Meesho existing model: Social E-commerce Platform Business with 3 sides, B2B + B2C
Meesho
Suppliers Consumer
s
Re-Sellers
Objective: Scale Meesho to become the one stop consumer e-commerce destination
Methodology:
1. Secondary Research: Read articles to understand Meesho’s model & growth strategy
2. Primary Research (Qualitative):
3. Gather insights from the research and suggest improvements across the value chain
Primary Research: PI with potential suppliers (Green: Opportunities for Meesho; Red: Areas to Work for
Meesho)
Respondent 1 Respondent 2
Q1. What products do you sell ?
Kurti, Bedsheets, Show pieces Lehenga, gowns, sharara, jewellery
Q2. Do you manufacture the products yourself or only retail?
Only Retail Only Retail
Q3. What channels do you use for selling your products
At home selling & Whatsapp Whatsapp, Instagram and Facebook
Q4. Who are your customers? Do you sell pan India?
Mostly in Durgapur, some friends across India Currently only in Bhilai, planning to expand to
nearby cities
Q5. How do you deliver goods to customers?
Takeaway for within Durgapur, for other cities Takeaway/meet at common spot in Bhilai,
using GATI or Blue Dart courier services for other cities
Q6. How do you receive the payment?
Through Gpay, Paytm or Cash Gpay, Paytm, Cash, PhonePe
Q7. How do you manage returns? What is the frequency of returns?
Generally no returns, within same city can be Haven’t seen return request, need to plan for that
managed, for pan India users would have to in the future
bear the courier charges
Q8. Would you like to list yourself on platform like Meesho?
Do not know much about the features and how I am well aware of Meesho’s platform, but I am still
listing on a platform can boost my business, I have not confident about my business and want to set
heard it is good, may try if someone helps me out things right in one city first before planning for pan
India expansion, I suspect that I may not fulfil
Meesho’s requirements
1. Respondent 1: Married Woman, House Wife, Age: 45, Middle Class, Husband works in PSU as a
manager, Tier 3 city, looks for productive ways of engagement and feeling of pride and independence
2. Respondent 2: Unmarried Woman, Left IT job after 4 years, started business, Age: 28, Lower Middle
Class, Tier 4 city, Aspirational, information seeking, data-driven
Primary Research: Survey with 5 existing users of Meesho & 2 potential buyers (who installed the app but no
purchase). Questions asked:
1) आप meesho पर कबसे समान खरीद रहे हैं ? आपने पहली बार meesho के बारे में कब और कहा सु ना?
2) Amazon और Flipkart के होते हुए, आप meesho पर समान क्ोों खरीदते है?
3) आपको Meesho पर समान की variety कैसी लगी?
4) Meesho पर समान खरीदते समय आपकी price और quality की क्ा expectation रहती है? क्ा आप Amazon जैसी
expectation रखते है या उससे कम?
5) क्ा आप Meesho पर सामान ककसी खास occassion पर खरीदते है या normal day to day?
6) क्ा आपको Meesho पर आपका मनचाहा सामान आसानी से कमल जाता है ? App पर सामान ढों ढने ककतना आसान या
मुश्किल है ?
7) क्ा Meesho पर आपको मनचाहा सामान हर बार कमल जाता है , या आपको कई बार Meesho पर सामान न कमलने के
कारण कही और से समान खरीदना पड़ता?
8) Meesho पर order का delivery average ककतना समय लेता है ? क्ा यह समय Amazon ya Flipkart कजतना ही है या
उससे कम या ज्यादा?
9) Meesho पर ऐसा ककतनी बार हुआ है की सामान expected delivery date से बहुत बाद आया हो या किर आया ही न हो?
10) Meesho पर retruns करना ककतना आसान या मुश्किल है ? Return करने के बाद आपके account me पैसे ककतने कदन
में आ जाते ?
