Its latest filings and industry data show a company built not on big-ticket spending but on millions of low-value orders that now shape India’s online commerce story. In FY25, the company reported that 198.77 million annual transacting users shopped on the platform, and 174.43 million of them were from outside India’s top eight cities.
In the following twelve-month period ending September 2025, the share grew even further, with 234.20 million users in total, of which 205.80 million were from non-metro India. This means the overwhelming majority of Meesho’s shoppers now come from Tier-2, Tier-3 and smaller towns.
The strength of this customer base also shows in the company’s order volumes. Meesho had 213 million Annual Transacting Users as of June, who placed 561.9 million orders serviced by more than 575,000 sellers. Its filings show that placed orders have surged from 1,024.34 million in FY23 to 1,341.94 million in FY24 and further to 1,834.40 million in FY25.
These are not metro-led figures. Meesho says nearly 90% of its orders come from smaller Indian towns, making it one of the widest rural and semi-urban e-commerce footprints in the country.
What makes this growth even sharper is Meesho’s falling average order value (AOV). In FY23, the AOV was Rs 336.71. It dropped to Rs 298 in FY24 and to Rs 274.27 in FY25. In the six-month period ending September 2025, the AOV fell further to Rs 265.50.These numbers show that Meesho’s core buyers are not purchasing high-value electronics, premium clothing or branded goods in large quantities. They are buying small, frequent, affordable items that fit tight budgets. This is the behaviour of India’s value-conscious consumers, and Meesho has built its business around serving exactly that segment.In an interview with Bloomberg News, Chief Financial Officer Dhiresh Bansal said the company has been “very, very focused on affordability,” and wants to offer the lowest possible prices in every category.
Meesho’s zero-commission model, where sellers are not charged platform fees, allows them to price aggressively. Many of these sellers are manufacturers, traders and wholesalers from Tier-2 and Tier-3 towns who produce unbranded or regional products.
According to the Redseer Report, such regional and unbranded goods make up more than 75% of India’s overall retail market. Meesho’s marketplace structure helps bring these products online at scale.
This focus on affordability and reach has made Meesho the fastest-growing major e-commerce player in the past two years. While India’s e-commerce shopper base grew 11–20% between FY23 and FY25, Meesho’s Annual Transacting Users grew about 46% in the same period.
Its mix of low pricing, discovery-driven shopping, content-based recommendations and simple onboarding has appealed to millions of first-time internet buyers in the hinterland, many of them women. In FY25, women accounted for 54.22% of Meesho’s customers. In the following twelve-month period, the figure remained above 53%.
The company’s seller ecosystem has scaled accordingly. Meesho had 449,966 annual transacting sellers in FY23. That number dipped slightly to 423,749 in FY 2024 but jumped to 513,757 in FY 2025. In the twelve months ending September 2025, it expanded further to 706,471 sellers.
The average seller is also earning more: the NMV per annual transacting seller rose from Rs 427,429.78 in FY23 to Rs 548,463.42 in FY24 and to Rs 583,697.39 in FY25. Time to first order has dropped from 32 days in FY23 to 16 days in FY25, reflecting better product discovery and faster onboarding.
Meesho’s growth comes at a moment when India itself is experiencing a shift in consumption patterns. The country’s e-commerce market, currently valued at around Rs 6 lakh crore in gross merchandise value, is projected to grow to Rs 15–18 lakh crore by FY30.
The majority of new shoppers will come from tier-2 and smaller cities, which could represent 51–52% of India’s entire e-commerce market by 2030, up from around 44% in FY25. Meesho is positioned at the centre of this structural change.
The larger retail market, estimated at Rs 83 lakh crore in FY25, is expected to grow to as much as Rs 135 lakh crore by FY30. Meesho’s Serviceable Addressable Market within this, about Rs 33 trillion in FY25, is set to expand to Rs 51–56 lakh crore by 2030.
These are categories that Indians outside metros buy every day: apparel, low-cost accessories, kitchenware, footwear, home goods and regional unbranded products. Apparel alone contributes 34% of Meesho’s sales.
Meesho will also rely on stronger infrastructure to sustain this scale. The company will use its IPO proceeds for acquisitions, boosting cloud infrastructure, building out artificial intelligence capabilities and spending on marketing.
Despite rapid expansion, Meesho has kept expenses in check. Advertising and promotions have dropped from Rs 927.80 crore in FY23 to Rs 643.53 crore in FY25, shrinking from 12.26% of total expenses to 6.43%.
The natural question is whether Amazon India and Flipkart have missed this hinterland wave. Public data suggests a more nuanced picture. Both platforms have said during major festival sales that a majority of their customers come from non-metro India.
But outside such peak events, neither company regularly discloses a metro versus non-metro split of its overall orders or users. Analysts say their product mix, higher average order values and stronger dependence on branded goods naturally give them a more urban-heavy audience than Meesho.
But they are chasing the same market, and Meesho acknowledges that Amazon and Flipkart are now targeting “some of their customers,” even as value retailers like Vishal Mega Mart and Zudio add more competitive pressure.
Meesho IPO: GMP hints at strong listing. Check price band, financials – Should you bid?
What sets Meesho apart is not that others ignored small-town India, but that Meesho built its entire business for that consumer from the start. Its low-cost model, inexpensive catalogue, discovery-led shopping and mass-market positioning have aligned perfectly with how small-town India shops online.
(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)