Meesho’s Content Commerce Sales Jump 152% as Creator Shopping Drives Demand

Meesho’s Content Commerce business recorded a 152% year-on-year increase in Net Merchandise Value (NMV) over the 12 months ended August 31, 2026, as creator-led videos increasingly become a source of product discovery and demand for the e-commerce platform. The business has expanded to 1.6 lakh active creators, while more than 4 lakh sellers have opted into the programme.

The growth is particularly notable because it is being driven outside India’s largest cities. Around 81% of Meesho’s active Content Commerce creators are from non-metro India, while Tier 3 and Tier 4 markets accounted for 66% of orders generated through the channel. The numbers suggest that creator commerce is becoming an important part of Meesho’s strategy for reaching consumers who may not discover products through conventional search-led shopping.

Key takeaways

• Meesho’s Content Commerce NMV grew 152% YoY over the 12 months ended August 31, 2026.
• The programme had 1.6 lakh active creators during the period.
• Around 90% of creators are nano creators with fewer than 10,000 followers.
• 81% of active creators are from non-metro India.
• Tier 3 and Tier 4 cities generated 66% of Content Commerce orders.
• Homemakers account for 40% of the active creator base.
• Young graduates account for another 30%, or roughly 50,000 creators.
• 25% of active creators are first-time creators.
• More than 4 lakh sellers have opted into Content Commerce.
• Meesho does not disclose the absolute NMV generated through Content Commerce or its percentage of total platform sales.
• The company’s Video Finds short-video surface generated nearly 4,800 crore views and around 9,000 crore minutes of watch time over the last 12 months.

Meesho’s Creator Commerce Business More Than Doubles

Content Commerce has become one of Meesho’s fastest-growing channels.

The company said NMV generated through the ecosystem increased 152% year-on-year over the 12-month period ending August 31, 2026.

NMV, or Net Merchandise Value, refers to the value of merchandise transacted through the platform after applicable adjustments. It is a measure of the scale of commerce flowing through Meesho rather than the company’s accounting revenue.

That distinction matters.

A 152% increase in Content Commerce NMV does not mean Meesho’s total revenue or overall marketplace NMV increased by 152%. The growth relates specifically to transactions attributed to the Content Commerce ecosystem.

Meesho has also not disclosed the absolute NMV generated by Content Commerce in the latest update.

The company has nevertheless described the channel as increasingly incremental to its core business.

What Is Content Commerce?

Content Commerce combines product discovery with creator-generated content.

Instead of searching directly for a product on an e-commerce marketplace, a consumer first sees a video or recommendation from a creator. The content demonstrates the product, explains its features or shows how it is used, after which the viewer can move toward purchasing it.

For Meesho, the model includes creator videos, affiliate-style commerce and its Video Finds short-video experience.

The approach changes the traditional e-commerce funnel.

In conventional marketplace shopping, the consumer already has some idea of what they want and searches for it.

In content commerce, the consumer may not have intended to shop at all.

A video can create the initial interest, introduce a product and eventually lead to a transaction.

That is why Meesho describes the channel as incremental demand.

Creators Are Becoming a Discovery Layer

Meesho General Manager for Content Commerce Nikita Dawda told Moneycontrol that creator content can drive first app opens and increase the frequency with which existing users return to the platform.

That makes creators valuable beyond the individual transaction generated by a video.

A creator may introduce Meesho to a consumer who otherwise would not have opened the app.

The same consumer can subsequently return directly to the platform for other purchases.

This gives Meesho another customer-acquisition and engagement mechanism alongside search, recommendations, advertising and its regular marketplace experience.

The distinction is particularly important for a value-focused platform competing for users who may have many shopping applications available to them.

Nano Creators Drive the Majority of the Network

Meesho’s creator strategy differs from the conventional influencer-marketing model.

About 90% of its active Content Commerce creators are nano creators, defined by the company as creators with fewer than 10,000 followers.

That means the platform is not primarily dependent on celebrities or large social-media personalities.

Instead, its ecosystem is built around a large number of smaller creators with more concentrated audiences.

These creators may have a stronger connection with a particular community, language or geographic market.

For Meesho, that can be especially useful in smaller cities.

A creator with several thousand followers in a Tier 3 or Tier 4 city may be better positioned to recommend products to local consumers than a nationally famous influencer whose audience is spread across the country.

The model therefore fits closely with Meesho’s broader strategy of serving India’s non-metro consumer base.

