Selling on GeM — registration, categories and listings, questions answered
These are the questions that come up in the gap between creating a GeM account and being able to bid on anything. The step-by-step walkthrough is in how to bid on GeM; this page answers the specific things people get stuck on.
Getting registered
Do I need GST registration to sell on GeM?
For most goods, yes in practice — the invoice you will raise has to be a proper tax invoice, and buyers expect GST details on the profile. Some categories and some small suppliers fall outside the GST requirement, so the honest answer is that it depends on what you sell and your turnover. If you are registered, put the details in before you bid, not after you win.
Can a proprietorship sell on GeM, or does it need a company?
A proprietorship can sell. What matters is that the registration is in the name of the entity that will sign the contract and raise the invoice. Where people go wrong is mixing them: a Udyam certificate or bank account in the proprietor's personal name against a bid submitted by a partnership firm.
How long does registration take?
The signup itself is quick. Completing the profile to the point where you can actually bid — verification, bank details, organisation details, any category requirements — takes longer, and vendor assessment where it applies takes considerably longer. Do not start this in the week a bid closes.
Can I have two seller accounts?
Treat one entity as one account. Trying to run two accounts for the same entity creates problems with verification and with any benefit claim, and it is not a route to bidding twice on the same bid.
Manufacturers, resellers and OEM authorisation
Can I sell on GeM if I am not the manufacturer?
Yes, as a reseller — but only for products whose manufacturer has authorised you on the portal. You cannot list someone else's product because you can source it.
What is OEM authorisation and who grants it?
It is the manufacturer confirming on GeM that you may offer their product. The manufacturer does it from their own dashboard — it is their action, not yours, and not something GeM or the buyer can do for you. A letter on the OEM's letterhead is not the same as the authorisation on the portal.
Get it before you need it. Chasing a manufacturer for a portal action while a bid is open is how sellers miss deadlines.
Does being a reseller affect what benefits I can claim?
Yes, and this one costs people bids. Under the MSE category, exemption from earnest money generally runs to manufacturers for goods and service providers for services — traders are excluded. A reseller claiming MSE EMD exemption on a goods bid is likely to have the claim rejected, and a rejected claim on an exemption you relied on means a bid without the EMD it required.
What is vendor assessment, and do I need it?
It is an assessment some categories require before a seller can participate. Whether it applies depends on the category and on what you are offering. Check early: it involves documentation and often an assessment agency, and it is not completed in a few days.
Categories and listings
Why can I see a bid but not bid on it?
Almost always because you have no listing in that bid's category. GeM is a catalogue first: a bid is open to you only where you already have something listed in the same category. Seeing a bid is not the same as being eligible to bid on it.
The other common reason is a mandatory parameter on your listing that does not match what the bid demands.
What are the technical parameters on a listing, and why do they matter so much?
Each category defines parameters a listing must carry, and the values you enter are what the buyer's technical evaluation matches against. They are not marketing copy. If you enter an optimistic value you cannot evidence, you have created a rejection for later; if you enter a conservative one, you may filter yourself out of bids you could have served.
Enter what you can prove with a test certificate or a datasheet.
My product does not fit any category. What then?
Find the closest category and read its parameters carefully before deciding it does not fit — categories are often broader than their names suggest. If it genuinely has no category, that is a request to GeM to create or amend one, and it is slow. Plan on the assumption it will not happen in time for a particular bid.
Why was my catalogue listing rejected?
The usual causes, in rough order: a mandatory parameter left blank or filled with something that is not a value, a mismatch between the parameters and the uploaded datasheet, images that do not show the actual product, a brand claim without OEM authorisation behind it, or a listing placed in a category that does not cover the product.
Can I change my price after listing?
Yes, catalogue prices can be revised — that is the point of a catalogue. What you cannot do is revise the price of a bid you have already submitted, or of an order already placed.
Benefits and status
Does MSE status actually give me anything on GeM?
It can, but only if it is validated in your GeM profile, not merely certified on paper. Buyers also verify the claim after evaluating your documents, so both have to line up. What it gives you varies by bid and by what you are — see the trader point above, and the fuller treatment in MSME benefits in government tenders.
Who decides whether my bid was technically acceptable?
The buyer. GeM's own position is that the buyer determines technical and commercial acceptability and that GeM has no role in bid evaluation. So a dispute about evaluation is with the buying department, through the bid's own terms — not with the marketplace.
The short version
Most of what stops people selling on GeM is structural rather than commercial: no listing in the bid's category, no OEM authorisation, a status certified but never validated on the profile, or a trader claiming an exemption meant for manufacturers. Sort those out when nothing is pending, because none of them can be fixed in the days before a bid closes.