When Marketplace Rules Become Advantages: Insights from Shweta’s E-Commerce Frameworks

India’s quick-commerce boom is showing no signs of slowing down. In 2024–25, platforms like Blinkit and Instamart processed orders worth ₹64,000 crore (about US$8 billion), and analysts expect that figure to triple to ₹2 lakh crore by 28. Evidently, consumers now value speed, trust, and reliability as much as price. As the sector matures, profitability and operational discipline are replacing the growth-at-all-costs mindset.

Behind these numbers lie the marketplaces’ rules many sellers overlook. Algorithms, compliance checks and trust signals often determine who succeeds and who fades out. To understand these rules better, we spoke with Shweta, Program Manager at TikTok (ByteDance) and former Senior Product Manager at Amazon, with an MBA and MS in Business Analytics. She is also a Forté Fellowship recipient, a recognition given to MBA graduates showing strong leadership potential, and holds Six Sigma Green and Yellow Belt certifications from Pfizer, reflecting her background in process improvement and quality management. Together, these experiences give her a grounded view of how trust, compliance, and technology subtly influence success in e-commerce.

In this conversation, she explains what really drives success on online platforms and how Indian sellers can use these rules to their advantage.

Shweta, at Amazon, your work helped protect about $1 billion in sellers’ profits by cutting disputes and improving ad systems. What did that teach you about the ‘hidden rules’ that decide which sellers succeed online?

I realized that the hidden rules are often the ones sellers overlook: quality and reliability. When we tied ad visibility to refund and dispute history, it showed that compliance wasn’t just about avoiding penalties — it actually determined who got seen. Sellers who tightened operations and reduced complaints found themselves more visible and ultimately more profitable. That taught me that discipline behind the scenes can outweigh flashy marketing when it comes to sustainable growth.

At TikTok Shop, you launched more than a dozen new shopping categories in just 18 months about three times faster than usual in the industry. How did you keep that growth safe and trustworthy for buyers?

Speed only works if buyers feel protected. In high-risk areas like refurbished electronics, we built safeguards directly into the launch process — for example, a test-buy pipeline where seller products were verified against safety and performance standards before going live. That reduced defective returns by roughly a third and gave shoppers the confidence to come back. It proved that trust embedded upfront is what makes rapid expansion sustainable.

Many sellers see marketplace rules as restrictions. From your experience, can’t onboarding, content policies, or compliance checks actually become opportunities for smart sellers to stand out?

Exactly. Rules may seem restrictive at first, but they’re also filters. Sellers who understand them deeply can turn compliance into a competitive advantage. At TikTok, I saw smaller sellers win market share simply because they invested in meeting verification standards faster than their peers. That knowledge of the “hidden rules” often matters more than advertising spend.

You also introduced safety badges for health and nutrition products that boosted sales by 5–7%. Why did something so simple make such a big difference for shoppers?

Because visible proof changes behavior. We worked with accredited labs like UL and Eurofins to validate products, and once the “lab-tested” badge appeared, customers felt they could trust the purchase. Conversions went up, and sellers discovered that compliance could double as differentiation. The fact that competitors later adopted similar programs confirmed that a small, credible signal can reshape entire categories.

Your governance playbooks at TikTok Shop helped reduce listing-to-live time by 30% while keeping compliance intact. What steps did you take to speed up launches without losing control?

We introduced phased rollouts and risk tiers. Sellers could go live in lower-risk segments quickly, while higher-risk items went through more rigorous checks in parallel. That way speed wasn’t sacrificed, but customers were still protected. In India’s quick-commerce space, the same principle applies: plan compliance into the launch instead of treating it as a delay.

In your governance work, you also led frameworks for launching regulated categories like medical devices and non-prescription health products. How did anticipating compliance early change outcomes for sellers?

Anticipation saved enormous time. Sellers who prepared documents before launch were often live weeks sooner than competitors. In one case, medical devices cleared review without a single takedown, while others spent months resolving rejections. Preparing early gave those sellers first-mover advantage — and that’s something Indian entrepreneurs can replicate if they want to scale quickly.

You’ve shown that rules and safeguards can actually speed up growth — from cutting takedowns by 30% to launching 12+ categories faster than competitors. What practical steps should sellers adopt today to turn compliance into a long-term advantage?

Success comes from seeing change as opportunity. Rules, algorithms, and shopper expectations will keep shifting, but the sellers who treat each new standard as a chance to stand out are the ones who last. Investing in trust, through compliance, service, and safety, creates resilience that outlives any single product or campaign.