Video commerce could add $25 bn to India’s GMV by 2030

You open your phone to watch one reel and walk away with a kurta in your cart. For Indian e-commerce platforms, that jump from scrolling to spending is no accident — it is now a deliberate growth strategy.

Discovery is moving from search to short-form video

Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra and Meesho are rebuilding product discovery around creator-led content: live demonstrations, short shoppable clips and in-video purchase buttons. Amazon launched its Live feature in 2022; Myntra and Meesho entered later. The common thread is entertainment doing the work a product catalogue once did.

Meesho’s numbers show how quickly the format compounds. Its content-commerce net merchandise value grew 152% year on year over the 12 months to August 2026, powered by 160,000 active creators — roughly 90% of them with fewer than 10,000 followers.

Why video lowers the trust barrier

This is not a metro-only trend. Nearly 70% of Amazon’s creator-led purchases have come from non-metro cities such as Bathinda, Bhubaneswar, Coimbatore and Dehradun. Tier 3 and Tier 4 cities accounted for 66% of Meesho’s content-commerce orders.

The psychology is simple. A catalogue shows a product in isolation; a video shows it in somebody’s life. “Reels give me an idea of what the product is,” shopper Sanjeet Singh told TOI.

Amazon’s Nidhi Thakkar, head of social commerce for emerging countries, says the video format helps customers “understand how a product works” and “see it in a real-life context,” compare options, ask questions and move directly toward purchase. Myntra’s data supports the claim: “Users engaging with social commerce content convert around 10% better than those who do not,” said Deepash Jain, vice-president of marketing.

The scale of the opportunity

A Deloitte and Google study published in April estimates creator-led commerce could contribute nearly $25 billion in gross merchandise value by 2030. The analysts also expect these formats to onboard 50-60 million new online shoppers from tier 2 markets by addressing three classic barriers: trust, product understanding and quality.

The push is spreading beyond e-commerce apps. YouTube expanded its shopping affiliate programme in India in September to include Amazon, Meesho, AJIO, Snapdeal and Tata CLiQ, and reports 450 million logged-in Indian users searching for shopping-related content.

The playbook taking shape

Myntra’s Ultimate Glam Clan, its shopper-creator programme for fashion and beauty, had more than eight million sign-ups and 12 million pieces of content by September 2026. Its Glamstream format, launched in July 2025, bundles creator-led video, entertainment and shopping inside the app.

Flipkart is stacking the formats too: short-form clips, live shopping, creator-led demonstrations, question-and-answer sessions and gamified formats, all with in-video purchase. “Shopping in India is increasingly being shaped by what consumers watch, share and trust,” said Ramesh Gururaja, senior vice-president, consumer products and growth at Flipkart.

What brand managers should watch

• Short-form shoppable video is becoming a discovery layer, not just an ad format.
• Regional creators drive conversion — relevance in language and context matters outside metros.
• Live commerce and shoppable clips work together: demonstration builds confidence, the embedded link shortens the path to purchase.

The lesson for marketers is to stop treating video as a top-of-funnel teaser. When the buy button lives inside the clip, the reel is the store.

Source: ETRetail.com