Meesho: Remove the fee that keeps small sellers out.
Meesho stopped charging sellers commission to make selling online possible for more small businesses. Explore how removing a fee on one side of a marketplace can grow both sides, and what it leaves you to solve.
See the idea in one picture ↓- commission for sellers
- 0%
- seller sign-ups since April 2021
- 7X
- listings
- 50M+
Figures as reported by the company.
Independent educational analysis. Scenarios, people, numbers and illustrations on this page are original PMcademy practice material, not company research results or an endorsement.
Start with the seller who is not online yet.
“If they take a cut and fine me for cancellations, what is left?”
- To keep her margin
- Fast payments
- Commission
- Penalties for cancelled orders
Read the analysis
Our fictional learner, Sunita, runs a small saree business in a tier 3 town. She sells to people she knows and has never listed anything online. Commission, penalties for cancelled orders and slow payments all feel like risks she cannot afford. Ask which suppliers your product needs but does not yet have, and what stops them from taking the first step.
Every fee is also a filter.
A fee on every sale keeps small sellers out
Sellers keep the full price
Read the analysis
Imagine you run a marketplace that takes a cut of every sale. The fee pays your bills, and it also decides who can afford to sell. A large brand barely notices it. A small workshop selling ₹300 kurtas may find it wipes out the profit. The product question is not only what to charge. It is who your fees keep out, and what the marketplace loses without them.
What happens when the fee goes
- 1A fee per sale
A commission takes a share of every sale, which hurts the smallest sellers most.
- 2No commission
Sellers keep the full price, so many more small businesses can start selling.
- 3The flywheel
More sellers bring more choice and more buyers, and you still have to decide where revenue comes from.
Animated illustration. Names, numbers and people are fictional teaching material.
More sellers, more choice, more buyers.
Illustrative data and simplified behaviour. This model does not represent a live company system or measured company results.
Read the analysis
Use the model below to compare three set-ups. In the first, the marketplace takes a commission on each sale. In the second, it takes none. In the third, it also stops penalising sellers for cancellations. Watch how many sellers join and what that does to the range buyers can choose from. The fee, prices and seller counts are illustrative.
Growth in sellers is the start, not the proof.
- What Meesho says
Meesho reports 7X more seller sign-ups since April 2021 and 50M+ listings.
- What it cannot prove
How many sellers stay active and profitable.
- What you would measure
First sale within 30 days
Sellers active after 3 months
Buyer ratings by seller cohort
Read the analysis
Meesho reports seven times more seller registrations since April 2021 and five times more listings. That is the company’s own account, and registrations are not the same as active, profitable sellers. In your project, follow a cohort of new sellers: how many make a first sale, how many are still selling after three months, and what buyers say about what they receive.
Free to join also means harder to curate.
- More small sellers
- More choice for buyers
- Lower prices
- Harder to curate quality
- Revenue must come from elsewhere
- More cancellations possible
Read the analysis
Removing commission lowers the barrier for good small sellers and for careless ones. Without penalties, cancellations may rise unless other signals keep quality up. The marketplace also needs revenue from somewhere, for example advertising or services, which brings its own conflicts. Decide how you will keep quality high, and where your revenue will come from, before you remove the fee.
Which side of your market pays?
Your fictional team runs a marketplace connecting home tutors with parents. Tutors pay a 15% commission today, and you struggle to recruit tutors in smaller towns. You can cut commission to zero and charge parents a booking fee, keep commission but waive it for the first three months, or charge tutors a small monthly listing fee. Choose a model and explain how it changes who joins.
Choose a next move
Leave with a marketplace map.
Your artifact
Write a marketplace map: each side, every fee, penalty or delay they face, the barrier you will remove, and where lost revenue and quality control will come from.
Critique my project artifact using only the evidence I provide. Write a marketplace map: each side, every fee, penalty or delay they face, the barrier you will remove, and where lost revenue and quality control will come from. Separate observed facts, assumptions, proposed tests and missing evidence. Identify a failure mode and a cheap check. Do not invent company results or user research. Ask for my artifact before starting.
Read the analysis
Draw the sides of your marketplace and every fee, penalty or delay each side faces. Mark which ones keep out participants you need. Choose one barrier to remove, write where the lost revenue or control will be replaced from, and name the quality signal you will watch so growth does not come at the cost of trust.