India's leading social commerce startup Meesho is famously entitled to mobilize and empower women entrepreneurs. Read the story to find out the growth story of this unicorn.
Crux of the Matter
Funding Story
On 30th Sep, Meesho raised $570 million, doubling its valuation to $4.9 billion in less than 6 months. In April 2021, Meesho had become India’s first social commerce startup to enter the unicorn club (valuation > $1bn).
The Back Story
Founded by IIT Graduates Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal in 2015, Meesho stands for Meri E-Shop (My E-Shop). Retailers can sell their products on social media platforms via Meesho’s platform.
How It Works?
Step A: Suppliers put up their products for sale on the Meesho app.
Step B: Any individual user of Meesho app can earn money via sharing product images on various social media handles. These individuals are known as resellers.
Step C: When liked by the customer, the reseller is asked to fill in the required details.
Step D: The reseller adds his/her margin to the seller’s quoted price and places order on behalf of the customer.
Step E: A Meesho executive picks up the order from retailer and delivers it to the end user.
Success Mantra
Meesho charges 10%-20% commission from the suppliers on each product sold via its platform. Resellers’ earning comes from the margin that they have quoted above the seller’s price.
It enables entrepreneurs to start their own business with zero investment! Not to forget, Meesho does not own, sell or resell any of the products displayed on its platform. It operates just like Zomato for food or Grofers for groceries.
Curiopedia
H&M is the second-largest global clothing retailer. The largest global clothing retailer is Spain-based Inditex, the parent company of Zara.