Meesho, a $4.7 billion social commerce pioneer applauded for empowering micro-entrepreneurs, digitizing MSMEs, and advancing women-led businesses reached crossroads in 2022. Six years of upsetting India's e-commerce scene with a unique B2B2C social-ecommerce model (leveraging WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook for peer to peer reselling) the company was to change its business model to traditional e-commerce to challenge giants like Amazon, Flipkart, Reliance, and Tata in the highly competitive traditional e-commerce arena. Meesho's social commerce model, with 80% of users linked to its direct-selling ecosystem, had driven 3.8X revenue surge. But the attraction of India's $150+ billion traditional e-commerce market, along with its capacity for scale made them to think of shifting from its founding value of grassroots entrepreneurship. Turning to a marketplace model would mean massive expenditures in marketing, technology, and logistics to challenge established companies, so jeopardizing profitability in search of uncertain, long-term returns. This shift may disturb the devoted base of bargain-conscious consumers, small businesses of suppliers and retailers that flourished in Meesho's asset-light, community-driven ecosystem. On the other hand, not pivoting ran the danger of capping expansion as rivals entered social-ecommerce business. The case deals with a decision dilemma - would Meesho lessen its uniqueness as a champion of India's non-urban markets to become "just another e-commerce platform," or double down on a socially conscious but niche model amidst growing competition.

Learning Objectives

• Explore traditional and innovative business models like B2B2C
• Understand social commerce vis-à-vis traditional e-commerce
• Understand the impact of payment cycles and logistics on small entrepreneurs and sellers/ resellers