Research
Is Instagram shopping in India safe? What we found checking 41,000 sellers
We checked 41,055 Instagram sellers in India: where they sell, whether their websites link back, if you can reach them and what their return and COD policies say.
Is it safe to buy from an Instagram shop in India? No single number answers that. A lot can be checked before you pay, though. This report shows how often it can. Most of what we found is reassuring. The rest shows where a buyer needs to look closer. We looked at 41,055 sellers in India that VouchKart had checked by 3 Nov 2026: where they sell, what their websites say, whether you can reach them and what their policies promise.
Who we checked
41,055 Instagram sellers in India, checked by VouchKart and added by 3 Nov 2026. A seller counts as in India when their bio or website says so. A Google Maps listing alone isn't enough.
It isn't every seller on Instagram. These are shops VouchKart has found and checked. That shapes the numbers:
- Established accounts. 53% have under 10,000 followers and 2% have over 100,000. Very few have under 1,000.
- Half sell clothing. Fashion and apparel sellers make up 50% (20,566), led by ethnic wear and women's clothing.
- Public accounts only. We can't check a private account. None are included.
- Business tools. 46% use an Instagram business account and 23% have a blue tick. A tick can be bought. On its own it says nothing about how a shop treats buyers.
Every figure below is a share of the sellers we've checked, never of "Indian sellers" in general. Each one names what it's a share of. How we check sellers.
Where they sell
Instagram is rarely the only place. 43% link a WhatsApp chat, catalogue, group or channel. 35% link their own website.
- WhatsApp17,797 sellersWhatsApp: 43% (17,797 sellers)43%
- Their own website14,526 sellersTheir own website: 35% (14,526 sellers)35%
- YouTube9,327 sellersYouTube: 23% (9,327 sellers)23%
- Facebook9,197 sellersFacebook: 22% (9,197 sellers)22%
- Google Maps8,017 sellersGoogle Maps: 20% (8,017 sellers)20%
- A marketplace store825 sellersA marketplace store: 2% (825 sellers)2%
- No links at all8,557 sellersNo links at all: 21% (8,557 sellers)21%
Share of 41,055 checked sellers in India, as of 3 Nov 2026. A seller can link several.
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For many sellers without a website, WhatsApp is the shop. 27% (10,958) link WhatsApp but no website or marketplace store. Marketplaces are rare: only 2% link a store on Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra or another marketplace.
21% link nothing at all. Many of them still put a phone number or email in their bio.
Some sellers have a real shop as well. 17% (6,890) have a shop you can walk into, matched to them on Google Maps. 45% of those have no live website. For them Instagram is the shop window and the shop itself is what you can check. We only count shops we could match. The real share is higher.
Their websites
13,057 sellers (32%) have a shop website that was live when we read it. That's about 1 in 3. A few more link a website that's offline or parked.
Not having a website doesn't make a seller less real. Of the sellers without a live one, 11% have a shop you can walk into. Many more sell through WhatsApp. A website matters most when it's the only place a shop writes down its policies.
- Mostly Shopify. 53% run on Shopify, 26% on a custom build and 11% on WooCommerce.
- Mostly not new. 58% of the domains were registered over three years ago. 10% are under a year old.
- Few show a registration number. 7% (878) show a GSTIN or another business registration number.
- Checkout. 46% list ways to pay that we could read on the site, most often cards and UPI.
Does the website link back?
A real shop's website links to its real Instagram account. A copy can borrow a shop's name, photos and website link. It can't change what the website itself links to.
- 76%Links back to the same account9,966 shops
- 7%Links to a different account971 shops
- 4%Same phone or Maps listing, no Instagram link556 shops
- 12%No link to their Instagram1,564 shops
Share of the 13,057 checked sellers in India with a live website, as of 3 Nov 2026. A site that links to the seller's earlier handle counts as linking back.
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76% link back to the same account. A website that links to a different account is often a sister store or an old handle. Sometimes the account you're on is the copy. How to check a shop's website link.
Can you reach them
79% list at least one direct way to reach them: a WhatsApp chat number, a phone number, an email or a shop you can visit.
The rest is where buyers get stuck. 8,409 sellers (20%, about 1 in 5) list no phone number, WhatsApp number or email anywhere we could find. Some of them have a website or a Facebook page with no way to message them one to one. 3,602 (9%, about 1 in 11) have nothing at all outside Instagram: no links, no website and no contact details in their bio.
- A direct way to reach them32,482 sellersA direct way to reach them: 79% (32,482 sellers)79%
- No phone, WhatsApp number or email8,409 sellersNo phone, WhatsApp number or email: 20% (8,409 sellers)20%
- Nothing at all outside Instagram3,602 sellersNothing at all outside Instagram: 9% (3,602 sellers)9%
Share of 41,055 checked sellers in India, as of 3 Nov 2026. "Nothing at all outside Instagram" is part of "No phone, WhatsApp number or email".
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- The same number in more than one place. 29% show the same phone number in at least two places, such as their bio, website, WhatsApp or Google Maps listing.
- A shop on Google Maps. 17% have a Google Maps listing that matches them.
