How to sell on Amazon in India in 2026, registration, GST, and fees

What you need to sell on Amazon India

Selling on Amazon India is more reachable than most people think, and you can run it entirely from home. Before you register, get four things ready:

• A GSTIN (GST registration), required for most taxable goods. E-commerce sellers generally need GST from the first sale, so this is the one real hurdle.
• A PAN card (business or personal).
• An active bank account for your payouts.
• A pickup address and a mobile number and email.

If you sell only GST-exempt goods, such as books or certain unbranded items, you can register with PAN alone. For everything else, sort the GST first, our explainer on whether you need GST for a small business walks through it, and registration on gst.gov.in is free.

How to register as an Amazon seller (step by step)

Step 1, Get your GSTIN

If you do not have one, apply on the GST portal first. It is free and usually takes about a week.

Step 2, Create your Seller Central account

Go to sellercentral.amazon.in and sign up. Registration is free, with no monthly fee for a basic account.

Step 3, Enter your GSTIN and verify

Add your GSTIN; Amazon pulls your business name and address from the GST database. Verification can take up to 72 hours.

Step 4, Add bank and pickup details

Enter your bank account (name, number, IFSC) and your pickup address. For Easy Ship, keep the pickup address in the state where your GST is registered.

Step 5, List your products and launch

Create your listings with clear photos, honest titles and correct categories, set your prices, and go live. Start with a tight range you can fulfil reliably rather than a huge catalogue.

Amazon seller fees in 2026

Understanding the fees is what keeps you profitable. The main ones:

• Referral fee, a commission per sale. Since March 2026, it is 0% for products under ₹1,000 across many categories; above ₹1,000 it typically ranges from about 2% to 38% by category.
• Closing fee, a small per-item fee on lower price bands (roughly ₹20–₹26).
• Shipping/weight fee, depends on the item’s weight and the delivery distance.
• GST at 18% applies on these fees, and Amazon deducts 0.5% TCS on your net sales, which you reclaim when filing your GST returns.

Price every product after these fees, not before. A margin that looks healthy on paper can vanish once referral, closing, shipping and GST are counted, so build them in from day one.

How your orders get delivered: FBA, Easy Ship or Self-Ship

Amazon gives you three ways to fulfil orders, and the one you pick shapes your effort, cost and delivery speed:

• Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA), you send stock to an Amazon warehouse and they store, pack, ship, and handle returns and customer service. Best for volume, and you get the Prime badge, but you pay storage and fulfilment fees.
• Easy Ship, you store and pack the product at home, and Amazon’s courier picks it up from your address and delivers it. A sensible middle path for a home seller.
• Self-Ship, you handle storage, packing and delivery yourself or with your own courier. Most control, most work, and no Prime badge.

Most home sellers start with Easy Ship, then move their best-selling products to FBA once the volume justifies the storage fee. For Easy Ship, remember your pickup address must be in the state where your GST is registered.

A worked example: will you actually make money?

Say you sell a kitchen product for ₹600. Because it is under ₹1,000, the referral fee in many categories is now 0%. You pay a closing fee of about ₹25, a weight-based shipping fee of, say, ₹65 for a light parcel, and 18% GST on those Amazon fees (roughly ₹16). Amazon also holds 0.5% TCS (about ₹3), which you reclaim in your GST return. So Amazon’s cut is roughly ₹106 on that ₹600 sale.

If the product cost you ₹350 to buy or make and ₹30 to pack, your rough profit is ₹600 − ₹350 − ₹30 − ₹106 = ₹114, before your own time. The lesson is blunt: price every product after the fees, and favour items where your buying cost leaves genuine room. Ultra-cheap products often lose money once shipping is counted.

What to sell, and mistakes to avoid

The best first product is light (cheap to ship), not fragile, in steady demand, and not already drowned under dozens of near-identical listings. Home, kitchen, handmade, ethnic wear and niche accessories are common winning categories for small sellers.

• Do not price before counting fees, the single most common way new sellers quietly lose money.
• Do not list a huge catalogue on day one; start with a few products you can fulfil reliably and build up ratings.
• Do not ignore returns, a high return rate erases margin. Accurate photos and honest sizes bring it down.
• Do not skimp on photos; on Amazon the image is your shop window and it decides the click.

Amazon or Meesho: where should you start?

If GST feels like a wall right now, our guide on how to start a reselling business on Meesho is the gentler on-ramp, because Meesho lets many sellers start without GST. Amazon has the larger, higher-intent customer base and is worth graduating to once you have GST and a product that sells. Many home sellers run both.

Whichever platform you choose, the fundamentals are the same: a niche you understand, honest listings, and prices that survive the fees. For the wider menu of low-cost options, see our online business ideas for women pillar, and how to start a business from home in India for the groundwork.