Social Ecommerce segment to grow exponentially in 2022

During the pandemic, the e-commerce sector has continued to grow at a rapid pace. Parenthetically, in the last one year concepts that blend with our socio-cultural fabric like social e-commerce and community commerce have grown faster and demonstrated that this could be ‘the e-commerce model’ that is best suited for India. In India, the gross merchandise value (GMV) of such business models stood at ~US$ 2 billion in 2020. By 2025, it could be as big as  US$ 100 billion. DealShare is the leader in this category. Our Gross Revenue increased by 10X over last year, and we will have a Gross Revenue ARR of $750 million by the end of 2021. In fact, in 2021, we were able to pull over 5 million+ customers from the real Bharat into the fold of online shopping, particularly for groceries and essentials. Most importantly our model shows the highest level of consumer stickiness.



We are optimistic that the upward trend will continue in 2022. Both in terms of customer acquisition and reach, the industry will achieve new heights with us leading the bandwagon. We are looking at expanding our operations from the current 10 states/ 70+ cities to 20 states/300+ cities over the course of the next year. To support growth, the company plans to invest in expanding its Operational capacity, technology, and human capital. We also believe that e-commerce and start-up enterprises will become one of the country's top job creators. We have close to 3000+ people on our direct and indirect payrolls. We are looking at adding more than 10,000 people to this pool across functions like technology, sourcing and merchandising, sales and distribution, marketing and operations, finance and HR in the coming year.

The time ahead looks promising as the economy is poised to grow at a robust rate in the year 2022, and the internet economy will significantly contribute to the overall growth. FIIs and investors have great confidence in the Indian economy, and a steady supply of capital will help new-age businesses and entrepreneurs thrive. In the face of the COVID pandemic, India's start-up sector has emerged victorious. In 2021, the growth and scale of start-ups and new-age tech businesses were exceptional, and India added many new unicorns to its kitty. We hope that 2022 will be a turning point for India, with many more start-ups achieving unicorn status. For us, the real growth engine for Bharat  would be 2022.”

The views and opinions expressed are not of IIFL Securities, indiainfoline.com