The first 100 orders are the hardest a store will ever take. Nobody has heard of you, there are no reviews, and every buyer is taking a chance. After that point things change. You have real feedback, a few repeat buyers, photos of actual customers and enough data to see which products and messages work.
This guide is a practical plan for getting there. It assumes your store or marketplace listing is already live. If you are still at the planning stage, start with our guide on how to start an online business in India.
Treat the first 100 as three small stages
Trying to “get 100 orders” is vague. Breaking it into three stages, each with its own aim, keeps you focused.
| Stage | Orders | Main source of buyers | What you are trying to learn |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Warm start | 1–20 | Friends, family, past colleagues, local community | Does the product, packaging and delivery work end to end? |
| 2. Social reach | 21–60 | Instagram, WhatsApp, local groups, small creators | Which message and price make strangers buy? |
| 3. Repeatable source | 61–100 | One channel you double down on (marketplace, social, or search) | Can you get orders without asking personally each time? |
You do not need to hit the numbers exactly. The point is that the first 20 orders are mostly for testing operations, and the last 40 are about finding a source of buyers you can grow.
Stage 1: Orders 1–20 from people who already know you
Your first buyers will almost always come from people who know you or know someone who does. That is not cheating. It is the lowest-cost way to test whether the whole chain works.
- Make a list of 50 to 100 people you can message personally: relatives, school and college friends, former colleagues, your housing society group, your gym or religious community. Message them one by one, not as a broadcast.
- Ask for orders at full price. Discounts for friends hide the real question: would they buy this at this price? If you want to thank them, include a handwritten note instead.
- Ship to as many different cities as you can. If your aunt in Kanpur and a college friend in Kochi both order, you learn how your parcel survives two very different journeys.
- Ask what almost stopped them. “Was anything confusing about ordering?” gives you more useful answers than “Did you like it?”
Treat every one of these orders as a test parcel. Weigh it, note the box size, record when you booked it, when it was picked up and when it arrived. Twenty orders of real data is enough to spot a box that is too big or a route that takes too long.
Stage 2: Orders 21–60 from strangers on social media
The next stage is getting people who do not know you to buy. For most small Indian sellers that means Instagram and WhatsApp.
Post content that sells the product, not the brand
A home-décor seller in Jaipur will get more orders from a 20-second Reel showing a cushion cover going from packet to sofa than from a polished logo animation. Show the product in use, show the size against something familiar, and show the packing. Buyers who have never ordered from you want proof the parcel is real.
Our guide on Instagram marketing for small businesses covers Reels, profiles and DMs in detail.
Make ordering over chat easy
Many early orders will come through DMs and WhatsApp. Keep a short saved reply that asks for the four things you need: full name, complete address with landmark and pincode, phone number, and payment preference. Collect these in one message rather than five, and you lose fewer buyers halfway. Our guide to WhatsApp marketing for online sellers explains catalogues, broadcasts and the opt-in rules.
Work with small creators, not big ones
A creator with 5,000 engaged followers in your city or niche is often more useful than one with half a million. Send the product, let them try it, and ask for an honest post. Agree in writing what they will post and whether it is paid. Track which creator brought which orders by giving each one a separate code or link.
Join the groups where your buyers already are
Local Facebook groups, residential society WhatsApp groups and college alumni groups often allow sellers to post on certain days. Read the group rules first and post once, well, rather than spamming.
Stage 3: Orders 61–100 from one repeatable channel
By now you should know which product sells, at which price, and with which message. Pick one channel to make repeatable:
- A marketplace listing, if your product is something people already search for, such as a phone stand or a cotton bedsheet set.
- Your own website with social traffic, if your product needs a story or photos to sell, such as handmade jewellery or a regional snack brand.
- Repeat buyers, if the product is consumable. A buyer who bought tea in month one may want it again in month two. A reminder message at the right time can bring an order without any new marketing.
Our comparison of Shopify, Amazon and your own website helps you decide where to focus.
Deliver every early order as if it decides your future
In a sense, it does. Early buyers tell their friends, and a broken parcel or a week of silence after payment can end a new brand’s word of mouth before it starts.
