Four models in the next phase
Ambit said India’s next phase of online retail penetration will be split across four models rather than being captured by one. Traditional horizontal platforms will retain breadth, brands and higher-ticket demand, but may grow more slowly as quick commerce and value platforms take some cohorts. Quick commerce owns grocery frequency, while vertical platforms control category depth in areas such as fashion, beauty and personal care, and childcare.
Ambit said value commerce stands apart because it serves low average selling price, fragmented and unbranded supply that other models cannot serve profitably. It ranked value commerce highest on scalability, saying it remains asset-light and working-capital-light, unlike quick commerce, which needs density-led capital expenditure, and category verticals, which operate in a structurally smaller pool.
Penetration and monetisation
According to Ambit, value e-commerce is not just a beneficiary of rising online demand but a driver of penetration itself. By aggregating fragmented sellers, creating demand through discovery and keeping fulfilment asset-light, Meesho makes low-ticket commerce viable and helps bring offline consumers and categories online.
Ambit added that global platforms such as PDD, Shopee and MELI show how scale can shift monetisation from low-margin fulfilment to higher-margin advertising and services. It said PDD and Shopee delivered EBITDAM of 22 per cent and 20 per cent in CY25, against 24 per cent for Amazon, 3 per cent for Alibaba and 14 per cent for MELI, adding that the next leg in India will be monetisation rather than GMV growth.
Why Ambit prefers Meesho
Ambit said Meesho, which evolved from WhatsApp reselling into a discovery-led marketplace, is the only scaled Indian value platform. It leads on order volume, has 274 million AUTC and gets about 85 per cent of its users from outside the top eight cities. Ambit said Flipkart’s Shopsy and Amazon’s Bazaar remain constrained by search-led structures and larger-basket economics.
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Trent | Buy | Target Price: Rs 3,536
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Meesho | Buy | Target Price: Rs 265
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FSN E-Commerce Ventures | Buy | Target Price: Rs 379
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Vishal Mega Mart | Buy | Target Price: Rs 141
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Metro Brands | Buy | Target Price: Rs 1,323
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Honasa Consumer | Buy | Target Price: Rs 689
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Sappphire Foods | Buy | Target Price: Rs 326
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Campus Activewear | Buy | Target Price: Rs 310
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Lenskart Solutions | Sell | Target Price: Rs 496
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Page Industries | Sell | Target Price: Rs 32,573
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Devyani International | Sell | Target Price: Rs 124
Key risks: Outperformance in KFC ahead of Sapphire; and faster-than-anticipated turnaround in Pizza Hut.
Aditya Birla Lifestyle Brands | Sell | Target Price: Rs 91
Key risks: Higher store addition of lifestyle brands; double-digit SSG growth in lifestyle brands; and higher growth and profitability in the other businesses
Brainbees Solutions (FirstCry) | Sell | Target Price: Rs 236
Key risks: Faster adoption of organised/online retail in the childcare segment in India; faster execution and consequent order growth from current interventions; lowering of discounts by competition from QC in India; better profitability due to a higher own-brand mix; stabilising competition in the international segment; and scale-up of GlobalBees operation.