Online e-commerce player Meesho is the new crorepati factory

• India's first social commerce platform has turned 1.23 lakh small business owners into lakhpatis.
  
• Meesho has overtaken Amazon and Flipkart in terms of user penetration in tier 2 to tier 4 cities of India.
  
• Compressed app size, explainer videos on doing business, monthly visits to households of small businessmen is how Meesho is capturing India’s rural heartland.

At 13 years of age, Divyanjali Mishra is a year short of the legal age to work in India but the entrepreneurial bug bit this teen after she saw her brother-in-law become successful online.

She too followed the same path to make and sell t-shirts, wallets and belts on Meesho – an enterprise that made her a crorepati before she turned 18. Her businesses HK Traders and Parthasarathi Enterprises have an annual turnover of ₹24 crore, processing 3,000-4,000 orders per day that she receives from Meesho.

Her business now employs over 30 women – all under the age of 23 and coming from economically weaker backgrounds.

Light and fast

Social commerce app Meesho has given wings to many such young, restless, ambitious and talented entrepreneurs across the country – at least 8,000 sellers on Meesho have turned crorepatis since January 2021.

As many as 1.23 lakh small business owners have turned into lakhpatis on Meesho.

With over 127 million users in August 2022 alone, what is driving this unicorn's customer and seller growth? One trait that’s common between Meesho and its sellers is speed.

"Our vision is to democratise internet e-commerce. When the cost of trying out a business online is massively reduced and onboarding happens within 12 hours, more sellers come onboard," said Megha Agarwal, CXO, user growth at Meesho, in an interview with Business Insider India.

It also has features unique to small businesses and new enterprises – like the 7-day payment feature. When these sellers are paid faster, they can re-invest faster and hence chase growth. It also helps cover some risks with the ‘Zero penalty’ feature, where sellers are not penalised for self or auto cancellation of orders, Meesho said.

Meesho's app is also the lightest e-commerce app in India at 13.6 MB. Flipkart’s app takes up 18 MB of space while Amazon requires 59 MB.

"Our customers are mostly from tier 2, tier 3 and tier 4 cities of India. We are aware that customers don't always have smartphones with high data storage. Thus we made our app very light. To make the process of onboarding easier, we are now providing the app in nine vernacular languages," said Agarwal.

Meesho, which is backed by Facebook and SoftBank, currently has 360 million downloads – 175 million of these in the last year alone.

How does Meesho churn out entrepreneurs from rural India?

The social e-commerce team at Meesho conducts monthly travel sessions with the team to the hometowns of their businessmen and businesswomen. It also provides monetary initial boost to sellers who are coming onboard for the first time.

“Additionally, we provide free ad credits worth ₹1,200 to all new suppliers who create 7 live catalogues milestones within the first two weeks of their journey,” said Meesho.

To promote ease of doing business, the unicorn has created two activation teams dedicated to understanding how to make it easy for sellers who are uneducated.

"To improve comprehension and reduce friction, we have created two activation teams from both the seller and user side. Over 20 plus videos exist to educate about sales online. Even the stories we pick to celebrate are meant to be encouraging for small business owners, making us friendly and approachable, " said Agarwal.

Over 35% of the seller base from tier 4 regions

The social e-commerce app is trying to reach the rural heartland of India.

Over 35% of the Meesho seller base hailed from tier 4 regions. In June 2022 alone, there were 23,000 seller registrations – the highest ever from tier 4 cities. Mandi in Himachal Pradesh; Muzaffarnagar and Unnao in Uttar Pradesh; Buhana, Paota, and Kaman in Rajasthan are popular tier 4 business spots for Meesho.

Nearly 41% of all Meesho sellers hail from tier 2+ regions such as Hisar, Panipat and Tiruppur, among others.

According to a Bernstein report 2022, the sweet spot for e-commerce growth in India is from tier 2 and tier 3 cities. Meesho is outperforming Amazon and Flipkart when it comes to these cities, it reported.

In spite of having 700,000 sellers on its platform, Amazon is yet to gain ground in a very important category in India — tier 2 and tier 3 markets.

One of India's fastest e-commerce companies, Meesho is looking forward to expanding its portfolio to 100 million sellers with the upcoming festivities. The Meesho blockbuster sale beginning from 23rd September will offer products at prices that are 15% lower than that offered by the big e-commerce platforms, claims the company.

SEE ALSO: Fashion forward: These startups are converting waste into bags and clothes
Most Indians to spend more than ₹10,000 on shopping in the upcoming festive season, says report
WhatsApp Pay India head Mahatme quits, likely to return to Amazon Pay