single most common gap in first applications.
- 05
Trademark or brand-authorization chain
Selling your own brand: a trademark registration, or on many marketplaces a trademark application under examination is acceptable — check each platform's current policy. Selling someone else's brand: a brand-authorization letter, or purchase invoices tracing back to the brand or its authorized distributor. No paperwork means the category or brand stays locked, however good your product photos are.
- 06
Category-specific licences (verify per category)
Food and ingestibles need FSSAI. Certain electronics, appliances and toys fall under BIS compulsory registration. Cosmetics carry their own compliance trail. These are examples, not the full list — the category-approval screen on each seller panel names the exact certificate it wants. Check it before you buy inventory, because the licence lead time can be longer than your stock's season.
- 07
Pickup-address proof + the re-verification folder
If your pickup location differs from your registered address, marketplaces verify it separately — keep a utility bill or agreement for the warehouse or work space too. Then build the folder: every document above as a dated, readable PDF in one place, refreshed whenever something changes. Re-verification requests arrive with short deadlines and frozen payouts attached; the folder turns them into a ten-minute job.
A stalled application is inventory earning nothing
The cost of missing paperwork is rarely a fee — it is dead time. Say you have ₹60,000 of stock ready and a realistic early run-rate of 5 orders a day at ₹150 margin each (illustrative numbers). Every week your application sits in a rejection loop is roughly ₹5,250 of margin that never existed, while the stock ages and any season it was bought for ticks away. A two-document scramble that adds three weeks costs more than most sellers' first month of profit.
The loops are predictable, too. Bank-name mismatch: rejected, fix the account or the application, re-queue. Address without a consent letter: amend the GST registration or produce the NOC, re-queue. Brand approval without the authorization chain: category locked until the paperwork exists. None of these are hard problems — they are all cheap to solve before you apply and expensive to solve inside the queue.
Paperwork gets you in. Robnu runs what comes next.
Onboarding is a one-time gate, but the discipline it forces — complete documents, exact matches, evidence ready before anyone asks — is the same discipline that protects your money every day after. Robnu is built around it: once your AJIO and Meesho accounts are live, Robnu runs the daily pipeline itself. Orders are accepted, labels and invoices generated, manifests closed and SLAs watched without you babysitting a panel.
Then it guards the other side: every settlement is reconciled against what the marketplace should have paid, and when a deduction deserves a fight, Robnu files the claim with the evidence attached — fully autonomous filing is rolling out, and the rare claim that needs a human still only asks you for one approval click. You did the paperwork once; Robnu makes sure it keeps paying you back.
Marketplace document questions, answered
For all practical purposes, yes. Marketplaces collect TCS under section 52 of the GST Act, and they can only do that against a seller with a GSTIN — so onboarding forms treat it as a hard requirement, whatever your turnover. A few platforms have experimented with limited categories for unregistered sellers, but if you are planning to sell on AJIO, Meesho or any mainstream marketplace as a business, get the GSTIN first. It is the one document every other step of onboarding hangs off.
You can sell from home, and a large share of early-stage sellers do. The catch is paperwork, not permission: your GST registration needs a principal place of business, and if the home is rented or owned by a family member, you will usually need a consent letter or NOC from the owner along with their proof of ownership (electricity bill, tax receipt). Marketplaces then verify the pickup address separately. Get the consent letter drafted and signed once, scan it, and it stops being a problem.
Not always a granted one. Several marketplaces accept a trademark application under examination — the TM application number — as sufficient proof for your own brand, while others want a registered mark for certain categories. If you sell someone else's brand, you need an authorization chain instead: a brand letter, or invoices tracing back to the brand or its authorized distributor. Policies differ by marketplace and category, so check the current requirement on each seller panel before you list.
A cancelled cheque is an ordinary cheque leaf from your business bank account with CANCELLED written across it — nobody can encash it, but it shows your account number, IFSC and account-holder name in the bank's own print. Marketplaces use it (or a penny-drop verification, where they deposit ₹1 and confirm the name matches) to make sure settlements go to an account that really belongs to you. The account-holder name must match your registered business name; mismatches are one of the most common onboarding rejections.
Food and anything ingestible needs an FSSAI licence or registration. Certain electronics, appliances and toys fall under BIS compulsory-registration schemes. Cosmetics can require CDSCO-linked compliance, and some categories ask for MRP and country-of-origin declarations at the listing stage. These are examples, not a complete list — the accurate source is the category-approval page on each marketplace's seller panel, which will name the exact certificate it wants before it unlocks the category.
Robnu picks up where onboarding ends. Once your seller accounts are live on AJIO and Meesho, Robnu runs the daily operation itself — accepting orders, generating labels, invoices and manifests, tracking every order against its SLA, and reconciling what the marketplace actually pays against what it should pay. The document folder you built for onboarding stays useful too: claims and disputes lean on the same discipline of having proof ready, and Robnu keeps that evidence organised per order instead of scattered across downloads.
Where this comes from
- Seller-onboarding and document requirements published on marketplace seller panels (AJIO seller portal, Meesho supplier hub) — always check the current version before applying.
- GST provisions relevant to marketplace sellers: TCS at 0.5% under section 52 and TDS at 0.1% under section 194-O (post-2024 revisions), per CBIC notifications.
- Recurring onboarding-rejection patterns reported in public seller communities (Reddit r/IndiaBusiness, seller Facebook and Telegram groups), 2024–2026.