Unfortunately there is no such thing as just sellers in govt dictonary. For government we are SME and all the rules will apply on us as well. The e-commerce portals will not ask you for Shop Licence but by asking VAT, they are indirectly forcing you to get yourself the licence.
A sole proprietor business which we all will claim to be, must have some proof of sole proprietor business in order to get VAT. And that proof is Shop and Establishment Act Licence. Therefore by just demanding VAT, online portals are indirectly forcing you to get the licence. Same situation will arise for GST registration.
As far as I know, there is no need to have a physical store to get the licence. You can get it even if selling from your house. At least this is what a CA told me while expressing shock that I am doing online sale for last 3 months but still haven't considered applying for Shop and Establishment Act.
I spoke to several experts, every single one of the presumed that since I am individual/self proprietor business, I must have the Shop and Establishment Act licence.
The reason why sellers mostly on EBay are struggling is because Ebay never asked for VAT number to be provided. On other platforms, VAT is required to sell anything except books. I see that several sellers on Ebay are doing business with savings account for years, which in itself is wrong. They must have Current Account, and to get that, once again, Shop Licence is required.