Tier 3 and Tier 4 Cities Are Driving Demand

One of the most significant numbers in Meesho’s latest update is the geographic distribution of orders.

Tier 3 and Tier 4 markets accounted for 66% of Content Commerce orders.

Cities including Varanasi, Agartala, Jabalpur and Madurai were among the markets contributing to the channel.

Around 81% of active creators were also from non-metro India.

This suggests that content commerce is not simply another digital marketing tool for urban consumers.

It is becoming a way for Meesho to bring product discovery to consumers in markets where traditional online-shopping behaviour may be less established.

For consumers who are less comfortable navigating large product catalogues or using search terms, a creator demonstrating a product in a familiar language can make the shopping process easier.

Why Video Matters for Meesho

Video solves a particular problem in online shopping: consumers cannot physically inspect the product.

A photograph may show what an item looks like, but a video can demonstrate its size, fit, texture, use or functionality.

This can be particularly useful for categories such as fashion, home products, beauty and kitchen items.

A creator can show how an outfit fits, demonstrate how a household product works or explain the practical use of an item.

That information can reduce uncertainty before a consumer places an order.

Meesho says categories such as home, kitchen, beauty and fashion are among the stronger areas for creator-led shopping, while kids and utility products are also gaining traction.

The use of video is also expanding beyond traditional fashion-led influencer commerce.

Homemakers and Young Graduates Form a Major Creator Base

The demographics of Meesho’s creator network provide another insight into its model.

Homemakers account for 40% of active Content Commerce creators, while young graduates represent another 30%, or around 50,000 people.

About 78% of active homemaker creators are from non-metro India.

This makes the creator programme partly an entrepreneurship platform.

People do not necessarily need to build a large social-media following before participating.

They can select products, create content and earn commissions when their content generates orders.

For homemakers and young graduates, this provides a potential income stream tied directly to commerce.

For Meesho, it expands the number of people actively promoting products without requiring the company to rely entirely on traditional advertising.

First-Time Creators Expand the Ecosystem

Another important indicator is the number of newcomers entering the programme.

Meesho said 25% of its active creators are first-time creators.

That suggests the growth of the programme is not coming solely from established influencers moving into another affiliate platform.

Instead, new participants are continuously joining.

This could make the ecosystem more scalable if Meesho can provide the tools needed for inexperienced creators to produce effective content.

The company is using artificial intelligence to support creators with areas such as content production, scripts, captions, content evaluation and personalisation.

The objective is to reduce the effort required to create commerce-oriented videos.

More Than 4 Lakh Sellers Are Participating

The creator side is only half of the Content Commerce ecosystem.

Meesho said more than 4 lakh sellers have opted into the programme.

The system connects these sellers with creators who can promote their products to relevant audiences.

Sellers can select products, determine commissions and participate in demand generation through creator content.

This gives smaller sellers access to a distribution channel that they may not be able to build independently.

A small seller does not necessarily have the resources to identify, negotiate with and manage thousands of creators.

A platform-managed ecosystem can make that process more accessible.

This is particularly relevant for Meesho because a large portion of its seller base is made up of smaller businesses and entrepreneurs.

Content Commerce Is Becoming Part of Meesho’s Core Flywheel

Meesho increasingly views creators as part of its main commerce flywheel rather than as a separate marketing experiment.

The flywheel works broadly like this:

Creators → product discovery → consumer engagement → orders → seller demand → creator commissions → more content → more discovery

The model can become self-reinforcing if each additional participant increases the value of the ecosystem for others.

More creators provide more content.

More content increases product discovery.

More discovery can create more orders.

More orders provide greater incentive for sellers to participate.

More sellers create a larger product selection for creators.

The challenge is maintaining the quality of that ecosystem as it scales.

If the platform becomes saturated with low-quality, repetitive or misleading promotional content, consumer engagement could decline.

Video Finds Has Reached Massive Engagement

Meesho’s investment in short-form video is also producing significant engagement.

The company said its Video Finds surface generated nearly 4,800 crore views and approximately 9,000 crore minutes of watch time during the last 12 months.

The scale illustrates why Meesho views video as more than an advertising format.

A large amount of viewing activity creates an additional discovery surface inside the shopping ecosystem.

Consumers can encounter products while browsing rather than actively searching.

This creates more opportunities to turn entertainment and discovery into transactions.

