Parul
A data report released by India’s largest Conversation Media Platform Bobble AI claimed that Meesho has emerged as the clear winner in the race of Diwali Festive E-Commerce Sale, with its open rate rising exponentially in 2023, in comparison with its competitors in the year 2022. The report also reported that the proportion of transacting users on Meesho increased by more than 50% during the same period.
As the year 2024 rings in with much fanfare and the E-commerce giants gear up for the first major sale of the year on the eve of Republic Day, the data report shows that the dynamics of the industry are changing rapidly and with its substantial growth in Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns, Meesho is emerging as a significant competition to e-commerce giants such as Amazon, FlipKart & Myntra ,
The Market Intelligence (MI) unit of Bobble AI studied how different e-commerce platforms performed during the current year’s festive sales. The performance was compared with last year’s performance to understand the E-commerce space dynamically. The research was done in a privacy-compliant manner by the market intelligence division at Bobble AI, India’s top conversation media platform, using first-party data coming from more than 85 million devices.
The four top E-commerce apps; Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, and Meesho were considered for the study, and the data for the duration of the Diwali sales (in 2022 & 2023) of the E-Commerce platforms was considered for the report. Data was adjusted for the difference in the number of days of the festive sales campaign to make the data comparable.
Open Rate and Install Penetration
Bobble AI data report suggests that the Open Rate of the competitor apps has remained almost constant across the two years, however, Meesho has witnessed a significant jump of about 11% in its Open rate in this period. The lift was primarily driven by the massive increase in Open Rate in the Tier 2 (Increase by 11.92%) and Tier 3 (Increase by 13.48%) centers.
The App Install figures reveal that the rise in app penetration was the highest for Flipkart (by 10%), however, Meesho came second in the list with an increase of more than 5%. The Install Penetration of Flipkart was also accentuated by the rise in demand in the Tier 2 and Tier 3 centers. The improved performance of Meesho in the same centers shows that the general performance of the E-commerce applications is being driven mainly by the Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns.
Average Sessions per User (ASU) and Transacting Users (TU)
Session metrics show the level of engagement that the users have with the E-Commerce platform. The average number of sessions per User metrics reveal the kind of ground that Meesho is covering among the major E-Commerce apps. The usage patterns of the Bobble platform users suggest that The Average number of Sessions per User for its competitor Flipkart fell by about 45%, while the fall for Myntra was about 29%. However, in the case of Meesho, the Average Sessions per User increased substantially by more than 59% over the Festive Sales 2022.
The transacting users metric shows the kind of business that is being generated on a platform. Transacting Users reiterates the story of the strengthening of Meesho that has been symptomatically shown in the previous metrics, the report shows that the increase in Meesho’s Transacting Users (6.29% to 9.54%) was found to be the highest among all the apps, with an almost 50% increase over the last year. Whereas, according to the usage patterns revealed by the Bobble Users, the Transacting Users decreased for Amazon (9.71% to 7.80%) and Myntra (6.59% to 6.43%), it did rise for Flipkart (11.42% to 12.31%), however, this increase was marginal.
New Install (NI)
New Install shows the increment in the users of an app over a given period, the comparison of the New InstalI for the Bobble users between the Festival 2022 period and the Festival 2023 period shows that the rate of New Installs has also shrunk for the competitor apps with Myntra facing the maximum slump of around 10%, followed by Flipkart with a slump of more than 4%, however, even in the case New Installs, Meesho took the pole position with its New Installs increasing by more than 65% across the two periods (From 1.90% to 3.15%).
Conclusion
The report goes on to establish that riding on the trust of Tier 2 and Tier 3 customers Meesho’s performance is improving at the fastest rate which is posing a serious threat to the duopoly of e-commerce giants who rely heavily on Tier 1 customers’ purchase capacity & trust, majorly. Even though the increase in the rate of penetration was the highest for Flipkart, Meesho surpassed Flipkart in the Open Rate, Transacting Users, and other metrics by a long way that itself is a testimony of the changing dynamics of the e-commerce industry in India.
Commenting on the latest Bobble AI data report it’s Chief Strategy Officer Tabrez Alam said, “It’s interesting to note how the dynamics of the Ecom industry have been changing over the last few years, initially, considered to be a function of the urban centers and cosmopolitan culture, the sector has undertaken a long journey, where, the demand is being driven by the Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns now, as revealed by Bobble’s recent report. It also shows how the government’s focus on mass digitisation in the last few years is bearing fruit now.”
He further adds, “The report clearly shows that the mass gains from the E-commerce sector will be accrued from the Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns, accordingly, the marketing strategies for the players in the sector need to mould to fit the changing paradigms of the business.”
The report concludes that Meesho’s strategy of focusing on the Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns is paying rich dividends in terms of user acquisition and user engagement with a large proportion of the E-commerce business taking place on the Meesho App.
Bobble AI is a transformative consumer technology company powered by Artificial Intelligence that empowers millions of people by enabling expression, localisation, and intelligent recommendations through its proprietary smartphone keyboards. Bobble AI’s B2B range of services includes conversational branding (Advertising and marketing), technology licensing, data intelligence and conversational commerce.
