ST ANNES FIRST GRADE COLLEGE FOR

WOMEN

CASE STUDY
ON
MEESHO

Submitted Guided
By BY
SOUMYA.A DR.PRIYA MS

1
 Acknowledgement

I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to

my teacher DR.Priya Ms , for her guidance and
encourangement and sharing me the innovative ideas
for choosing this topic and helping to accomplish.which
also helped me in doing a lot of Research and I came to
know about so many things I am really thankful to
them.
Secondly I would also like to thank my parents and
friends who helped me a lot in finalizing this within the
limited time frame

2
 Index
SL NO CONTENT PG NO
1 Meesho introduction,logo and
tagline
2 History and transition
3 Funding and value preposition
4 Marketing strategies and social
media influencer
5 Works and growth plans
6 Business plan and distribution
strategy
7 Challenges of business model
8 Strength and weakness
9 Meesho primary partners and
revenue model
10 Cost structure and earning process
11 Meesho competitors
12 Key activities of meesho
13 Meesho YOY and social media
traffic chart
14 Meesho boundryless workplace
15 Meesho success story
16 Conclusion
17 References

3
MEESHO INTRODUCTION

Meesho is an e-commerce platform, and one

of India’s first, that focuses on the housewives of our
country, allowing them to open their online retailing
stores with zero investment and no inventory
whatsoever.

Some of the most likable categories on the online app

are jewellery, clothing, accessories, home, and kitchen
appliances, etc.

The seller lists all his products on the app with accurate
details of the product.

The reseller then uses this information provided in

the reselling catalo of the app and shares it with
potential buyers via FB groups, What Sapp, etc.

Once the buyer is ready to buy, the reseller only has to

fill in their delivery details and place the order, the
Mesh app handles the rest.

Mesh’s value estimate is above $4.9 billion and is

backed by many high-profile investors in the market.
This social commerce startup is one of its kind in the
entire industry. It has acquired over 100M+ App
downloads and 65M+ active customers.

4
Meesho’s logo and tagline

Meesho means "Meri Shop" or "Apni Dukaan"

in Hindi, which justifies the service it provides. Meesho
aspires to build an environment where anybody can
establish a business with no financial investment.
Meesho New Logo - The company's new logo depicts
"Aam" as hospitable and welcoming while reflecting
“Jamunis” relationship with desire. The company's
position as a comprehensive platform serving the daily
needs of Indian shoppers will be reinforced by this
rebranding initiative, which will also increase its
attractiveness and resonance with consumers.
Meesho tagline "Not just a homemaker”, a Meesho
Entrepreneur," is the company's tagline

5
History

Meesho is the creation of two IIT graduates, Vidit

Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal. It was founded in 2015
after they quit their jobs at InMobi.

The two main goals of their startup were to empower

the housewives of the country and support Micro,
Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).

They saw that numerous resellers were at that point

selling merchandise through WhatsApp, yet their range
was restricted because they could only convey their
products locally, to small groups.

They likewise figured out that the majority of the shops

enrolled on MEESHO were owned by women, and

6
these women sold their merchandise out of their homes
as opposed to in any actual shops.

Meesho’s ongoing plan of action has been constructed

thinking about these realities and issues, and as of now,
with Meesho, women can easily launch their small
business from home, without any stock at hand.

So, in a way, Meesho has revolutionized this particular

industry and paved the way for many similar
businesses. However, “Meesho” wasn’t the initial brand
name that the founders came up with. They launched
the startup with the name Fashnear. If it would have
been in operation today, it would have been equivalent
to what Zomato is for food; and what Grofers is for
groceries.
The founders wanted to introduce a new choice-based
method of shopping. For instance, a user could pick 3
items at once, which the delivery executive will take to
their home. Upon delivery, they could choose one or
more of the 3 products and pay only for those. The
delivery executive would carry back the rest with him.

