Article · 40 min read
The Meesho Must Go On
Rahul Sanghi and Paavan Gami · Tigerfeathers Free Advanced India
A marketplace GTM decision taken to its conclusion: dropping commission entirely in 2021 and monetising through ads and logistics instead, which looked reckless and produced the largest e-commerce platform in India by order volume. The detail that 73 percent of orders come from the discovery feed rather than search is a lesson in where marketplace demand actually gets created.
- Meesho leads Indian e-commerce by order volume, ahead of Amazon and Flipkart, with 234 million annual users.
- It went to a zero commission model in mid-2021, against Amazon's roughly 15 percent take.
- 73 percent of orders come from the discovery feed and algorithmic recommendations, not search.
- Its own Valmo network cut delivery cost from about Rs 55 in FY22 to about Rs 41 in H1 FY26.
- New hires spend days as interns with sellers, and employees embed with sellers quarterly.