Meesho reintroduces groceries on its app; promises to end grocery shopping woes

Meesho, the homegrown e-commerce app has reintroduced the ‘grocery’ home delivery segment into its existing app. According to Meesho, it will provide great deals to consumers and prioritise consumer comfort.

A new ad spot from Meesho highlights its benefits. The new ad showcases the story of a common man who is asked about his weekend plans but is rather frustrated. That is because he has to spend his entire weekend busy and hassling with the tasks of grocery shopping.

“10 km door jaunga, scooter ko aate aur chawal se tempo banaunga’, etc, are his main concerns. His child then intervenes and shows him the Meesho App’s grocery segment. The father is quite relieved to know that he won’t have to ruin his weekends anymore.

The app further calls for people to download the Meesho app as it offers great discounts and offers.

The Indian online grocery market is witnessing intense competition with quick commerce penetrating into the sector. According to reports, the Grocery Delivery market in India is expected to grow at 19.24% (CAGR 2024-2029), resulting in a market volume of $73.89bn by 2029. The number of users in this market is expected to reach 249.8 million users by 2029.

The grocery delivery market in India has seen a rise in the number of players, both local and global. Online grocery delivery platforms such as BigBasket, Grofers, and Amazon have gained popularity due to their extensive product range, competitive pricing, and fast delivery services.

Platforms like Zepto and Swiggy Instamart also offer express delivery, subscription-based services, etc.

However, for Meesho one of the biggest competitors in this segment seems to be D-Mart. Who also offers a similar delivery service and discounts.

This seems to be a revival for Meesho’s grocery business. Meesho had initially launched a pilot program in Karnataka to make online grocery shopping more affordable, with the goal of expanding it to 12 states by the end of 2022.

However, the platform had to significantly scale down its grocery business in 2022. It used to run the grocery business as Farmiso initially, however, Meesho rebranded Farmiso to ‘Superstore' in April 2022 to emphasise its continued focus on meeting consumer demand in Tier two and beyond cities.

During the same month, the company laid off more than 150 employees, the majority of whom were from Farmiso, in order to integrate its grocery business into the core application. According to various reports, ‘low revenue and high cash burn’ were the primary reasons for the decision. Meesho Superstore services were shut in more than 90% of Indian cities.

In December 2023, Meesho became the first e-commerce unicorn to post consolidated profit after tax in the second quarter ended September 2023 (Q2 FY24). “Consolidated revenue from operations was Rs 3,521 crore, up 37 % year-on-year. Losses for the period were Rs 141 crore, lower by 90 % year-on-year in the first half of FY 2024,” the company said in a statement. According to Google Play, Meesho has 500 million plus downloads.