Since its inception, Meesho has been winning awards

and breaking new ground left, right, and center. In
2016, it was chosen as one of the first three Indian
startups to ever be selected by Y Combator to
participate in its three-month summer program. It was
also one of the first companies to participate in Google
Launchpad - the Solve for India progress.

7
A transition from Fashnear to Meesho

Before Meesho came up in 2015,

the original idea was somewhat different. The original
startup was called ‘FashNear’, a shopping app with
highly curated inventory from nearby fashion stores.

A buyer could order up to three items and get them

delivered to their doorstep. However, if they did not
like any item, they could return it to the delivery person
and keep the rest.

However, the founders could not keep up with the

demand and the quality required for the startup to
succeed. Thus, this unrealistic idea was dropped.

FashNear gave way to another new idea of allowing

small business owners to open digital shops. According
to this model, any person could log in using their
Facebook credentials and open online shop.

8
Meesho funding history
It has raised funding in various rounds over time.

A 3-month summer program headlined by The

Mountain View and Y Combinator raised a sum of
$120,000 in July 2016. During the same year, angel
investors Rahul Garg and Kashyap Deorah invested an
undisclosed amount in the startup.

Their first major funding was in 2017 when Meesho

raised $3.1 million in series A funding led by Indian
capital firm SAIF Partners.

The company’s series B funding round raised $11.5

million led by Sequoia India in 2018. In the same year,
its series C funding raised worth $50 million.

The startup raised $125 million in the Series D round

Meesho is a phenomenal story .it is a category –

creating startup , not just a category –defining one ,’’
says Amit somani ,managing partner at prime ventures

Meesho has raised a total funding of $1.06B over 10

rounds. It's first funding round was on May 05, 2016.
It's latest funding round was a Series F round on Sep
29, 2021 for $570M. 9 investors participated in it's
latest round, lead by B Capital Group, Fidelity
Investments.

9
Meesho’s value preposition

For consumer:
The most serious issue with online shopping in India is
the absence of trust. In the total number of inhabitants
of 1.38 billion, not many individuals shop online (150
million) and, surprisingly even lesser go for repeat
purchases.

The reason for this quite less number is the feeling of

dread toward being misled or tricked, particularly
concerning purchasing items from another dealer or
site.

Meesho tackles this problem smartly, bringing resellers

into action. Resellers are very much trusted in their
communities thus taking out the fear of theft and scam
from the minds of the buyers enabling them to place
their orders at ease.

For resellers:
Meesho gives affiliates a stage to begin and develop
their own business with zero inventory and investments.
It sources items from providers at discounted prices and
offers the same to resellers to offer to their community
groups.Sellers create an organized shop on Meesho and
share their products via Facebook and Whatsapp.
10
Meesho’s marketing strategies
Meesho is one of the newest companies to
become a unicorn company in its first 6 years. The
startup gives high competition to big companies like
Amazon and Flipkart while also challenging them with
its unique proposition and marketing strategies, causing
their downfall down the line.

Meesho has inculcated unique and never-heard-before

marketing strategies that favor its audience like no other
brand. Let’s see some of their major marketing
strategies in this Meesho case study.

Online shopping sites like Amazon, Flipkart, and

Myntra are super popular. Now, another platform,
Meesho, has entered the market. It is a social e-
commerce platform that provides a wide range of
products.
Meesho, apart from selling, allows the customers to
resell the products in their social network. In recent
times, the platform has become extremely popular. This
has been possible because of the eye-catching
marketing strategies of Meesho.
Meesho is india’s largest platform,with 20,000
manufacturer and over 2.6 million resellers,influenced
by marketing strategies always been the forefront for
several reasons.It is a budget friendly ,highly flexible
and extremely effective tool that brings in quality leads.

11
Social media and influencer marketing
The best and easiest way to connect with a large
audience is through Social Media. As people spend a lot
of time online, Meesho has adopted this method where
they engage with their followers and on their customer
and post.Meesho also used the technique of influencer
marketing to gain the trust of its audience.

