Why Flipkart and Amazon’s content leap in India faces a steep hurdle

Content commerce has become even more important Flipkart and Meesho are facing pressure to showcase their next big bet as they prepare to go public, analysts and industry experts say.

Flipkart Group-owned fashion e-retailer Myntra now derives around 10% of its platform revenue from content commerce, helped by vertical contribution that has increased by 50% in the last four months alone, the company said in November. It now partners with 3.5 million creators, mostly Gen Z, to drive sales through shoppable affiliate links. Myntra aims to grow its creator base by 3x while doubling its contribution to revenue through social commerce in the next 12-18 months.

Such content commerce partnerships with online retailers have turned into a goldmine for social media influencers as their income increases, especially during the festive season. Mint It was previously reported. But for companies like Flipkart and Amazon, this is more than just a marketing effort.

India’s $125 billion online retail market slows as total sales of top three E-commerce players (Amazon India, Flipkart and Myntra) grew by just 17% between FY23 and FY25, according to estimates by broker Elara Securities. This compares with a year-on-year growth of 50% in FY 2015-20 and almost 30% in FY 20-23. While rising inflation has impacted consumers’ spending patterns, increased competition and disruptions created by fast-paced trading platforms have worsened the slowdown.

“Major players are now looking for a new story to tell,” said Satish Meena, analyst at market research firm Datum Intelligence. “As growth stagnates, we run out of new ideas. Fast trading and AI features are fine, but they desperately need the next hook to attract users, especially as competition increases in intensity.”

Meesho is going through a quiet period ahead of its IPO. There was no response to emailed queries to Flipkart on Monday.

Flipkart, the country’s largest e-commerce firm, in June stepped up investment in setting up experiential studios in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Gurugram and created 18,000 square feet of production space to scale up its video commerce features. Last year saw an 8x increase in daily live broadcast hours (in-app video streams), according to the company’s statement at the time.

Meesho, an e-commerce platform targeting small-town India, aims to accelerate technology investments, including proprietary AI-ML models GeoIndia LLM and BharatML Stack, to enhance various features including delivery coordinates for logistics operators, product cataloging for sellers, and deeper insights and tools for shoppers and creators, it said in its updated draft documents.

Mint Citing IPO filings, it previously reported that Meesho had activated 39,618 active creators who posted 679,466 “order-generating content.” “We produced ₹The company achieved this growth within 23 months of its launch in May 2023, generating net product value (NMV) of 7.07 billion from our market through content trading in fiscal 2025, the company said in its updated draft prospectus. NMV represents the value of goods sold.

limited success

Still, interest in content commerce is strong, but winning shoppers this way isn’t easy.

According to Datum’s Meena, monetization models are still evolving, measurement frameworks are nascent, and live streaming commerce adoption in India remains uneven. Turning viewership into high-value transactions at scale remains a challenge, and platforms must carefully balance investments to avoid burning capital without a clear payback, he said.

Live trading has seen many waves of experiments in India over the last five years but has failed to scale meaningfully. The platforms found that initial curiosity led to an increase in viewership, but sustained engagement was delayed by low trust in presenters, inconsistent product quality, and a consumer mindset still focused on discounts rather than discovery.

In contrast, China’s ecosystem continues to thrive on influencer-driven deep trust and high product standardization. Pinduoduo, for example, has built massive live buying momentum by combining real-time deals, gamified group buying, and highly efficient delivery. Here, live broadcasts are not a new addition, but a mainstream purchasing channel with cultural legitimacy.

“There is entertainment audience and commerce audience in India, but the overlap between the two is still poor and behavioral change takes time,” said a growth-stage venture capital investor who follows the online commerce space closely. Flipkart, Amazon and The investor said Meesho ran such programs outside metro cities in its early days, but the results were quite short-lived.

Moreover, logistical fragmentation outside major metropolises limits the urgency on which vibrant commerce depends.

Meesho acknowledges the disadvantages.

“Due to our limited operating history, the nascent emergence of content commerce in India and our rapid growth profile, our future operating results may be difficult to predict and our historical results may not be indicative of or comparable to our future results,” the company said in its updated draft documents. The statement was included. “We cannot assure you that this business venture will be successful or that we will be able to attract and retain creators on our platform, including maintaining relationships with third-party affiliate partners that provide access to creators.”

Myntra, on the other hand, is expanding its range of offerings by adding more experimental formats, including talk shows, reality content and gamified podcast storytelling. by company.

Parent Flipkart said in an earlier statement that it has developed an understanding of what works in video commerce over the last few years and is now using this knowledge to transform its creator programs into a purpose-built model that meets the needs of both creators and commerce partners.

Meena is less optimistic about the format. “Realistically, live commerce in India is unlikely to become the breakthrough engine platforms we hope for,” he said. “It is much more likely to remain a niche format rather than a mass market habit.”