User 1: Woman, Age:25, Upper Middle Class, Frequent user of Amazon, Repetitive Buyer, Been using for
last 1 year, heard about it through Facebook ads, go to Meesho for buying basic items when the budget is tight,
Variety is not too good, not too bad, only buy on discounts, App interface not good, difficult to search items,
many instances when she switched from Meesho to Flipkart due to not finding item, does not expect fast delivery
from Meesho due to its cheap image, found the return process comfortable
User 2: Woman, Age:35, Lower Middle Class, New to E-commerce, Repetitive Buyer
Been using for 4 months, liked the variety and quality of products, budget suits our income, buy on all types of
occasions, no issues in finding products, delivery is good, never returned
User 3,4 & 5: Lower Middle Class, Frequent Buyers
Been using for 1 year, heard about it through Social Media ads, highly impressed with variety and capturing
new trends, easy to navigate app, Delivery is very late, fast returns/refunds
Potential User 1: Man, Age: 25, Diploma Technician Have heard a lot about Meesho, but I was reluctant to
install due to poor reviews on play store and instagram page. On installing, I could not get my favourite
brands on it. The app does not allow adding multiple items on cart
Potential User 2: Man, Age:35, Mess Worker I cannot read English and so I am not able to use any e-
commerce platform. I wanted to try Meesho as it was cheap but when I saw English I left
Growth Strategy Timeline:
For the 2-3 years, Meesho should continue with its market penetration strategy to get maximum
suppliers and users on board. After establishing their position in the market then they can look for
diversification of products and services and also charging some premium from customers (Similar to
Jio model in telecom)
Explore the SuperApp format like WeChat in China or Paytm in India to become one-stop solution
for all internet based services for Tier 3 & below cities
The re-selling option cannot be the USP of the platform in the long run. As more users start re-
selling and awareness of Meesho as a platform rises, people would start identifying that the person is
sharing products from Meesho and instead of buying at a commission from the re-seller would
themselves go to Meesho to buy the product
Recommendations across the platform:
On-boarding more suppliers: (1) Mass advertisements on TV and social media with inspiring actual
stories of small businesses flourishing due to Meesho. Small scale business persons (like R1 in our
survey) are unaware of the benefits that they will get such as assortment planning, demand forecasting,
product suggestions etc. which Meesho can provide with the data it has.
Meesho Assistant: Users visiting supplier.meesho.com should get Instagram and facebook ads of
booking an appointment with Meesho Assistant to clarify their apprehensions (such as R2 in our
survey). Offer consultancy to small businesses on-boarded on platform in terms of growth and
expansion strategies on Chat/Helpline
Customer Acquisition Strategy: Improvements across customer journey funnel
Awareness Scale-up current SEM and ATL campaigns
Consideration Ensure that negative reviews are promptly addressed and issues when resolved are also
mentioned on the thread with relevant pics
Conversion Voice-based search or Multi-Lingual support with regional languages to enable lesser
educated people to use the platform. (Potential User 2 in survey)
“Offer of the day” with timer on app & website
Meesho Credits on app installation for in-app purchases
First Time User discount coupons, Refer & Earn
Have separate Buy Now & Add to Cart feature on app to enable user to have greater
bucket size
Allow ordering from multiple sellers in the same order simultaneously as in other e-
commerce sites
Include “People also Buy” after completion of purchase
Retention Loyalty Programs such as Meesho Champion for regular buyers, giving them
additional offers and limited deals
Leverage Meesho Community for engagement & promotions: Add options of
uploading short videos/reels on purchase of product, encourage users to upload product
reviews with product links (similar to competitor SimSim, Bulbul)
Incentivize activity on community by giving coins for posting content, for sharing
content, etc.
Improve delivery speed and timeline by optimizing the Supply Chain
Advocacy #Meeshopreneurs – Influencer marketing to be used to attract sellers on social media
through success stories of regional best sellers who will be called meeshopreneurs
#Meesho-ite – Influencers promoting the app to consumers on social media
Vision of Meesho SuperApp – Categories to be expanded into based on TG:
1. Refurbished and second hand items: Market Size $10-15 billion, Growth Rate: 9%
(smartphones)
2. Financial Services - Insurance on items sold on Meesho, vehicle insurance, health insurance,
device insurance. Insurance penetration only 3-5% in India and growth rate is 5-6%
3. Utilities: Bill Payments - Telephone, Electricity, Gas Bookings
Conclusion: Meesho has strong growth potential and that is the reason that it has been receiving strong funding
from renowned investors. Since the e-commerce industry in India is crowded and already existing players like
Amazon, Flipkart and Paytm have a strong grip on the market in Tier 1 & 2 cities due to their efficiencies and
economies of scale, Meesho’s strategy to target the Tier 3 and lower segment is the best way to go forward.
The customer behaviour in this segment is very different from those in Tier 1 & 2. Most of the people are new to
e-commerce and are highly price sensitive. If Meesho aims to penetrate the Tier 3 and below market, then out of
all the recommendations suggested above,
1) Must provide Voice-based Search/ Multi-lingual support and also video-based selling like in
SimSim or Bulbul which can be leverage by their own Meesho Community platform.
2) Also, in the short-term, order expected delivery timelines are much higher than other e-commerce
players and there are multiple complaints on social media/playstore/own app regarding the same. This
needs to be addressed on priority as Word of Mouth plays a key role in Tier 3 and below regions
3) Over the years, Meesho should expand on categories and services to become a Super App