- Dead links. 3% have at least one link in their bio that leads nowhere, like a deleted WhatsApp group or YouTube channel.
Their policies
These figures are about the 13,057 sellers with a live website, since that's where a shop writes its policies down.
Returns
8,224 shops state a return policy we could read.
- 41%Refund to how you paid3,351 shops
- 29%Exchange only2,409 shops
- 14%Store credit only1,161 shops
- 16%Other terms1,303 shops
Share of the 8,224 checked shops in India whose website states a return policy, as of 3 Nov 2026.
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41% refund to how you paid. 43% give no money back for a change of mind, only an exchange or store credit. That's allowed when the shop says so before you buy. A damaged, wrong or fake item is different, whatever the policy says. What to do when a shop says no refund.
Return windows are short. Of the shops that take returns or exchanges and say how long you have, 78% give a week or less and 37% give three days or less.
24% of shop websites have no return policy we could find at all.
Cash on delivery
Only 18% of shop websites state their cash on delivery terms.
- 63%Full cash on delivery1,458 shops
- 19%Part paid upfront442 shops
- 18%No cash on delivery422 shops
Share of the 2,322 checked shops in India whose website states its cash on delivery terms, as of 3 Nov 2026.
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19% of them ask for part of the price upfront before they'll send a cash on delivery order. When a COD booking fee is normal.
Unboxing videos
17% (2,216) say they need an unboxing video before they'll accept a damage or wrong-item claim. Outside India it's 2%. Is an unboxing video mandatory?
How their Instagram looks
- Comments off. 13% (about 1 in 8) have comments turned off across their account or off or empty on most of their recent posts. Outside India it's 18%. What it means when comments are off.
- Gone quiet. 23% hadn't posted in months when we last checked. 54% had posted recently.
- New names. 328 sellers (about 1 in 130) changed their Instagram handle after we first found them. What a changed username means.
By account size, city and category
Bigger accounts are easier to check. 62% of accounts over 100,000 followers have a live website, against 24% of those under 10,000. Small accounts also turn comments off about 2.9 times as often (17% against 6%).
- Under 10,00021,674 sellersUnder 10,000: 17% (21,674 sellers)17%
- 10,000 to 100,00018,762 sellers10,000 to 100,000: 9% (18,762 sellers)9%
- Over 100,000619 sellersOver 100,000: 6% (619 sellers)6%
Share of checked sellers in India with comments off or empty on their recent posts, as of 3 Nov 2026.
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| Followers | Sellers | Live website | Walk-in shop | Comments off | No contact details |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10,000 | 21,674 | 24% | 14% | 17% | 24% |
| 10,000 to 100,000 | 18,762 | 40% | 20% | 9% | 17% |
| Over 100,000 | 619 | 62% | 25% | 6% | 12% |
Checked sellers in India, as of 3 Nov 2026. "Walk-in shop" means an open shop on Google Maps that matches them. "No contact details" means no phone number, WhatsApp number or email we could find.
Cities vary even more. In Noida, 79% of sellers have a live website. In 3 of the 24 cities in the table below, fewer than 1 in 5 do. Walk-in shops don't fill that gap. Cities where few sellers have a website don't have more sellers with a shop you can walk into. The table shows both for each city.
- Delhi3,173 sellers · 24% walk-in shopDelhi: 42% (3,173 sellers · 24% walk-in shop)42%
- Mumbai2,572 sellers · 22% walk-in shopMumbai: 45% (2,572 sellers · 22% walk-in shop)45%
- Surat1,846 sellers · 25% walk-in shopSurat: 28% (1,846 sellers · 25% walk-in shop)28%
- Ahmedabad1,558 sellers · 26% walk-in shopAhmedabad: 24% (1,558 sellers · 26% walk-in shop)24%
- Jaipur1,323 sellers · 19% walk-in shopJaipur: 44% (1,323 sellers · 19% walk-in shop)44%
- Bengaluru954 sellers · 24% walk-in shopBengaluru: 54% (954 sellers · 24% walk-in shop)54%
- Hyderabad925 sellers · 25% walk-in shopHyderabad: 33% (925 sellers · 25% walk-in shop)33%
- Chennai720 sellers · 27% walk-in shopChennai: 43% (720 sellers · 27% walk-in shop)43%
Share of checked sellers with a live website in the eight cities where we checked the most sellers, as of 3 Nov 2026.
