Meesho mints 20,000 lakhpati sellers in five-day festive sale; clocks 3.34 cr total orders

Homegrown e-commerce platform Meesho, which clocked 87.6 lakh orders on the first day of its festive season sales, continued its momentum, ending the five-day sale period with a total of 3.34 crore orders. That’s a 68 per cent growth over 2021, stated the company.

The SoftBank-backed unicorn claimed that 2022 saw its most “successful sale in history”, with participation from 7.7 lakh sellers across 30 categories and ~68 million active product listings.  Transacting users on the platform also jumped 68 per cent over last year.

In an exclusive conversation with Business Today, Utkrishta Kumar, CXO - Business at Meesho, said, “The sale reinforced Meesho’s broader value proposition of being the lowest-cost distribution channel [for sellers]. We saw great demand, with over 20,000 sellers becoming lakhpatis and 24 of them becoming crorepatis in the last five days.”

Business Today spoke to Kevin Pravinbhai Ukani, an apparel seller based in Surat, Gujarat, who clocked sales of Rs 30-35 lakh in the last five days. Ukani, who sells Indian ethnic wear under the ‘Krinth’ brand name, shared that his daily orders on Meesho jumped from 1,000-1,500 to 15,000-20,000 during the five-day sale. “Humne poori taiyyari ki thi aur utna stock rakha tha. Poore India se orders aaye aur last do din mein sabse zyada response aaya (We were fully prepared and had kept sufficient stock. We received orders from across India but the last two days saw the best response),” he told BT.

Smalltown demand soars

Meesho, which offers value commerce targeted mainly at India’s small-town buyers, reveals that ~60 per cent of the orders in the just-concluded sale came from Tier 4+ regions. Buyers from some of India’s smallest towns, including Una in Himachal, Chimakurthy in Andhra Pradesh, Kalimpong in West Bengal, Bharuch in Gujarat, Davangere in Karnataka, Jagdalpur in Chhattisgarh, logged into the platform during the Meesho Mega Blockbuster Sale.

Overall, Tier 2 cities and beyond accounted for a whopping 80 per cent of consumer demand. Kumar shares, “The assortment and pricing that users found on Meesho was reflected in our platform conversion. Our seller registrations grew 3x over last year, and all categories grew exponentially, with some like kitchen utilities seeing non-linear jumps.”

Contrary to the other e-commerce majors Flipkart and Amazon, where smartphones and electronics drive a lion’s share of festive sales, kitchen utilities was the fastest-selling category on Meesho, logging a year-on-year growth of 116 per cent. Categories like Beauty and Personal Care grew 109 per cent, while Luggage and Travel sales jumped nearly 100 per cent. Fashion, meanwhile, logged a 60 per cent growth over last year.

“For us, it is not about a particular SKU or product, but about ensuring that all categories and sellers witness growth across price points,” Kumar explains. “We sold products in record volumes across categories like saris, dupattas, smartphones, Bluetooth headphones, mangalsutras, lipsticks, smartwatches, artificial plants, juicers, and so on,” he adds.

In this year’s sale, small business participation, which is Meesho’s typical seller persona, surged 360 per cent over last year, with ~75 per cent registered sellers hailing from Tier 2+ cities and beyond. The company says its zero-percent commission structure helped sellers save Rs 104 crore during the sale period.

Vidit Aatrey, Founder & CEO at Meesho, said in a statement, “Meesho’s Mega Blockbuster Sale truly fulfilled Bharat’s festive shopping aspirations this year as a result of our continued focus on offering customers quality products at lowest prices. Over 80 per cent of orders during the festive sale came from tier 2+ markets, which is a testament to our efforts to reach underserved users with different needs around selection and affordability. We aim to go deeper into India’s underserved regions.”

Also Read: Festive sales catapult Flipkart, Meesho, Amazon to the top of Google Play charts

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