Launching an online store takes more than adding products to a template. This ecommerce website checklist covers what an Indian store needs before it goes live: payments, GST, shipping, returns, product pages, legal pages and customer support. Work through it with your developer and you will avoid most of the problems new stores run into in their first months.
It is written for business owners rather than developers, so each point explains why it matters, not just what to tick.
Payments Indian customers expect
Checkout is where most online sales are won or lost. Indian buyers are used to choice, and a missing payment option often means an abandoned cart.
- UPI through apps such as Google Pay, PhonePe and Paytm, ideally with both QR and intent flows on mobile.
- Debit and credit cards, including saved-card support handled by the gateway.
- Net banking and wallets for customers who prefer them.
- Cash on delivery, if your category and margins allow it. Consider COD limits or a small COD fee to reduce fake orders.
- EMI or pay-later for higher-value products, if your gateway offers it.
Choose a payment gateway that supports these methods, settles quickly to your bank account and provides a clear dashboard for refunds. Test every method on a real phone before launch, including what happens when a payment fails or the customer closes the app halfway.
Keep the checkout itself short. Ask only for what you need to deliver the order, allow guest checkout, remember the address for returning customers and show the full amount, including shipping and any COD fee, before the payment step. Surprise charges on the last screen are one of the most common reasons buyers walk away. If you sell to businesses, add an option to request a quotation or pay against an invoice.
GST, invoices and the accounting side
Tax handling needs to be right from day one, because fixing it later means correcting old invoices.
- Set the correct GST rate and HSN code for each product.
- Generate a GST-compliant invoice automatically for every order, with your GSTIN and the customer's details.
- Handle intra-state and inter-state orders correctly, splitting CGST and SGST or applying IGST.
- Allow business buyers to enter their GSTIN at checkout if you sell to companies.
- Make order and tax reports easy to export for your accountant, or connect the store to your billing software.
Speak to your chartered accountant about your exact obligations. The store should make their job easier, not harder.
Shipping, delivery and returns
Customers decide whether to order based on delivery time and cost as much as on price. Be clear and honest about both.
Shipping setup
- Decide your shipping charges: free above an order value, flat rate, or weight-based.
- Check pin code serviceability at the product page or checkout, so customers know before they pay.
- Connect to a shipping aggregator or courier so labels, tracking numbers and pickup requests are created automatically.
- Send order, dispatch and delivery updates by SMS, email or WhatsApp.
Returns and refunds
Write a returns policy in plain language: which products can be returned, within how many days, in what condition, who pays for return shipping and how long refunds take. Link it from every product page and the checkout. A clear policy reduces support calls and gives hesitant buyers the confidence to order.
Product pages that actually sell
The product page does the job a salesperson does in a shop. Each one should include:
- Several sharp photos from different angles, with zoom, and a short video where it helps.
- A title that says exactly what the product is, including size, variant or model.
- Full specifications, materials, dimensions and care instructions.
- Price including GST, stock status and an estimated delivery date.
- Variant selectors for size and colour that update the photo and price.
- Reviews from real buyers, once you have them.
- Answers to common questions, so customers do not need to call.
Write your own product descriptions. Copying the manufacturer's text means your pages look identical to every other seller of the same product, which hurts both trust and search rankings.
Category pages, search and filters
Shoppers rarely land on the exact product they want. Category pages need filters that match how people choose, such as size, price band, material, brand or age group, and sorting by popularity, newest and price. On-site search should handle spelling mistakes and Hindi words typed in English, and show useful results instead of an empty page. These pages are also some of your most valuable pages for search engines, so give each category a short, original introduction and a clear title.
Legal pages and trust signals
Payment gateways and marketplaces usually ask for these pages before activating your account, and customers look for them too:
- Terms and conditions
- Privacy policy explaining what customer data you collect and why
- Shipping and delivery policy
- Returns, refund and cancellation policy
- Contact page with a business address, phone number and email
Add trust signals where buyers hesitate: secure checkout badges from your gateway, your GSTIN in the footer, real customer photos and a visible support number. Have a lawyer review the legal pages for your business.
Customer support and WhatsApp
Many Indian buyers want to ask a quick question before ordering, and WhatsApp is where they prefer to ask it. A WhatsApp button on product pages, connected to a business number your team monitors, can turn questions into orders. After purchase, WhatsApp is also the most effective channel for order updates and delivery coordination.
Set clear support hours, prepare answers to the questions you hear most often and keep a log of issues so you can fix the cause, not just the symptom. As volume grows, an AI chatbot can answer order-status and policy questions around the clock and hand complex cases to your team.
Marketplace or your own ecommerce website?
Many sellers ask whether they should sell on marketplaces or build their own store. In practice, most growing brands do both.
| Factor | Marketplace | Your own store |
|---|---|---|
| Ready audience | Large, from day one | You need to bring traffic |
| Fees | Commission and other charges per order | Gateway fees and your marketing spend |
| Customer data | Mostly stays with the marketplace | Yours, for repeat marketing |
| Brand control | Limited to the marketplace layout | Full control of design and experience |
| Pricing rules | Set by marketplace policies and competition | Set by you |
A common approach is to use marketplaces for discovery, and your own store for repeat buyers, bundles, subscriptions and higher margins. Keep stock in sync across channels with inventory management software so you never sell what you do not have.
The final ecommerce website checklist before launch
Run through these on a staging site, using a real phone on mobile data:
- Place test orders with every payment method, including a failed payment and a refund.
- Check invoices, GST amounts and order emails.
- Test pin code checks, shipping charges and tracking links.
- Confirm every legal page is live and linked from the footer and checkout.
- Check page speed, especially on category and product pages.
- Set up analytics and conversion tracking for purchases.
- Submit your sitemap to Google Search Console.
- Decide who handles orders, returns and support from launch day.
Once you are live, the work shifts to bringing the right visitors. Our article on SEO vs Google Ads explains where a new store should spend first.
Web Ultra Solution builds online stores for Indian businesses with the payments, GST invoicing, shipping and WhatsApp integrations covered above. See our ecommerce website development services or request a free proposal for your store.
