Meesho reports higher revenue in FY24 as user base surges

BENGALURU: E-commerce startup Meesho on Wednesday reported higher revenue and narrowed losses in FY24, benefiting from an increase in annual transaction users and higher order frequency from existing customers.

For fiscal 2024, the company reported operating income of $76.15 billion, an increase of 33% over the same period last year. Adjusted losses narrowed 97% $Excluding employee share-based compensation expenses, it stood at Rs 53 crore, Meesho said in a statement.

The company attributed the gains to efficiency gains in multiple areas, including logistics, as well as leveraging generative artificial intelligence and machine learning to better discover and improve in-app experiences.

Meesho claims to have 145 million unique annual transacting users in FY24, accounting for about 10% of purchases made through its platform in India. “Consumers not only purchase multiple items in the same category, but also turn to Meesho for various daily needs. As a result, home and kitchen, beauty and personal care, and baby essentials emerge as the fastest growing categories,” the company said, adding Adding that the overall installations crossed the 500 million mark in the last financial year.

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The Bengaluru-based startup has also seen healthy growth in order frequency per user, including an influx of new e-commerce users from underserved markets in India. Last year, Meesho deployed artificial intelligence models to analyze category preferences, demographics and time spent on the platform, which helped in better user interactions.

It has also optimized logistics costs through Valmo, a logistics-focused platform launched in February. Since then, Valmo has expanded its network to include smaller regional logistics partners, significantly reducing shipping costs. This resulted in major players such as Delhivery, which had previously served clients such as Meesho, losing some market share.

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As of February, Meesho had nearly 3,000 regional micro-entrepreneurs on its network and was shipping nearly a million times a day. It has also reduced costs by 5% and plans to further reduce costs by 5-10% in the medium to long term.

“We have significantly reduced shipping charges and improved delivery efficiencies, allowing us to pass the cost savings back to our users,” Meesho said in a statement on Wednesday. These internal processes have helped reduce return TO (RTO) rates and reduce Costs associated with Cash on Delivery (CoD) orders.

In March, Meesho launched its fourth and largest-ever employee stock ownership plan (Esop) buyback program, worth $2 billion (USD 25 million) to provide wealth creation opportunities to approximately 1,700 current and former employees. It became India’s first profitable horizontal e-commerce company in July 2023. While it did not disclose profits from July to September, it said it has remained profitable and cash flow positive since then.

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Founded in 2015 by Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal and backed by the likes of SoftBank, WestBridge Capital and Fidelity Investments, the online shopping platform provides small businesses and individual entrepreneurs with access to millions of customers, pan-India logistics, payment services and customers Opportunities to serve. Support capabilities.