Before dispatch
- Confirm COD orders by phone or WhatsApp. A quick “Your order of two cotton kurtas, ₹1,198, to Sector 15, Rohini, is ready to ship, shall we send it?” catches wrong addresses and impulse orders before they cost you a return trip.
- Pack in the smallest box that protects the product. Couriers charge on the higher of actual and volumetric weight, so a large box can cost more than you expect.
- Add a short note with how to reach you if something is wrong.
After dispatch
- Send the tracking link the same day.
- Watch for failed delivery attempts and contact the buyer quickly.
- Message once after delivery to check everything arrived properly.
You do not need a large setup for this. On Courier Tales, you add your pickup address, see the integrated couriers that serve each route with estimated charges, book the shipment and share a tracking link with your buyer. If your early orders come through chat, you can upload them in bulk from a spreadsheet rather than typing each one.
Shipping your first orders? Compare courier options for each pincode, print labels and send buyers a tracking link from one dashboard.
If you have not set up shipping yet, work through our ecommerce shipping checklist before your first pickup.
Turn early buyers into reviews and referrals
Every one of your first 100 buyers is a chance to make the next 100 easier.
- Ask for a review three to five days after delivery, once they have used the product. Send a direct link, not instructions on where to find it.
- Ask for a photo. A buyer’s own photo of your product on their shelf is often more convincing than your studio shots. Ask permission before you post it.
- Do not buy or fake reviews. Apart from the legal risk, buyers increasingly recognise them, and marketplaces remove them.
- Make referring easy. A simple message they can forward (“My friend makes these, order here”) works better than a complicated referral scheme at this stage.
Our guide on building trust in a new online store covers reviews, policies and delivery promises in more depth.
Track where every order came from
Keep a simple sheet from order one. The columns that matter:
- Order date and order number
- Source (friend, Instagram, creator name, group, marketplace, repeat)
- Product and price
- Payment type (prepaid or COD)
- Delivered, returned or cancelled
- Any complaint or feedback
After 50 orders, sort by source. You may find that one creator brought twelve orders and the paid boost brought two, or that COD orders from one group came back far more often than prepaid ones. That is the information you need to decide what to do next.
A worked example
This is an illustration, not a real seller. Kavya sells hand-painted steel water bottles from Coimbatore.
- Orders 1–20: She messages 70 people personally and gets 18 orders, mostly within Tamil Nadu and two in Bengaluru. One bottle arrives dented, so she switches to a box with corner padding.
- Orders 21–60: Her Reel of a bottle being painted brings DMs from across the country. A local fitness creator posts about it and 9 orders come through that creator’s code.
- Orders 61–100: She notices that buyers who order for gifts often ask for names painted on. She adds a “personalised” option on her website and promotes it before Pongal. Repeat orders begin as buyers come back for gifts.
Nothing about this is clever. She asked personally, fixed the packaging, noticed what buyers asked for, and kept a record.
Final thoughts
Your first 100 orders are less about growth than about learning: whether the product holds up, whether the price works, and whether the parcel reaches the buyer in good shape. Ask personally, sell on one or two channels, deliver carefully and write everything down. The next 100 will come faster because of it.
When you are ready to ship regularly, create your Courier Tales account to compare courier options, book pickups and track every order from one place.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to get the first 100 orders?
There is no standard timeline. It depends on the product, the price, how big your network is and how much time you put into selling each day. Some sellers get there in a few weeks through friends and social media; others take several months. What matters more is learning from each batch of orders.
Should I spend on ads for my first orders?
Most new sellers learn more by selling to their own network and through organic social posts first. Once you know which product, price and message gets orders, a small ad budget is easier to judge. Spending on ads before that usually just tells you the ad did not work, not why.
Is it worth offering COD to a brand-new store?
Many first-time buyers hesitate to pay in advance to a store they have never heard of, so COD can help early orders. Confirm each COD order by phone or WhatsApp before you ship, and keep an eye on how many come back undelivered.
How do I get my first reviews?
Ask every early buyer personally, a few days after delivery, with a direct link to where they can leave a review. Make it easy and do not offer anything in exchange for a positive review. Honest reviews, including average ones, are what new visitors trust.