I am not a businessman. But just like every millennial who wanted to quit their job in a style and start an online business, I indulge in such fantasies too.

The reality check though, aside from the complex process of registering a company, and the jargon of Regulations, Tax compliance etc the fear of finding customers for any business plan you might have ensures you don’t quit your job.

I can get behind the cost of Regulations and compliances by hiring a Chartered Accountant. Bit pricy but it’s the cost of not ending up behind the bar in a country like India for some random invisible/incomprehensible tax violation.

But the marketing though, I find it curious how IndiaMART is still in business despite it’s terrible service. As much as I like to call myself a patriot for registering with a company that has a word “India” in it, this website is so terrible, a scam in some aspects, down right least innovative platforms in the country and it is valued at ~$1.5 Billion ( based on quick search on Google). Go Figure!

My personal experience with IndiaMART:

Over the period of last 5 years, I have successfully purchased certain products in bulk for various applications. I ordered bunch of trays for hydroponic system that I built for a Chicken farm that I ran unsuccessfully. Once I ordered glass jars for a gifts to relatives for a family event we had.

But the wannabe entrepreneur in me, constantly on the website to search products or raw materials to visualize an end product. Unfortunately, the design of the website is in such a way, it is restrictive, where the search results are rarely helpful.

• Zero-Intent Filters:
  Desktop (Web) – Available, but they don’t provide specific results.
  Reasons:
  1. Sellers create product group page instead of single product page. So all the variations are in one single title or page. Shows more about how much support is provided to educate the sellers.
  2. More Resellers than actual Manufacturers who don’t have domain knowledge to prepare a proper product pages.
  Mobile – Pretty much non-existent, except for location.
• Pricing baits:
  The “smart” sellers think that listing the product at lowest price and once the customer calls they can quote actual price, do they really think strategy is sustainable long term?
  Some sellers don’t even bother updating the actual price before they publish it.
• Aggressive Forced login:
  Regardless of device, at any given session, if you want more than 10-20 search results you got to login with your Phone number. They don’t care if you give them incorrect number to disable that pop-up, they don’t bother to verify the number.
  This number is shared to the seller to let them know that this is a potential lead for them and charge them for the privilege. The sellers are in scrambles to reach that number or potentially become spammers.

If the revenue is based on shady tactics, hard to trust genuine sellers using the platform.