Onboarding is a crucial step in determining the user retention in e-Commerce platforms market. User onboarding is a one time process in user’s lifecycle experience as well as the first impression for the platform, which makes it more crucial for the software companies to get it done right. This first time interaction determines the relationship with the users and their views on whether they want to do use the product later or not.

It is necessary for the users to find a “wow” moment during their onboarding process. According to Wyzowl (2020), 63% of the customers report that the onboarding experience affects their decision on making a purchase. Sellers while setting up their business online lookup for an easy, intuitive user experience and design. Onboarding experience is not only about providing guides or tutorials on how to upload catalogue, how to setup an account, but it is also about a smooth and seamless experience, where the users (in this case, Sellers) don’t have to think much.

Seller Onboarding does not stop at the stage where the seller has signed up for a Seller account. It is much more than that. Seller Onboarding is a whole process which consists of following steps:

<aside> 📄 **Seller Onboarding Process:

-** Sign Up as a Seller → Setup Store → Complete Seller Verification (GSTIN, etc.) → Dashboard → Upload Catalog (Single Product or Bulk Upload) → Activate Payment Gateway or Bank Verification → Go Live

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The Merchants or Sellers are one of the key stakeholders as well as users of any e-commerce marketplace. The report consists of how various marketplaces approach their merchant onboarding and what are common patterns, what are best practices in the e-Commerce domain.

Step 1: Registering on the Platform:

Following analysis is on the basis of number of steps a merchant has to complete for reaching on the Dashboard page.

Registration as a Seller

The Marketplace vs E-Commerce Platform: The one thing to note in the above mentioned platforms is that they have separate use cases and hence follow different models. In case of Shopify, the platform would be used by a person who is a merchant and is looking for a platform from where they can independently create, launch and start selling. In these cases of platform, the Seller users have to invest on their outreach and build customers. As platforms like Flipkart, Meesho and BliBli follow a marketplace model, they already have a user base. The Sellers have just to upload their products and services on the marketplaces and they can start selling without thinking much about advertising and marketing for getting a better user base. Hence, these platforms, for keeping a check on unauthorized sellers, have to verify the GSTIN and Bank Account Details.

Notes:

• However, it is necessary to keep a check on unauthorized users, having a process where the Sellers keep verifying every single thing can get annoying for the users. In all of these marketplaces, the user’s can’t go live and start selling their product without adding their catalogue on the marketplace. As BliBli follow, all of these verifications can be done after a quick sign up by the Seller. This makes the sign up process quick reducing the number of clicks. Once the user is on the Dashboard, the rest of the process can be continued from there.
• According to Nielsen (2018), “Communicating the current state allows users to feel in control of the system, take appropriate actions to reach their goal, and ultimately trust the brand”. Shopify and Meesho provides the feedback on how many steps are left for completing the process, whereas BliBli and Flipkart doesn’t provide any such mechanism for process completion.