Licences and Registrations Required to Sell Online in India

Licences and registrations to plan for

• Planning stage
  Udyam registration

  Free registration that formalises you as a micro or small enterprise. Marketplaces, lenders and some seller programmes ask for it, and it supports benefits and timely-payment protection.

• Before listing
  GST registration

  Under section 24(ix) of the CGST Act, per the GST Council's TCS FAQs, a person supplying goods through an e-commerce operator must register regardless of turnover. Marketplaces will not onboard most sellers without a GSTIN.

• Before hiring
  Shop and establishment registration

  A State labour registration for your office, warehouse or workspace once you operate commercially, and often asked for with a current account or lease. Rules differ by State and by employee count.

• Before brand launch
  Trademark registration

  A registered mark helps you enrol in marketplace brand-protection programmes and take action against copycats. The IP India fee is ₹4,500 per class for startups, individuals and small enterprises, and ₹9,000 per class for others.

• Before listing food
  FSSAI registration or licence (food products)

  Any seller of food, supplements or beverages needs FSSAI approval for its own business. Marketplace operators of food have their own licence conditions, so check them separately. The tier depends on turnover and Kind of Business.

• Before listing packaged goods
  Legal metrology packer / importer registration

  Packaged goods must carry the declarations under the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011, and manufacturers, packers and importers may need registration. Marketplaces check these on the product listing.

• If selling instruments
  Legal metrology licence (weights and measures)

  Applies to those who manufacture, repair or deal in weighing and measuring instruments, such as scales sold online, under the Legal Metrology Act, 2009.

• Before sourcing or importing
  BIS CRS registration (notified electronics)

  Electronics and IT goods covered by a Compulsory Registration Order cannot be sold without BIS registration and the Standard Mark. The covered list changes, so check your product code before sourcing.

• Before cross-border sale
  Import Export Code (IEC)

  Needed for cross-border e-commerce such as exporting through courier or marketplace programmes, and for importing stock. Issued by DGFT and updated annually between April and June.

• Before branded listing
  GS1 barcode registration

  Marketplaces and retailers often expect GS1-issued barcodes on branded listings. It is a commercial requirement, not a statutory licence.

• After registration, every period
  GST return filing

  Monthly or quarterly returns reconcile your sales with the TCS the marketplace collects. Missed returns can block marketplace payouts and input credit.

Start with GST: why online sellers are treated differently

Offline traders can stay unregistered below the turnover threshold. Most online sellers of goods cannot. The GST Council's TCS FAQs state that every person supplying goods through an e-commerce operator must register irrespective of the value of supply. Service providers on a platform are exempt if their turnover does not exceed ₹20 lakh, or ₹10 lakh in specified special-category States.

The e-commerce operator collects tax at source (TCS) on your net sales under section 52 and deposits it, and you then claim that credit when you file returns. Our GST page records the GST registration form (REG-01) and the portal; confirm any recent relaxation for small goods sellers on the GST portal before assuming a threshold applies. Selling from several States needs a registration in each State where you hold stock, such as marketplace fulfilment centres, so plan registrations around where inventory sits.

The roadmap: what to apply for and in what order

Marketplaces onboard sellers in a fixed order: PAN, GSTIN, bank account and then category approvals. Doing the category approvals last is what delays most launches, because a product can be blocked even after the seller account is live.

A workable sequence is below.

• Choose the entity (proprietorship, partnership, LLP or company), open a current account and obtain PAN.
• Apply for GST registration for the State of your principal place of business, and add additional places for each State where you will store stock.
• File Udyam registration, which is free and useful for lenders and seller programmes.
• Register shop and establishment where your State requires it for your workplace.
• Identify category approvals from your product list before sourcing stock: FSSAI for food, BIS CRS for notified electronics, legal metrology for packaged and measured goods.
• File the trademark application before the brand gets popular, so that brand registry and takedown tools become available sooner.
• Add IEC and, for food, APEDA or other export registrations only when you are ready to ship abroad.
• Set up monthly GST filing and bookkeeping before the first order, not after.

Approvals by product type

The only reliable way to know what you need is to list your SKUs and match each to a regime. The list below is a starting map and not a substitute for checking the notified rules for your exact product.

• Food, supplements, packaged beverages: FSSAI registration or licence for your business, correct label declarations and the FSSAI number on listings and packaging as per the labelling rules.
• Electronics and IT goods under a Compulsory Registration Order: BIS registration with testing at a BIS-recognised laboratory, the Standard Mark and an R-number. Our BIS CRS page notes the validity period was reported to be extended in 2026, so confirm on your grant.
• Packaged consumer goods of any kind: Legal Metrology declarations such as net quantity and consumer care details, with registration for packers and importers where required.
• Medicines, cosmetics and medical devices: separate drug, cosmetic and device regimes apply, covered on their own pages, and marketplaces restrict them sharply.
• Imported products: IEC, customs compliance and the product's own approvals, since importers carry the legal metrology and BIS responsibilities.

Brand protection and cross-border selling

A trademark covers the brand name and logo by class and is valid for ten years from the date of application, renewable. Applications are filed on the IP India portal in Form TM-A. Marketplaces typically need a pending or granted mark for brand programmes, though their terms change, so check the platform's current policy.

For exports, the Import Export Code from DGFT has no expiry but must be updated each year between April and June or it can be deactivated. Cross-border sellers also need to decide how GST on exports (zero-rated supply) will be handled, and food exporters may need APEDA registration. We have not covered customs and courier export rules in detail here.

State differences: Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana

Most online-seller approvals are central: GST, FSSAI, BIS, IEC and trademark. The State layer is mainly shop and establishment registration, which is with the Delhi Labour Department, the UP Labour Department and the Haryana Labour Department, each under its own Act, and legal metrology, which is administered by the State Controller of Legal Metrology.

If you run a warehouse, State rules on fire clearance, building use and, for larger operations, factory or labour registrations apply as well. Warehouses in Noida, Greater Noida, Gurugram and Faridabad are often subject to the development authority's use conditions, so check the lease against them.

Recurring compliance calendar

Online sellers get compliance notices mainly from tax mismatches. Reconcile your marketplace reports against your returns every month.

• Monthly or quarterly: GST returns reconciled with marketplace sales and TCS credit, PF and ESIC if you employ staff.
• Annually: GST annual return where applicable, income tax filing, IEC update between April and June if you export, FSSAI annual fee for food sellers, State shop registration renewal where applicable.
• On change: update GST for new warehouses or States, update Udyam on turnover changes, and refresh legal metrology declarations whenever pack or label content changes.
• At renewal points: trademark renewal after ten years, BIS registration renewal as stated on the grant.

Common pitfalls we see

• Listing products first and finding the category approval gate later. Check FSSAI, BIS and legal metrology before you buy stock.
• Selling from a State without a GST registration for the warehouse where stock is held.
• Using the marketplace's own certificates as your own. The licence has to be in your business name for your premises.
• Skipping the trademark and discovering that someone has filed for your brand name.
• Ignoring TCS reconciliation, which leads to unclaimed credit and mismatch notices.
• Assuming an old BIS or product list is still current. Covered products and deadlines change often.

Frequently asked questions

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