Started in 2018, the social commerce company Dealshare, with the help of a network of small entrepreneurs [DealShare Dosts] and a mobile app, is helping over thousand local and regional brands to market and sell their products nationally. It leverages social networks both physical and online to sell its products.

“We majorly source products directly from quality manufacturers whose brands have not been able to become popular because they don't know how to sell or market their products. These manufacturers pass on their products to us at prices closer to their cost price and in turn, manufacturers make a little more money than what they were making earlier because of economies of scale,” said Sourjyendu Medda, Founder and Co-CEO, DealShare.

The company currently stands at more than $500 million of annual gross merchandise value. Its valuation is $1.7 billion, and the total funding by the company is $393 million to date.

Brand Presence

Dealshare is present in 7 states, covering around 100+ cities and towns. It has achieved this scale on the back of its distribution model powered by a network of entrepreneurs called DealShare Dosts. DealShare Dosts do the warehousing and last-mile delivery for DealShare for regions with less than 5 lakh population. However, in large cities, warehousing is managed by the company and last-mile deliveries are done by DealShare Dosts.

“These are micro-entrepreneurs whom we give full locality ownership for all the deliveries and because they know the locality much better, they are able to do deliveries at much lower costs,” explained Medda. “NCR is the largest state for us. Besides, we are performing really well in Rajasthan, West Bengal, Karnataka, Gujarat and UP,” he added.

Options Galore

DealShare stated that the relevant categories of its interest cover more than 60 percent of India’s retail consumption. Broadly these categories are staples, packed foods, personal care, household care, general merchandise, apparel, fruits, and vegetables.

Since DealShare is catering to household consumption in Middle India, which is a $500 billion opportunity, it is running a business model with only 1500-2000 SKUs. The brand claims that since it keeps only 1500-2000 SKUs its warehousing costs are dramatically lower than the other players.

“Our target group is consumers in the income bracket of Rs 25,000 to Rs 75,000 per month. This is the segment that makes up the majority of India’s population as well as the majority of consumption, and does not care about brands as much as they care about affordability,” asserted Medd

Focus on Private Labels

The company entered into the private label business last year, aiming to bring local manufacturers to the forefront and provide value products to mass India. These private brands will be manufactured in collaboration with SMEs. further booting the Making in India Vision.

DealShare has launched 52 categories under its private label brands- Chemko (home cleaning), Swaccha (Personal hygiene), Sampoorti (Staples & Pantry Supplies), and X One (male grooming brands). It looks to extend its portfolio to the skin care, hair care, beauty, and apparel categories over the next 2 years.

“Going forward, we expect private brands to contribute 30 percent to our overall revenue”, he added.

It’s All Social

The company believes that social marketing is the only way to attract customers quickly at a low cost. “We spend very little on marketing but we have got almost three crore app installments in just four years” Medda stated.

More than 80 percent of its traffic comes through social marketing, which is either creating communities on Whatsapp or physical communities or giving micro incentives for sharing deals. “We chose grocery and essentials as a category because we believe that for social commerce to actually work well, it needs a larger play,” he added.

Tech on the Forefront

On the technology front, DealShare is investing heavily in its app. The app is more discovery-based rather than basically a purchase mission-based or category-based. “We give a much-localized experience on our app. Not just offering vernacular languages, the app provides a larger share of the local assortment. For instance, Rajasthan consumers would have Rajasthan assortments, while in Gujarat, they would have a Gujarat assortment,” said Medda. Besides, the company is also investing heavily in AI, where it basically understands consumer behavior, recommends products, personalizes their whole purchase, patterns, etc.

Focus Ahead

DealShare plans to deepen its operations in the geographies of its presence. Currently, the company has about 500 SMEs in the essential space and aims to increase the count to 1000 SMEs in one year.

“Our focus is to turn the company completely profitable,” he concluded.