These influencers promote Meesho’s products on their

social media channels through posts and videos, in turn
getting a commission from Meesho. Another social
media tactic used by Meesho is capitalizing on the
‘meme wave’ as memes are more popular and an
interesting way to promote brands.

Facebook and YouTube ads:

Ads are a full-proof method to increase any business
and Meesho is no different. When anyone clicks on
these ads, they are redirected to Meesho’s website
which helps the company gain more traffic.

The brand targets mainly women audience through this

strategy, inducing a sentimental yet empowering value
towards the women of India. This strategy focuses on
providing women the means to financial freedom,
especially housewives, by doing something inside the
four walls of their homes.

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How does meesho work?
Before you move forward to start a
business, your understanding of how Meesho reselling
works is important as it provides a platform for resellers
and suppliers to sell their products. As a reseller, you can
place orders for other companies on Meesho.
In return, you will get a commission on each sale. The
resellers' business names and addresses will be visible to
customers. This way, you can make a profit without
dealing with shipping. You can also earn a commission
from reselling other people's products.
As a reseller, you will be able to suggest products to your
audience, which means you won't run out of products to
sell. Moreover, Meesho's app allows you to add
additional margins to your sales. In addition, resellers are
usually homemakers from India. You don't need to invest
in capital to sell on Meesho. You will also receive
guidance on how to run a business online.
Distributors will receive alerts on their phones when
potential customers view their stores. The distributors
then forward the details on WhatsApp, thereby
eliminating the delivery pain.
This method also reduces inventory costs. Because
Meesho uses WhatsApp messaging to exchange
products, it does not require capital and is more likely to
attract female distributors. for all parties to win.

13
Meesho’s growth plans
The primary objective of Meesho is to help
sellers establish an easy online presence and resellers
earn money without the hassle of investments,inventory
and shipping. It started to scale its business. All that is
necessary is a good internet connection and time to get
along with your community, convincing them to buy
your products.

Recent reports suggest that Meesho is looking to

onboard 100 million small businesses and provide
strong competition on Amazon and Flipkart.

They have also included a new category, Farmiso, in an

attempt to rebrand and provide FMCG products giving
direct competition to brands like BigBasket and
Jiomart.

Ease of use and low prices, the platform has carved out
a market for itself and grown in popularity among both
consumers and sellers. Meesho offers quick, safe
transactions as well as affordable shipping and returns.
Meesho is trusted by more than 2.6 million resellers in
India.

The founders wanted to introduce a new choice-based

method of shopping. For instance, a user could pick 3
items at once, which the delivery executive will take to
their home. Upon delivery, they could choose one or
more of the 3 products and pay only for those.
14
Meesho’s business model & distribution
strategy
Once the startup acquired a product-market fit
and established its agenda of empowering housewives
to create their own identity and earn, it started to scale
its business. Here’s how Meesho’s business model and
distribution strategy work!

As their target industry is fashion and their target

audience is women, they approached various
influencers and Youtubers for collaborations.

While they paid a minimal collaboration cost to them,

these influencers shared Meesho’s products spread over
200 different categories and its easy-to-use app with
their respective communities through videos and posts,
Meesho became a big hit in the social commerce
industry.

Even its first TVC was focused on women breaking the

housewife stereotypes and creating their own identity.
The ad empowered women to realize their potential and
become entrepreneurs in an easy yet effective manner.

It started to scale its business. Here’s how Meesho’s

business model and distribution strategy work . Meesho
offers quick, safe transactions as well as affordable
shipping and returns

15
The Challenges of the Meesho Business
Model

While the business model of Meesho may

be revolutionary, it is not without its challenges. It's
important to check what challenges you can face while
High Distribution Cost.Meesho financials get a hard hit
from distribution costs. It's tough to develop a price-
conscious user base and maintain the same without
enough money.
1.Inconsistent Product Quality
Many Meesho buyers have complained about the quality
degradation of merchandise they bought from Meesho.
2.Late Delivery
Meesho doesn't stand in the competition regarding
delivery time compared to e-commerce giants operating
in India. Deliveries are generally late.
3.Slow Customer Service
Customer service is another factor Meesho needs to
consider and bring betterment. Bad customer service can
easily create a negative image of this e-commerce giant.

