India’s live commerce GMV to touch $4-5 billion by 2025: RedSeer

Riding on the rapid adoption of shortform video content, live commerce in India expected to touch a GMV (gross merchandise value) of up to $5 billion by 2025, RedSeer Consulting said.

Live commerce, touted as the next big paradigm for commerce, is a model that envisages using shortform video content to drive sales and customer engagement.

“India’s live commerce, which is set for a new beginning, is expected to clock a gross merchandise value of $4-5 billion by 2025... Shortform content is expected to majorly drive live commerce up to $2.5-3 billion by 2025” the consulting firm said in a recent research report.

Among categories that will drive growth, the beauty and personal care segment is expected to account for $1 billion. Fashion is expected to contribute 60-70% of the projected GMV, the report added.

Currently two key channels are expected to offer live commerce on their platforms. One is pure-play short-form video apps such as Chingari, and the other is apps such as Roposo, which are looking to foray into the live commerce category. Multi-lingual short video platform Roposo was acquired by Glance, a subsidiary of advertising technology firm InMobi, in late 2019.

“The separate segments have different pros and cons. The pure-play video is entirely dedicated for live commerce, but these platforms still have a small scale, and it may become challenging if these platforms do not increase their daily active users (DAUs). Specialised platforms have more than 100 million DAUs which means it can scale faster and China’s learnings show that shortform (video) can largely drive live commerce," the report said.

The report claims that shortform content is the fastest growing content in India as well as globally. The market in India is expected to see a 3X growth in users over the next five years. At present, shortform content is consumed by 215 million users monthly, comprising 36% of the country’s smartphone market. This is expected to shoot up to 600 million users over the next 4-5 years.

“China has shown multiple tipping points in short form evolution starting from the content creation, consumption and maturing live commerce, it has come a long way. While India has largely followed the same journey as China, it is now at the juncture wherein creators are making millions through content creation, endorsements but are yet to start with live commerce content. This is expected to be the next big move in the ecosystem, which will inevitably strengthen the live commerce segment," the report said.