The model also aligns with a broader shift in e-commerce, where shopping platforms increasingly compete for attention rather than simply competing on catalogue size and price.

Meesho Has Been Building Content Commerce for Years

The latest 152% growth did not emerge suddenly.

Meesho began experimenting with live commerce and creator-led shopping several years ago.

In 2024, the company said 14.5 million users had shopped through its content-commerce initiatives.

At the time, Meesho reported that the channel generated around 70–80 million platform visits every month.

The company also said order volumes through content commerce had increased threefold relative to the broader platform, with some categories such as women’s western wear, jewellery, footwear, home décor, kids’ products and beauty seeing particularly strong increases.

By Q4 FY26, Meesho reported that Content Commerce had grown 105% year-on-year, with 1.4 million active order-generating content pieces.

In Q1 FY27, the company reported another acceleration, with Content Commerce NMV growing 141% year-on-year and active order-generating content reaching 1.7 million pieces.

The latest 152% growth therefore represents a continuation of an established trend rather than a one-quarter anomaly.

Content Commerce Is Growing Faster Than Meesho’s Overall Marketplace

The difference between Content Commerce and Meesho’s overall marketplace growth is strategically important.

Meesho’s Q1 FY27 marketplace NMV increased 34% year-on-year to ₹11,614 crore.

Content Commerce NMV grew 141% during the same quarter.

The latest 152% figure represents an even faster rate of expansion over the subsequent 12-month measurement period.

This does not mean Content Commerce is already larger than Meesho’s traditional marketplace.

It remains a smaller component of the overall business.

But its growth rate suggests that the channel could become increasingly meaningful if it maintains momentum and expands its share of transactions.

The company is effectively building a new demand-generation layer on top of its existing marketplace.

AI Could Make Creator Commerce More Scalable

Artificial intelligence is becoming another part of Meesho’s Content Commerce strategy.

The company is using AI tools to help creators with scripts, captions and content evaluation.

That matters because scaling from thousands of creators to hundreds of thousands creates a production challenge.

If every creator needs substantial manual assistance, the cost of operating the programme can rise quickly.

AI can potentially reduce the time and effort required to create content while also helping Meesho match products and creators more effectively.

The company has also been deploying AI across product discovery and personalisation through its broader technology stack.

That could allow creator content to become more targeted rather than simply increasing the total amount of video available.

The Business Model Is Different From Traditional Advertising

Traditional e-commerce advertising generally involves sellers paying a platform for visibility.

Content Commerce introduces a performance-oriented component.

Creators earn commissions when their content generates orders.

This gives sellers an incentive to participate because spending can be connected more directly to commerce outcomes.

For Meesho, it can also create a different economic relationship between sellers, creators and consumers.

Instead of simply buying advertising inventory, a seller can use creators to generate demand.

The model resembles affiliate commerce but adds short-form video, creator communities and platform-level discovery.

The success of the system will ultimately depend on conversion rates, commission economics, consumer retention and the incremental value of orders generated through the channel.

What It Means for India’s E-Commerce Market

Meesho’s results highlight a broader shift in Indian e-commerce.

Shopping is increasingly becoming a form of content discovery.

Consumers may see a product on a short-video feed, watch a creator demonstrate it, read comments, compare options and then complete the purchase.

This behaviour can be especially powerful outside major metropolitan areas.

India’s non-metro consumers represent a large and increasingly connected market, but traditional digital advertising and customer-acquisition models can be expensive when audiences are fragmented across languages and regions.

Local creators can provide a lower-friction bridge between products and consumers.

That gives Meesho an advantage if it can continue building a large network of creators in smaller cities.

The Bigger Picture

Meesho’s 152% Content Commerce growth shows that creator-led shopping is moving beyond the experimental stage.

The most important aspect is not simply the growth rate. It is the structure behind it: 1.6 lakh active creators, 90% nano creators, 81% from non-metro India and 66% of orders coming from Tier 3 and Tier 4 markets.

That combination gives Meesho a model for turning India’s fragmented creator economy into a distributed sales network.

The strategy also fits the company’s broader marketplace positioning. Meesho has historically focused on value-conscious consumers and sellers outside India’s largest cities, and creator commerce allows it to bring product discovery into the same communities.

The challenge now is maintaining quality and economics as the system scales.

More creators and more videos do not automatically mean more profitable commerce. Meesho needs to ensure that content continues to generate genuinely incremental customers and orders rather than simply shifting existing purchases from one discovery channel to another.

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