Forbes India
And here, grocery isn’t the leading category yet—fashion is, followed by beauty and personal care products, according to Bain & Company, a consultancy. Overall, social commerce will grow tenfold from today’s levels to between $16 billion and $20 billion, by sales volume, in 2025, Bain estimated in a December 2020 report. From there it could go to between $60 billion and $70 billion by 2030, according to the report, written in collaboration with Sequoia Capital. And a new breed of social commerce startups is leading this change. Meesho is perhaps the largest, focussing on apparel, with millions of women on its network selling to their friends and neighbours. Meesho, in fact, is reported to have landed a $250-million investment from SoftBank Group, making it a unicorn in the process. Bengaluru’s GlowRoad is the next biggest platform, according to Bain, followed by Mumbai’s Shop101. Jaipur-based DealShare is another venture that started out by simply offering deals on WhatsApp. It has raised $21 million in its third major funding round.