Recently, my mother thought of decorating the home in a new way using some accessories. Mom and I spent time on the internet searching for the products that she wanted to buy. We generally purchase all products on Amazon. But surprisingly we have seen Meesho which delivers the products at low cost.
As we have a small scale of industry in our home where we manufacture sarees. After we started our business, Meesho called us and asked about our interest in keeping our products on their platform.
https://www.youtube.com/@bharathiprints our youtube channel.
But we haven’t done it yet because of some stock problems. So, you must be wondering why I am discussing these things with you. The way I have gained interest in exploring Meesho’s background is just a money-saving journey. Let us know why.
Meesho has evolved as India’s one of the largest e-commerce giants. Meesho founded by 2 friends. Vidit athrey and sanjeev Bernwal. They have come across different ideas for their new business which they wanted to start. Across the table, they have finalised this e-commerce platform business which connects all businesses and customers. Their small idea has changed small business owners’ sales and India’s e-commerce market too.
Start of Messho:
Meesho was first named fashnear which symbolically says fashion at nearby. They entered the market in the golden times of the internet which also helped them a lot. 2015 the year when India’s future turned by a giant JIO. Reliance has launched their telecom services newly in the name of Jio. They have given a free offering of internet in the initial days. In the year 2016, we came across the Jio sims and free internet offers.
This changed the thinking and the lifestyle of people too. People began to explore the internet as it was the first time they had been on it. And, in tier 1 cities people were getting habituated to online purchases from E-commerce companies like Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal, and Myntra.
Challenges for Meesho:
As the time they entered the market, there were a good number of players on the ground. And a company that is facing losses and other issues, is Snapdeal. Even though they have decided to start their startup because the IIT brains think ahead of the situation. They have very well analyzed the future market of the E-commerce business and never thought of dropping from the business.
As they researched the things, no one from the small business was in the E-commerce market. There may be many reasons such as hard interface and other issues. Meesho has come up to catch those small business owners and connect them with customers, so the seller gets satisfied at the same time customer.
Initial days of start:
They have implemented Idea in Bangalore, named as fashnear. They listed all fashion-related shops in Bangalore in the app. As we can see Swiggy is now. Only local Bangalore shops are visible.
Challenges in this:
- Those were the initial days of UPI where people were not aware of the money transactions through the phone. And the usage of smartphones is very low. Their idea works at a very slow pace. The delivery boy visits the business, takes the order, delivers it to the customer, collects money and again gives it back to the shopkeepers. This is a long process and a time waste. COD is more used in these days.
- Through this customer not satisfied because they could only get the fashion that is in their city. Which becomes the most common among the people within the city.
- From the seller’s point of view there was no big change in his business. May be a surge of 1% or 2% because they sell online in the same city which they stay in. This hasn’t increased their market.
Through their continued evolution process, they were able to catch their drawbacks. And also, they have discovered that most small business owners and shopkeepers were using WhatsApp efficiently to connect with their customers. But while using WhatsApp-based marketing, they have faced some minor problems.
- Payments
- Delivery
- Stock
Payment checking was a heavy task because there was no storing of payment details as per products but as per the customer they have stored them.
For small business owners and shopkeepers, delivery has become the biggest task to be perform.
I know the problems with stock management. In WhatsApp marketing, out-of-stock can be addressed to the customers easily. Also due to stock issues, there will be a loss of customers.
Big market capturing steps:
As per stats, 85% of the economy is generates small businesses in India. Meesho has put all those 85% under a tree combining them with revolutionary ideas that helped sellers as well as customers.
At first, their next new idea with the brand name Meesho started in Bangalore. Later on, after gathering resources they launched it at the PAN India level. They have mainly focused on middle-class people who are more settled in tier 2 and tier 3 cities of India.
First Meesho has a B2B2C model which is business to business to the customer which means a business owner from your local shop purchases the thing from another business owner across the country and then sells it to the customer. Slowly the middle business of the shopkeeper disappeared because all people were aware of Meesho. In the Initial days, Messho was not well known. Now Meesho is B2C.
Growth and trust of Meesho seller:
Meesho is the only platform that doesn’t charge a single rupee from sellers as a commission. They just charge fulfillment charges which is way less than commission. For most people, there would be doubt about how Meesho earns without commission.
Meesho uses performance marketing to earn money. Performance marketing is noting but charging the sellers as per Meesho displays their product first of the search or main page.
Cost per click is the more used performance marketing where the sellers are charged for a thousand clicks of their product.
Cost per view for every thousand views of their product the seller needs to pay Meesho a certain amount. Through this Meesho earns money.
By this thing, the potential sellers with performance marketing will not be affected. The product will be displayed as per rating and other criteria and algorithms.
The success of Meesho:
Meesho stuck to 4 principal P’s which are
- Price
- Product
- Promotion
- Place
As we know meesho sells at lower prices than any other company in this market which makes them unique and also the seller doesn’t lose.
Products are managed and returned when problems are faced as same as other companies.
Promotion is the highest thing for Meesho. Meesho uses celebrities across various platforms for their promotions. And also, they use Instagram and YouTube influencers for their promotion.
Zudio entered the fashion market and changed.
