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Blinkit Seller Commission: Fees, Chart and Calculator
The complete Blinkit seller commission breakdown with a live calculator: category rates, storage fees, GST and net payout per unit.
CalculatorsAmazon Profit Calculator: India Seller Fees and Margin
A free Amazon India profit calculator using real banded referral, closing and weight handling fees plus 18 percent GST. Every fee field editable.
MarketplacesAmazon Brand Registry Cost: What India Sellers Actually Pay
Amazon Brand Registry is free. The real cost is the trademark: Rs 4,500 to Rs 9,000 per class in India, as of July 2026. Full cost build-up inside.
Running a Warranty Claim Process That Does Not Leak Money
Warranty is where a brand finds out what its operations are really worth. The claim desk sits at the end of every shortcut taken upstream, in sourcing, in packing, in channel expansion. If those shortcuts were real, the claim desk pays for them in cash, month after month, long after the sale was booked and […]
StrategyIn-Store Promoter Economics: Cost Per Incremental Unit
A beauty advisor in a large format store in a metro is one of the most expensive units of distribution a brand can buy. Fully loaded, an in-store promoter typically costs more per month than a mid-level office hire once you count salary, incentive, agency fee, statutory contributions, uniform, training and attrition churn. The exact […]
OperationsPOSM That Survives the Store: Deployment and Verification
Every brand has a POSM story. A wobbler that never left the box. A gondola end that was paid for in Mumbai and never built. A shelf strip that went up over a competitor’s facings and came down within a day. Point of sale material is one of the few spends where the failure happens […]
BrandPlanogram Negotiation: How Brands Actually Earn Facings
Brands treat the planogram as a design document. Retailers treat it as an allocation decision. That mismatch is why so many brand teams walk into a shelf review with a nice rendering and walk out with the same number of facings they had last year. The planogram is a negotiation. Once you accept that, the […]
GrowthTrade Promotion ROI: Real Uplift Versus Borrowed Volume
Most trade promotion reviews in India end the same way. Someone puts up a chart of sell-out during the promo window, points at the spike, and calls it a win. The spend gets renewed. Nobody asks the only question that matters: would some of that volume have happened anyway. Trade promotion is usually the second […]
India PlaybookRural Distribution Economics: Where The Metro Model Breaks
The distribution model that works in a metro does not gently weaken as you go smaller. It breaks at a specific point, and it breaks for arithmetic reasons rather than cultural ones. Understanding where that break happens is what separates a rural plan from a metro plan stretched thin and hoping. Why the metro model […]
OperationsBeat Routes and Van Sales for a Growing Indian Brand
A founder asking about offline distribution usually asks how many distributors are needed. That is the wrong first question. The right one is how many shops get visited, how often, by whom, and what happens on each visit. That is a beat plan, and it is the actual unit of work in general trade. What […]
OperationsPrimary, Secondary and Tertiary Sales: The Self Deception
Three different numbers get called sales in an Indian consumer business. They are not the same number, they do not move together, and only one of them is easy to see. Brands that report only the easy one grow beautifully for about four quarters and then stop, suddenly, with no visible cause. The cause was […]
Operations LogisticsSuper Stockist, Distributor and CFA: Who Owns The Stock
Most arguments about channel structure in India are actually arguments about one question. Who owns the stock right now. Answer that at every stage and risk, margin and reporting all fall into place behind it. Leave it fuzzy and you will discover the answer during a damage claim, which is the worst possible time to […]
Data AnalyticsGTIN, EAN and UPC: Why Bad Barcodes Break Your Listings
Identifier problems do not announce themselves. A listing gets rejected and someone raises a ticket. A duplicate page appears with three reviews on it. A report shows a SKU selling in a city where you never shipped it. Each is treated as an isolated incident. They are usually the same incident, showing up in four […]
StrategyS&OP Cadence: The Monthly Meeting That Must Decide
Most brands already hold a monthly review. Very few hold an S&OP meeting. The difference is not the agenda. It is whether anything is decided in the room and whether a named person leaves owning it. Sales and operations planning is an operating rhythm, not a forecasting technique. The maths matters, but the maths is […]
OperationsERP to Marketplace Integration: Where It Actually Breaks
An integration is never finished. It is a running agreement between two systems that were designed by people who never spoke to each other. It works until a marketplace changes a field, a catalogue team creates a duplicate, or a sale event triples the update volume. Then the numbers stop matching and everyone looks at […]
OperationsOrder Management System: What It Owns, What It Does Not
Most brands buy an order management system a year after they needed one, or two years before they needed one. Both are expensive. The first mistake shows up as a team of people copying order files between seller portals every morning. The second shows up as a licence fee sitting idle because the brand has […]
India PlaybookImport licensing India: check before you place the order