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Meesho strengths
1.Ranking:
Meesho is ranked 1st in the top 10 reselling platforms in
India.

2.Empowering Women Entrepreneurs:

Meesho’s great strength is empowering Indian women

to run their home-based businesses and build new
businesses and identities for themselves.

3.Easy to Become a Supplier:

To become a Meesho supplier, you just need to

download the Meesho app or open a website. Once you
have selected the option “Become a Provider,” you will
be directed to a short form to complete your details.
Once your account is set up, you can start promoting
your business and delivering orders straight away via
Meesho.

4.Start with Zero Investment:

To join the hundreds of thousands of resellers who are

making money through Meesho, you don’t have to
invest any amount of money. All you’ll simply need is

17
to establish a reseller account and begin reselling
through Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram.

5.Customer Loyalty Program:

Meesho introduced VIP Membership to encourage its

resellers. In this membership, if any resellers complete
15+ orders within 30 days, they’ll get an additional 10%
discount on their products.

6.Community Building:

Meesho wants to grow as a community. That’s why

they’ve launched a platform called Meesho Learning
Hub, where resellers can learn to sell online and grow
their business.

Meesho weakness

Weaknesses are those areas where a business or

brand needs improvements. Some of the major flaws of
Meesho are as follows:

1.Low-Quality Products:

Most of Meesho’s suppliers are local and not registered

brands, that’s why most of the time the quality of the
end products is very low.

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2.No Free Website for Resellers:

Most of Meesho’s competitors like GlowRoad,

Shop101, etc. are providing free personal websites to
their resellers but Meesho hasn’t adapted it yet. This
can cause major problems for Meesho and its resellers
in near future.

3.Pickup Problem:

One of the common problems some resellers face on

Meesho is the pickup problem. Sometimes no one
comes to pick up products from retailers which causes
orders to get cancelled which in turn results in a penalty
being imposed on resellers.

4.Dependent on One Nation:

Meesho is heavily dependent on India and is at risk

from foreign players
.
5.Fraudulent Resellers:

There are a large number of fraudulent resellers on

Meesho. Despite Meesho’s excellent efforts, these types
of resellers continue to exist.

19
Meesho’s primary partners
The platform depends on five key partners.

1.Suppliers
Meesho has collaborated with providers from everywhere in
India to offer several different items. These providers
incorporate wholesalers, manufacturers, and merchants who
list their items on the Meesho app. These suppliers get
guaranteed payments and zero penalties on late dispatches
along with a few other added benefits.

2.Marketing partners:
Meesho’s marketing strategies are prolific. It has partnered
with marketing companies like DVio Digital to cater to
its marketing needs. Meesho also has an affiliate marketing
program where it rewards its influencers for bringing in new
sales and customers.

3.Financial partners:
The company is backed by Venture companies and
angels including YC, Facebook, Naspers, Sequoia
Capital, Shunwei Capital, and SAIF Partners.

4.Shipping partners:
Delivery, Ecom Express, and Blue Dart are some of
Meesho’s leading logistics partners that ensure quick
and secured deliveries.

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Meesho’s revenue model
Meesho’s revenue model has the following
prospects .

1.Commissions : Meesho charges 10-20%

commission on each sale made through their app or
website.

2.Penalty : Every time an order is returned due to

poor quality or damaged condition, Meesho charges a
penalty cost to the seller.

3.Advertisements : Meesho runs paid ads on its

platform to help sellers rank their products higher than
their competitors.

4.Logistics : Meesho provides all the assistance for

packaging and delivering the products to the customer’s
doorstep. This in-house assistance helps sellers save
time and energy, while Meesho earns from the same.

5.Float Money : Meesho holds the payment for 7-10

days after delivery. This money can be used for
investments and loans thus making good returns and
interest.

