Building an ecommerce website in India is easier than it has ever been. The hard part is building one that people actually buy from. Most Indian ecommerce stores we review have the same problems — they look reasonable on desktop, they are slow on mobile, and the checkout process has too much friction.
This article covers what actually matters for an Indian ecommerce store to succeed.
Platform choice: custom build vs Shop2Host vs Shopify
For most Indian businesses starting out, the choice comes down to three options: a fully custom build, an Indian ecommerce platform like Shop2Host, or an international platform like Shopify.
Shopify charges in USD and has higher transaction fees for Indian payment methods. For businesses selling primarily in India, an Indian-built platform like Shop2Host gives you Razorpay and UPI integration out of the box, lower costs and better support for Indian tax and GST requirements.
Custom builds make sense once you are past ₹10 lakh monthly revenue and need functionality that no platform provides.
Payment gateways that work in India
This is where many ecommerce sites fail. Razorpay and PayU are the most widely used and trusted payment gateways for Indian consumers. UPI support is now essential — a significant percentage of Indian online purchases happen via UPI.
Make sure your store supports: Razorpay or PayU, UPI (PhonePe, Google Pay, Paytm), net banking, EMI options for high-ticket items, and COD for markets where trust in online payment is still building.
- Razorpay or PayU for credit/debit card payments
- UPI integration — PhonePe, Google Pay, Paytm
- Cash on delivery for tier-2 and tier-3 city customers
- EMI options via credit card or buy-now-pay-later
- Wallet support (Paytm, Amazon Pay)
Mobile experience is everything
Over 70% of Indian ecommerce traffic is mobile. Your store needs to load in under 2 seconds on a 4G connection, have touch-friendly product images, a simplified mobile checkout and a cart that does not disappear when the user navigates away.
Test your store on a mid-range Android phone on a 4G connection — not on a desktop with fast WiFi. That is the reality of most of your customers.
Delivery and logistics integration
Indian customers expect fast delivery and real-time tracking. Integrating with Shiprocket, Delhivery or Ecom Express directly in your store removes the manual work of creating shipments and gives customers the tracking they expect.
Stores that handle shipping manually (WhatsApp confirmations, manual AWB entry) have higher cart abandonment and more customer support issues.
We build ecommerce stores on Shop2Host and custom
200+ merchants already selling on Shop2Host. We set up payments, delivery and the full store.
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