Meesho Is Going The Small Business Route to Big Success
How we tapped into the hopes of budget shoppers in small town India to stick it to e-commerce giants In 2014, when Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal were tossing around ideas for a new business, they discussed e-commerce a lot. The difference? Unlike Net-A-Porter, or sites in a similar vein of Amazon selling smartphones and large screen TVs in India\\’s megacities–the two reasoned that because more than 85% of retail in India is unorganized unregistered mom-and-pop stores, they could try to bring this kind of economy online. Now, ten years later, near Technologies Private Limited, the parent company behind e-commerce platform Meesho, is looking for a ₹4, 250 crore (US$600 million) initial public offering (IPO) after a shakeup in its board of directors.
My shop’ to Meesho
If Flipkart is the market leader in e-commerce, Meesho, which recorded revenues worth ₹7,615 crore in 2024, is as strong contender alongside the likes of American giant Amazon. The second major pillar was the company’s decision to concentrate on second, third and fourth tier cities, a market that was left mostly un-looted.
“We don’t sell smartphones. We don’t sell TVs.
We don’t sell any brands either,” Aatrey, the company’s chief executive, told this writer in 2023. “We do not cater to the top 20 or 30 million in India (in terms of the population). We serve everyone beyond. So you know that we do not compete against them (Flipkart, Amazon).’ Meesho sold unbranded products that cost less than ₹500, and developed a network of women resellers who lacked the means to run stores, but had the necessary skills to create saleable products. The e-commerce platform remained flexible on commissions, with none charged in some instances.
🔵ऐसे डेली न्यूज़ देखने के लिए हमारे टेलेग्राम चैनल ज्वाइन करें
🟢ऐसे डेली न्यूज़ देखने के लिए हमारे व्हाट्सएप चैनल ज्वाइन करें
Based in Bengaluru, the company lets users sell by sharing product listings on WhatsApp,
Facebook and Instagram, all Meta-owned properties. What Aatrey discovered in their few days experimenting is that many small businesses use social media services to get to new and old customers. Being aware that small businesses are often led by older people who are less likely to shift online,
Meesho concentrated on an interface that was easy to use.
Because that customer was primarily using a low-end phone, Meesho built one of the smallest apps around in terms of size, so downloading it wasn’t a problem. Third, it released in several languages, which gave it pan-India reach. “Amazon and Flipkart are fighting fiercely, investing themselves on the line and trying to one-up each other. In the meantime, Meesho has quietly built a solid execution model ground up in small towns that Amazon and Flipkart have not really started to have a narrow focus on,” says Vaitheeswaran.