21
Meesho’s in-house cost structure
Running a commercial center is not a simple
accomplishment and it accompanies a ton of expenses.
Here is a speedy summary of the Meesho cost structure:

1.Technology costs :
Meesho has an in-house technical team looking out for
ways to improve the platform and make it more user-
friendly. The technology costs include server costs,
CDN costs, and other related framework costs.

2.Marketing costs :
Meesho’s marketing strategies require a significant
amount of that including TV commercials, affiliate
marketing, online ads, campaigns, etc.

3.Payment processing fee :

Apps like Paytm, Gpay, Phonepay, etc charge a
processing fee on each payment done through them.

4.General costs :
These include salaried employees, legal advisors, and
overhead costs Meesho charges a 0% commission rate
from suppliers across all product categories. With no
seller commission, Meesho is the most profitable
platform for you to sell products online.Deposited
balance and future payments on the Meesho Supplier
22
How anyone can start earning with
Meesho
Anyone can start earning through Meesho.
Meesho provides a wide range of products spread
across 200+ categories.

You can make a curated list of products depending on

what your community desires and are likely to buy
easily and share it via social media apps like Facebook,
Whatsapp, and Instagram.

With each sale, you will earn a commission as allotted

by the Meesho guidelines.

One added benefit here is that you get to set your profit
margin on each product individually. Once a customer
is ready to order, you have to add your profit margin to
the cost of the product listed on the Meesho app
including shipping and tell the final price to the
customer.

After the order is delivered, you will receive your

payment in 7-10 working days as stated in Meesho’s
guidelines.

In the case of COD orders, the customer has to pay the

delivery executive itself. Once Meesho receives the
payment through their agents, your payment will be
credited after 10 working days.

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Meesho competitors
Today, the social commerce market is
expanding, and apps like Bulbul, Simsim, Citymall, and
Glowroad are proving to be good competition.
However, none have them are as good a crowd-pleaser
as Meesho.

Meesho gives heavy competition due to its logistics

network. Meesho targets tier-2/3 + cities with people
looking to buy cheap products with an average value of
Rs 500.

Thus, with products being cost-effective, Meesho

receives a higher daily order value as compared to its
competitors offering high utilization to its logistics
partners. This not only reduces its logistic cost but the
savings are then used to make the platform supplier
friendly.

Thus, this Meesho case study explains well how

Meesho has a unique proposition that is difficult to
duplicate or reciprocate for its competitors.

Meesho is a social commerce platform that connects

suppliers with resellers on social media platforms like
WhatsApp and Facebook. They earn a commission on
each sale made by a reseller, while suppliers can reach a
wider audience without having to manage their own
online store.

24
Key activities of the Meesho model
1.It provides a marketplace for all buyers and sellers to
co-exist together and carry out business.
2. Meesho has an in-house team assigned to quality
control all the products being sold through the app.

3.Meesho has a built-in catalog to allow resellers to

handpick items and share them with their communities
via Whatsapp and Facebook

4.Meesho also runs ad campaigns to spread more

awareness about their reselling platform to onboard
more and more sellers every passing day.

5.Meesho handles the payments between sellers and

customers meaning all the customer payments first go
to Meesho, who then provides their respective payments
to their sellers in 7-10 business days as per their
guidelines.

6.Meesho has in-house customer support to tackle all

issues related to damaged products, returns, refunds,
exchanges, and so on.

7.Meesho also runs ad campaigns to spread more

awareness about their reselling platform to onboard
more and more sellers every passing day.

25
Meesho’s year over year chart

In the Financial year 2020, Meesho made revenue

worth Rest 341.6 cr, the operating revenues of
which were recorded at Rs 307 cr. The company's
expenses totaled Rs 657 cr during the same fiscal,
thus the company incurred losses worth Rs 306.70
cr in FY20. Meesho, which has registered a 3.8X
growth in FY20, has again witnessed a 2.6X
growth of operating revenues in FY21, making it
two consecutive years of growth for the social
commerce business. Along with boosting its operating
revenue to Rs 793 crore, Meesho has also earned non-
operating revenues worth Rs 48.5 crore.

