300 lose jobs as Meesho shuts Superstore grocery business

NEW DELHI: Homegrown social commerce platform Meesho has reportedly shut down its grocery business called Superstore in more than 90 per cent of cities in India (except Nagpur and Mysuru), resulting in several job losses.

According to a report, nearly 300 employees have lost jobs after the shuttering of Meesho Superstore.

When reached, the company did not comment on the development.

In April, Meesho rebranded Farmiso to Superstore, with an aim to highlight its continued focus to fulfill consumer demand for daily essentials in Tier 2 markets and beyond.

The same month, the company laid off more than 150 employees, mostly from Farmiso, as it aimed to integrate its grocery business within the core application.

The social commerce platform earlier laid off more than 200 employees in the first wave of the pandemic.

According to the report, “low revenue and a high cash burn was the reason behind the startup’s decision to wind up operations in most of the cities” this time.

Meesho Superstore was operational in six states - Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra. The report mentioned that Meesho offered a two-month salary as a severance package to those laid off.

Vidit Aatrey, Founder and CEO, Meesho, had said the company looks forward to integrating Meesho Superstore with its core app. Meesho launched a pilot in Karnataka to make online grocery shopping affordable, and the company aimed to make Superstore available in 12 states by the end of 2022.

Meesho recently reached 100 million transacting users. Since March 2021, the transacting user base on the platform has surged 5.5 times while the assortment has grown 9X to 72 million during the same period, claimed the company.