Reseller social-commerce is having a moment. Can Meesho and its rivals solve their challenges?

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Concept by Muhabit ul haq

Synopsis
Reseller-based social commerce promises to solve the problem of accessibility to smaller towns. The firms also empower people, especially women, to become entrepreneurs. This is a compelling proposition, more so as it has worked well in China. Investors in India want to repeat the success. They want a world outside of the dominance of e-commerce giants. But will this work?

There are some easily comprehensible unicorns. Some are anticipated, with their IPOs speculated well in advance. And then there are unicorns that come as a surprise, more so because their business models are hard to grasp. Meesho, now backed by SoftBank, Facebook, and Sequoia among others, falls in the third category. At the heart of the story of reseller-based social commerce is a simple two-pronged proposition. One, e-commerce has barely made