A brand finds a product overseas, negotiates a good price, ships a container, lists it, and sells for six months. Then a second consignment is held at the port, and the conversation with customs reveals that the item required an import authorisation the brand never applied for. The listing was fine. The import was not. […]
OperationsProduct safety documents: answer an audit in hours
The message arrives on a Saturday. A listing is suspended pending a compliance review, and the platform wants documentation within a stated window. Most brands then spend four days emailing a factory in a different time zone, hunting for a test report that somebody downloaded to a laptop that has since been replaced. The listing […]
OperationsEPR registration for plastic packaging: what D2C brands owe
A brand ships a parcel. Inside is a mailer bag, a strip of tape, a bubble wrap sleeve and a sachet of silica. Every one of those is plastic packaging placed on the Indian market under your brand, and every one of them creates an obligation that arrives later, in kilograms, with a filing deadline […]
OperationsBIS CRS certification: the wall every electronics brand hits
You have the product. You have the GST registration, the brand registry approval, the images, the pricing. You upload the listing and it goes straight into a compliance hold. The marketplace wants a BIS number, and behind that number it wants a certificate. That is the wall, and most electronics brands hit it in week […]
OperationsCourier or cargo: pick the channel per lane, not once
Brands tend to choose an export channel once, early, usually because a courier sales representative called first. Then they run that choice across every market and every order value for three years. That is a costly default. Courier and cargo are not two price points on the same service. They are two legal routes through […]
OperationsHS codes: the eight digits that set your duty bill
A classification code is not a logistics detail. It is a legal declaration. It decides what duty your customer pays, whether your goods are allowed into the destination country at all, and how much of your export incentive you actually receive. Most catalogues carry codes that were copied from a supplier invoice years ago and […]
InternationalIEC and AD code: the export setup order that works
Most first export shipments do not fail on price, packaging or demand. They fail at a customs counter because a registration that takes an afternoon was done in the wrong week. The registrations themselves are not hard. The sequence is where brands lose a month. Here is what a D2C brand actually needs before a […]
InternationalRoDTEP: the export refund most brands claim wrong
RoDTEP pays out reliably. It is also one of the most commonly mishandled schemes in the Indian export stack. The scheme is the Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products. It went live on 1 January 2021 and replaced MEIS. Most brands hear the word incentive, assume it is money for selling abroad, and […]
India PlaybookPLI scheme for consumer brands: worth chasing
Which PLI schemes touch consumer goods, the investment and turnover thresholds, and the gap between eligibility, approval and money actually received.
StrategyCap table management India: keep it clean
Founder vesting, ESOP pool dilution, CCPS and SAFE conversion in India, and the cap table housekeeping that prevents a diligence scramble later.
Data AnalyticsBoard reporting pack: what funded brands send
What belongs in a board pack for a funded Indian consumer brand, the metric definitions that must not move, and how to present a miss properly.
D2CRunway and burn rate: what your chart hides
Gross versus net burn, why inventory distorts a D2C burn chart, the runway bands that should trigger decisions, and a downside case you would run.
Operations LogisticsLast Mile Rider Productivity In Indian Cities
Deliveries per rider hour, route density, first attempt success, pickup wait and safe incentive design for last mile teams in Indian cities.
OperationsGig Delivery Workforce Compliance In India
Contractor versus employee in substance, Code on Social Security duties, state welfare fees, and the exposure of engaging riders directly in India.
Operations LogisticsSame Day Delivery Economics For Indian Brands
What same day delivery really costs in India, the inventory it forces, cut-off design, and the order value below which it destroys your margin.
Operations LogisticsIntracity Fleet Services For Indian Brand Operations
Intracity fleet for Indian brands: vehicle classes, warehouse to store runs, on-demand versus contracted rates, and when owning a tempo actually pays.
StrategyThe Monthly Investor Update That Earns Help
What to report, which metrics to hold constant, how to raise bad news early, and how to write asks that get answered. A monthly investor update guide.
OperationsInvestor Data Room Checklist for Indian Brands
Corporate filings, cap table, GST and TDS, cohort data, contracts and IP. The full data room checklist for an Indian consumer brand raising a round.
India PlaybookReading a Term Sheet as an Indian Founder
Liquidation preference, anti-dilution, ESOP pool timing, board seats and reserved matters, explained plainly for Indian founders reading a term sheet.
D2CThe D2C Pitch Deck Indian Investors Expect
The slide order, the cohort and contribution margin charts, honest CAC disclosure and the appendix Indian investors expect from a D2C pitch deck.
Data AnalyticsThe Weekly Ecommerce Ops Dashboard For India Teams
The 12 to 14 numbers an Indian ecommerce ops review should run on, who owns each, leading versus lagging, and how to stop it becoming a status call.
OperationsSOPs People Actually Follow: An India Ops Guide
How to write ecommerce SOPs people follow in India: what deserves one, the one-page floor format, photos over text, version control and audit impact.
