GeM Seller Registration in 2026: From Sign-Up to Your First Order

Five documents finish the form in one sitting. PAN of the proprietor or the firm. Udyam registration number. GSTIN. A bank account number with IFSC in the business name. An Aadhaar of the primary user, linked to a working mobile number for OTP.

A passport-size photograph of the seller, the firm letterhead in PDF, and the cancelled cheque image keep the verification step short. Keeping these in a single folder before you start saves about thirty minutes of back and forth.

The first big choice on gem.gov.in is the seller type. An OEM is the original manufacturer of the product, with brand ownership and production capacity. A reseller buys from an OEM and lists on GeM. A service provider sells services like staffing, cleaning, software, or training.

OEMs get priority bids, brand-mark visibility, and access to the resale-restriction clause that blocks unauthorised resellers from undercutting them. A reseller can still sell, but only against OEM-authorised channels. Service providers run on a separate catalog with hourly or monthly contract structures.

A small printer in Coimbatore who actually prints inhouse should sign up as OEM, not reseller. Picking reseller cuts your margin by 20 to 30 percent over the long run because OEM badges get the buyer's click first.

An MSME-registered seller gets the Make in India and MSME tag on every product listing. Government buyers are mandated to procure at least 25 percent of their annual value from MSMEs, with 4 percent specifically from SC and ST entrepreneurs and 3 percent from women-owned units. Listings flagged for these categories show up first in tender filters.

A Udyam-verified seller also gets relaxation on past-performance clauses. A standard tender asks for three years of past supply experience. An MSME seller without that experience can still bid by submitting a Performance Bank Guarantee, often at 5 percent of the order value, against the missing experience. The Yojana Mitra GeM onboarding guide at yojanamitra.co/scheme/gem-onboarding lists the categories with the highest MSME purchase share.

Catalog upload is where most sellers lose three to four weeks. The GeM product taxonomy is strict. A buyer searching for office chairs runs a category filter, not a free-text search. A chair listed under furniture instead of office chairs never appears.

Spending an hour on the GeM Category Master before uploading saves the most time. Find the exact category code your competitors use. Match brand, dimensions, and material attributes word for word against the master list. Buyers compare by attribute, not by description. A blank attribute is the same as not being on the platform.

Five clear product photographs on a white background and a one-page technical specification PDF push your catalog above 80 percent of first-time sellers. The Make Catalog Live button does not flip until both pass automatic review.

GeM runs three procurement types. Direct purchase is a single buyer placing an order below ₹50,000 on a published catalog. Bid is a sealed tender above ₹50,000 with technical and financial evaluation. Reverse auction is a live auction where prices drop in real time.

A new seller should chase direct purchases first. The risk is lowest, the buyer is just clicking buy, and a successful direct purchase counts as past performance for future bids. After ten clean direct purchases, the seller is ready for bids in the ₹2 to ₹10 lakh range.

Reverse auctions are best left for the second year. The price pressure is sharp and a thin-margin seller can win an auction and then lose money on supply because the final price went below cost. A printed list of your own price floors before logging into the auction prevents this.

Once a buyer places an order, the dispatch clock starts. Standard delivery period is 10 days from order acceptance for off-the-shelf goods, 21 days for made-to-order. Missing the delivery date triggers a Liquidated Damages clause of 0.5 percent per week, capped at 10 percent of order value.

Payment on a GeM order is contractually due within 10 days of receipt of goods and Consignee Receipt and Acceptance Certificate (CRAC). The 45-day MSMED Act rule sits on top of this for MSME sellers, so a delay beyond 45 days triggers the 43B(h) tax disallowance for the buyer. Knowing both clocks puts the seller in a strong position when chasing payment.

Registering the firm name with a typo against the PAN is the most common knockout. The portal cross-validates the firm name against the PAN database. A single letter mismatch puts the seller into a pending review queue that takes two to three weeks to clear.

Not uploading the Income Tax Return for the last assessment year is the second. The portal asks for ITR-V as proof of financial standing for sellers wanting to bid above ₹10 lakh. A seller without an ITR can still register but is capped on bid value.

Listing a product without an HSN code is the third. GST integration on GeM uses HSN for tax calculation. A missing HSN blocks the product from going live even if every other field is filled. Look up your HSN code on gst.gov.in before catalog upload.