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| City | Sellers | Live website | Walk-in shop | Comments off | No contact details |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delhi | 3,173 | 42% | 24% | 12% | 15% |
| Mumbai | 2,572 | 45% | 22% | 11% | 20% |
| Surat | 1,846 | 28% | 25% | 16% | 12% |
| Ahmedabad | 1,558 | 24% | 26% | 16% | 14% |
| Jaipur | 1,323 | 44% | 19% | 12% | 19% |
| Bengaluru | 954 | 54% | 24% | 15% | 17% |
| Hyderabad | 925 | 33% | 25% | 14% | 20% |
| Chennai | 720 | 43% | 27% | 12% | 15% |
| Pune | 590 | 37% | 25% | 12% | 18% |
| Gurugram | 537 | 71% | 25% | 11% | 12% |
| Kolkata | 524 | 49% | 26% | 12% | 19% |
| Ludhiana | 491 | 14% | 18% | 13% | 14% |
| Kochi | 460 | 36% | 15% | 7% | 26% |
| Indore | 440 | 22% | 22% | 8% | 15% |
| Jodhpur | 357 | 16% | 18% | 6% | 17% |
| Rajkot | 353 | 21% | 21% | 16% | 13% |
| Kozhikode | 344 | 24% | 13% | 16% | 28% |
| Coimbatore | 323 | 39% | 24% | 13% | 12% |
| Noida | 293 | 79% | 27% | 14% | 10% |
| Lucknow | 288 | 34% | 18% | 16% | 19% |
| Vadodara | 255 | 24% | 31% | 21% | 14% |
| Nagpur | 233 | 22% | 25% | 14% | 18% |
| Aizawl | 225 | 3% | 2% | 32% | 35% |
| Udaipur | 204 | 31% | 27% | 7% | 20% |
Cities with at least 200 checked sellers whose city we could confirm from their bio or website, as of 3 Nov 2026. The figures describe the sellers we found in each city, not every shop there.
| Category | Sellers | Live website | Walk-in shop | Comments off | No contact details |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fashion & Apparel | 20,566 | 25% | 15% | 13% | 22% |
| Jewelry & Accessories | 3,076 | 41% | 17% | 14% | 20% |
| Home & Kitchen | 2,199 | 52% | 22% | 16% | 15% |
| Industrial & Wholesale | 2,102 | 27% | 18% | 19% | 15% |
| Creative & Professional Services | 1,960 | 33% | 14% | 11% | 23% |
| Beauty & Personal Care | 1,185 | 52% | 14% | 8% | 18% |
| Automobile Accessories | 1,146 | 22% | 19% | 6% | 17% |
| Footwear | 1,040 | 19% | 17% | 15% | 20% |
| Gifts & Custom Products | 961 | 35% | 13% | 10% | 27% |
| Kids & Baby Products | 876 | 36% | 16% | 14% | 21% |
| Electronics & Gadgets | 809 | 36% | 23% | 14% | 14% |
| Business, Finance & Legal Services | 696 | 50% | 25% | 20% | 13% |
| Arts, Prints & Crafts | 613 | 42% | 13% | 8% | 32% |
| Dining, Cafes & Hospitality | 525 | 54% | 24% | 10% | 16% |
| Groceries & Food | 494 | 61% | 26% | 12% | 19% |
| Education, Coaching & Classes | 455 | 42% | 17% | 11% | 24% |
| Bags, Luggage & Travel | 446 | 46% | 16% | 10% | 20% |
| Events & Wedding Services | 370 | 28% | 14% | 15% | 30% |
| Health & Wellness | 309 | 63% | 26% | 13% | 18% |
| Toys, Games & Collectibles | 209 | 45% | 11% | 8% | 34% |
Categories with at least 200 checked sellers in India, as of 3 Nov 2026. Sellers we couldn't place in a category aren't shown.
What this means if you're buying
None of these numbers says a shop is a scam. They show what you can check and how often there's nothing to check. Before you pay a shop you found on Instagram:
- Open their website and tap the Instagram icon. It should open the account you're on. How to check.
- Look for one phone number in two places, like their bio and their website. A shop with no number at all is harder to hold to anything.
- Read the return policy before you order, not after something goes wrong. Exchange-only policies explained.
- Ask about cash on delivery terms upfront. When a booking fee is normal.
- Record the parcel as you open it. How to record an unboxing video.
- If comments are off, check them another way. What to look at instead.
- Know what to do if a payment goes wrong. Paid by UPI and got scammed?
You can also look up any seller on VouchKart to see these checks for that shop.
How we did it
- Who's included. Instagram accounts VouchKart found and confirmed as sellers, with a public account we could still find, added by 3 Nov 2026. 41,055 of the 63,606 sellers we've checked worldwide are in India.
- Where a seller is. Taken from the seller's own bio or website. A Google Maps listing alone never decides it.
- What each figure means. Each figure counts what the seller's VouchKart page shows, using the same checks. A website counts when it was live when we read it. Parked and offline sites don't count. A walk-in shop counts when an open Google Maps listing matches the seller and Google lists it as a place you can visit.
- Small groups. A city, category or follower group needs at least 200 sellers to get its own row. Smaller groups still count in every total.
- What we left out. Buyer reviews, because there are too few yet to say anything reliable. We also don't publish anything about a single seller.
- How we collect it. We describe what we measured, not how we fetched it. How we check sellers.
Spotted an error? Email [email protected]. Corrections are noted here with the date.
Download the data
Every figure and chart in this report is free to reuse under CC BY 4.0. Credit VouchKart and link to this page. Each chart above has its own download link.
The figures come as CSV files, with counts as well as percentages. None of them holds anything about a single seller:
To cite it: VouchKart, "Is Instagram shopping in India safe? What we found checking 41,000 sellers", data as of 3 Nov 2026, vouchkart.com/research/instagram-sellers-india-report-2026.