26
 Social media traffic on Meesho

Meesho Revenue Statistics

 They recorded a 307Cr revenue in 2022.
 Meesho currently has 11 funding rounds and has raised
$1.1 billion.
 In total Meesho has 52 investors with 15 being lead
investors and 37 being investors.
 Meesho saw a 4X rise in its revenue in 2022.

Meesho Supplier Statistics 2023

 99.52% of the suppliers on Meesho are from India
followed by 0.18% from the USA.
 There were 4.9M visitors to the Meesho supplier in
March 2023.80.26% of the total traffic on Meesho
Supplier comes from direct search followed
by 9.73% from organic search.

27
Meesho's Boundaryless Workplace Model

This working model was designed to resolve

the abovementioned issues. Steps were taken that
addressed each issue individually and resolved it to
everyone’s satisfaction

1.Quarterly Summits
These summits effectively resolved the onboarding
issue. It allowed the teams to come together for a
week every quarter at Meesho’s headquarters in
Bengaluru through company-sponsored travel and
stay.
2.Collaborative Activities

28
echnology played a larger part in addressing and
resolving the issues creeping in due to long virtual
meetings and discussions

3.Increasing Productivity

The concept of “Silent Meetings” was introduced. A

pre-read document was circulated before scheduled
meetings for participants to be fully familiarized with
the topic of discussion

4.Child Daycare Facilities

Meesho management tied up with a creche aggregator

platform giving their employees access to more than
1000 verified and vetted daycare facilities across the
country. Also, the company provides reimbursement for
child daycare facilities.

5.Satellite Offices

This option resolved the issue for employees who

wished to work from offices. Meesho tied up with
coworking space aggregating platforms to have office
spaces in cities with the highest concentration of
Meesho employees.

This led to Meesho having satellite offices in Delhi,

Noida, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Pune, and Mumbai.

29
 Meesho’s Success Story
Proud member of the Unicorn club (startups that have a
valuation of $1 billion or more) in 2021. Meesho Co-
Founder and CEO Vidit Aatrey believes that the social
commerce market would be a $70 billion industry as
there has been a consistent surge in the number of users
in tier-2 cities.
You can get an idea about Meesho’s success through
the following awards and recognition that it has gained
over the years:
 Meesho claimed rank #8 among 25 fastest-growing
YCombinator incubated startups in August 2016.
 The next year Deccan Chronicle, a leading daily
newspaper, ranked Meesho among Top 5 apps for
social commerce.
 February 2018 marked a great year for its founders
Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal. The duo featured in
Forbes list of 30 under 30 list of young achievers.
 Meesho was among a handful of businesses to be
profiled by Forbes Asia in the same year.
 Meesho was chosen as part of the 1st batch of Google
Launchpad’s ‘Solve for India’ program for startups in
2018.
 LinkedIN, too, honoured the company “as one of the
Top 25 startups to work for based on a number of
parameters including employee growth, talent pull,
jobseeker interest, employee growth and level of
professional engagement with its employees.
30
Conclusion

From this study of social media marketing I

have concluded that MEESHO is a growing , successful
company that shows potential in the way they
develop. This entails to their business model, their
structure and their way in on campaigning their cause
and ideas. Along with entrepreneurship, there are other
individuals who make money on reselling. This role can
be considered to earn easy money as there is not capital
investment required. Just. This middleman roles have
helped individuals earn a margin that helps build their
growth. The margin fee is also set by the reseller
themselves.

Meesho now also allows customers to directly buy from

the app. This has surely upset its reseller audience,
however, the startup has no competitors alike and
thrives immensely.

31
References
https://forgefusion.io/meesho-case-study-business-
model/

https://www.scribd.com/document/651280132/Project-
on-Meesho-BES-1-1

https://appicsoftwares.com/blog/meesho-statistics-
revenue-market-share/

https://khatabook.com/blog/meesho-business-model/

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