OperationsAttrition In Indian Ecommerce Ops: The Real Cost
Warehouse attrition in India runs 50 to 80 percent a year. What replacing one picker really costs, why people leave, and the retention levers that work.
Operations LogisticsTraining Warehouse Staff In India: The First 30 Days
Warehouse training in India: a five-day week one plan, an accuracy certification gate, refresher cadence, peak hires and training hours that cut errors.
InternationalLanded Cost on Imports: Getting the Real Number
How to calculate true landed cost on imports into India: FOB versus CIF, BCD, SWS and IGST, port charges, and exchange rate movement.
India PlaybookSupplier Payment Terms as a Working Capital Lever
Advance versus net 30 versus net 60 in India, what early payment discounts annualise to, and what the MSME 45 day rule obliges buyers to do.
Operations LogisticsVendor Scorecards That Move Supplier Volume
A five metric vendor scorecard Indian brands can run on a spreadsheet, with weights, targets, a quarterly review agenda, and volume tied to the score.
OperationsNegotiating With Suppliers When You Are Still Small
How small Indian D2C brands negotiate with suppliers: where the leverage is, the cost breakdown to ask for, and escalation clauses that hold.
BrandCrisis Communication for Indian Consumer Brands
The first 48 hours when a food safety story breaks: who speaks, holding statements, listing decisions, regulator contact and refunds.
Quick CommerceDark Store Compliance Is Your Brand Risk
Your stock sits in a partner dark store you do not control. Contract terms, audit rights, stock retrieval and concentration risk for Indian brands.
Operations LogisticsProduct Recall Playbook for D2C Brands in India
How to run a food recall in India: recall versus withdrawal, batch scoping, FSSAI notification, marketplace retrieval, refunds and the real cost.
OperationsFood Safety Audit Readiness for Indian Brands
What an FSSAI or state FDA inspection actually checks, the findings that suspend a licence, and a self-audit checklist to run before a regulator does.
India PlaybookNutrition and Allergen Labelling for D2C Food
A practical guide to FSSAI nutrition panels, per-serve versus per-100g, allergen declaration, claims limits and matching your listing page to the pack.
OperationsChoosing a Co-Packer for Your Indian Food Brand
Licence checks, MOQ traps, recipe protection, per-unit cost build-up, batch consistency and second sourcing for Indian food brands using a co-packer.
StrategyCloud Kitchen vs Packaged Food: Picking a Model
Unit economics, capex, licensing, demand generation and reach compared for Indian founders choosing between a cloud kitchen and a packaged FMCG line.
OperationsPerishable Inventory Planning for Indian Food Brands
How shelf life gates on marketplaces and quick commerce shorten your sellable window, and how to size batches, time markdowns and budget write-offs.
Operations LogisticsFreight Cost Per Order: Build the True Number
Build a true freight cost per order including packaging, surcharges, COD fees and RTO, benchmark it against AOV, and catch cost drift before it compounds.
OperationsAddress Quality Is a Cost Centre, Not a Form Field
Why Indian addresses break geocoding, which fields predict a failed delivery, and what a clean address pipeline saves in reattempts and RTO cost.
Operations LogisticsDelivery Promise Dates That Hold Up in India
How checkout delivery dates are calculated in India, what accuracy does to conversion and support tickets, and how to report on-time delivery honestly.
Operations LogisticsLine Haul and Zone Skipping for Indian Ecommerce
How line haul and zone skipping work in India, the parcel volume where they start paying, and how to model the saving against an aggregator rate.
GrowthHow Indian Brands Get Cited by AI Assistants
What makes an AI assistant cite your brand: extractable content shape, original data, consistent entity signals, crawler access, and how to check.
BrandZero-Click Search: A Brand Strategy for India
Searches that never produce a visit still build brands. How to win the answer, track branded search growth, and stop reporting on sessions alone.
D2CEcommerce Structured Data That Earns Rich Results
Product, Offer, AggregateRating, Breadcrumb and Organization markup for Indian ecommerce: required fields, real rich results, and honest limits.
Data AnalyticsWhat AI Overviews Do to Your Click-Through Rate
AI Overviews cut clicks without cutting rankings. How to isolate the damage in Search Console and pick the pages worth defending.
D2CClick and Collect for Indian D2C Brands
What click and collect saves on last mile in India, the pickup rate to expect, how to handle uncollected orders, and the attach rate that makes it pay.
StrategySelling Refurbished Stock as a Channel in India
Grading standards, refurbished labelling and GST rules, pricing against new, warranty on refurb units, and channel choice that avoids cannibalisation.
Operations LogisticsSpare Parts and Repair Networks in India
How Indian durable goods brands plan spare parts stocking, choose service partners or in-house repair, set turnaround, and prepare for right to repair.
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