In-Depth SWOT Analysis of Meesho – One Of The Fastest-Growing Reselling E-commerce Platforms In India

Updated on: Apr 3, 2022

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In our previous blog, we elaborated on The SWOT Analysis of D-Mart, one of India’s most famous retail corporations that operate a chain of hypermarkets in India. This time let’s dive into the SWOT Analysis of Meesho.

Meesho is one of the fastest-growing reselling e-commerce platforms in India. Over the past 7 years, it achieved remarkable growth. Its main goal is to inspire, encourage and enable the vast majority of small businesses in India to step into the online world. One of the main reasons behind the huge success of Meesho is its marketing strategies.

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In this blog, we will be covering the SWOT analysis of Meesho. Before we get started, let’s start by learning about the company, its history, product and services, and its financial success.

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About Meesho

SWOT Analysis of Meesho - Vidit Aatrey & Sanjeev Barnwal - Founders of Meesho
(Vidit Aatrey & Sanjeev Barnwal – Founders of Meesho, Source: Forbes)

The name Meesho is short for ‘Meri e-Shop’. It is the first Indian e-commerce company. It provides a platform for various small businesses to enter and thrive in the online marketplace.

It was founded in 2015 by Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal. They shared the dream of helping entrepreneurs across India to develop their small and medium-sized businesses by taking their online interests and using new technologies to turn their dreams into reality. 

Meesho allows businesses to attract customers, develop identification and sell products online using the power of social media, including Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram and the best part about it is that one does not have to bear any additional trading costs. Since its launch, it has grown tremendously and is now regarded as India’s most popular online marketplace for retailers.

 

 

Quick Stats on Meesho
Founder Vidit Aatrey & Sanjeev Barnawal
Year Founded 2015
Origin Bangalore, India
No. of Employees 750+
Company Type Private
Market Cap $2.1 Billion (2021)
Annual Revenue $237.2 Million (2020)
Net Income/ Profit $45.4 Million (2020)

 

SWOT Analysis of Meesho


Products of Meesho

Meesho offers a wide range of products to its customers. Products that anyone can resell through Meesho are:

  • Kitchen Products
  • Home Products
  • Outfits for Men & Women
  • Skincare & Cosmetics
  • Furnishing Items


Competitors of Meesho

Meesho has lots of competitors to face in the market. The top 5 competitors of Meesho are

  • DealShare
  • GlowRoad
  • Shop101
  • CityMall
  • Bulbul


Now that we are familiar with the company’s history and how it works, let’s dive into Meesho’s SWOT Analysis.


SWOT Analysis of Meesho

SWOT analysis of Meesho will determine the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and hence it is of immense importance for any company to work. It is a tried and true management paradigm that allows companies to compare their business and performance to competitors and the industry as a whole.

SWOT Analysis of Meesho - SWOT Infographics of Meesho

Let’s first start by analysing the strength of Meesho from the SWOT analysis of Meesho.

Strengths of Meesho

Business strengths are competitive advantages that allow a company to thrive, generate value, and achieve efficiency. This means capturing more market share, attracting more customers, and maximising profits. The following are the strengths of Meesho:

  • Ranking: Meesho is ranked 1st in the top 10 reselling platforms in India.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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 to establish a reseller account and begin reselling through Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram.
  • 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.
  • 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 Mentorship Program: Meesho offers a 14days long Mentorship Program to new resellers to grow their business and achieve their first order. The training sessions consist of planned activities and certification sessions.
  • National Presence: Meesho has its presence almost everywhere in India. According to Meesho’s website, it now covers 5000 cities and counting.


Weaknesses of Meesho

Weaknesses are those areas where a business or brand needs improvements. Some of the major flaws of Meesho are as follows:

  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Dependent on One Nation: Meesho is heavily dependent on India and is at risk from foreign players.
  • Fraudulent Resellers: There are a large number of fraudulent resellers on Meesho. Despite Meesho’s excellent efforts, these types of resellers continue to exist.
  • Technical Glitches: Technical problems occur on almost all websites. However, due to some technical issues, customers have a difficult time and thus this leads to dissatisfaction and affects the attitude of customers buying and selling habits.


Opportunities for Meesho

Opportunities mean positive external factors that can give an organisation a competitive advantage over others. Meesho is one of the largest reseller platforms in India. Therefore they might have many opportunities to approach them shortly. Some of these opportunities could be:

  • Augmented Reality: The use of Augmented Reality can allow customers to have real-time interaction with products while remaining in their environment. This can ultimately result in higher conversion rates and lower return rates for Meesho’s products.
  • Crypto as A Payment Option: Shortly, crypto can become a common payment option for Meesho. This can result in a fast transaction of cash and a reduction in digital transaction frauds.
  • Establishing in Other Countries: Meesho can slowly start to expand outside of India, which will help them increase their revenue.
  • High Availability: Customers can buy anything at any time through Meesho. People who are busy in the daytime and cannot shop for themselves, have all the opportunity to buy anything during late-night hours.
  • Increasing No of Users: Numbers of internet users are increasing day by day. People are feeling more comfortable shopping online. That is why it has an opportunity to gain lots of users shortly.
  •  


Threats to Meesho

Threats are external factors that can affect a company’s ability to achieve its goals. Below are some of the threats of Meesho:

  • Frauds & Scams: Many online fraud activities can be a matter of concern to customers visiting a website. If the website has false representation and duplicate products and neglected security, the website’s reach will be reduced and customers will no longer visit the website.
  • Competitors: Meesho faces competition from brands like DealShare, GlowRoad, Shop101, etc. Meesho needs to ensure that its price, quality, and technology remain at the forefront of these companies.
  • Changes in Demand: The needs of customers can change from time to time. Taking care of these many products can sometimes be difficult.
  • Data Concerns: Apart from the obvious fraud, there is a good chance that things will go wrong with online shopping especially when it comes to user data. Shopping online requires you to provide a lot of sensitive data, including your payment details, address, and various other information. If this information gets into the wrong hands, it can cause devastating consequences.
  • No Direct Interaction: In Meesho there is no direct interaction between customer and reseller. There is no scope for negotiation. People prefer to buy physically as compared to the internet for personal experience.
  •  


This ends our SWOT analysis of Meesho. Let us conclude our learning below.

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To Conclude

Meesho has experienced huge growth over the last 7 years since it started, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. It has proved to be beneficial for tier 2 and 3 cities as they have gained a huge customer base from these cities.

The company has helped various small businesses to start online sales. It started out helping local stores and now, it has become a platform for e-commerce resellers, which helps a lot of people.

One of the major reasons behind Meesho’s success is its advertising and digital marketing campaigns. Since most people are spending time on online platforms, many companies can market their products using digital marketing and increase their sales. If you would like to learn more and upskill yourself, check out IIDE’s 3 Month Advanced Online Digital Marketing Course to know more. 

We hope this blog on the SWOT analysis of Meesho has given you a good insight into the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

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Aditya Shastri

Lead Trainer & Head of Learning & Development at IIDE

Leads the Learning & Development segment at IIDE. He is a Content Marketing Expert and has trained 6000+ students and working professionals on various topics of Digital Marketing. He has been a guest speaker at prominent colleges in India including IIMs......[Read full bio]

1 Comment

  1. Sakshi ingle

    It is really helpful.

    Reply

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