Homegrown social commerce platform Meesho has shut down its grocery business known as Superstore in more than 90 percent of cities in India, except Nagpur and Mysuru, resulting in the firing of 300 employees across the cities in India.
The lay-off consisted of both on-roll and off-roll workers, including city launch managers, pricing team leads, warehouse managers, sales executives, sourcing executives, market intelligence executives, among others.
It is reported that low revenue and a high cash burn were the two major reasons behind the company’s move to shut down the venture and end operations in most of the cities. Meesho Superstore was operational in cities across six states including Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra.
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. In 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.
Meesho offered a two-month salary as a severance package to the laid off on-role employees. Moreover, the company has also absorbed some of the on-roll employees in its core business. 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.
