InMobi owned Glance acquires Shop101

Live commerce attempts to replicate the ease of physical shopping on digital platforms, enabling the shoppers to interact with the brand endorsers and order products in real-time.

Glance, a lock screen-based content discovery platform and owner of short video app Roposo is acquiring e-commerce platform Shop101 as it looks to make its foray into celebrity and influencer-led live commerce.
Glance did not disclose the financial specifics of the deal.

With Shop101 on board, Glance and Roposo will get access to an established e-commerce technology platform, a comprehensive supply chain infrastructure and the talent base required to build the celebrity and influencer-driven commerce platform, the InMobi-owned company said in a statement on Monday.

Analysts at RedSeer Consulting expect India’s live commerce segment to clock a gross merchandise value (GMV) of $4-5 billion by 2025. Short-form content alone is estimated to majorly drive live commerce by up to $2.5-3 billion in GMV by 2025. Of all the categories, fashion and beauty and personal care (BPC) will jointly contribute to the bulk of the GMV, they said.

Shop101, founded by Abhinav Jain, Aditya Gupta and Kalpak Chhajed in 2015, is a social commerce start-up that supports individuals like homemakers and students to become entrepreneurs and make money by reselling products listed in the marketplace by verified suppliers. The company claims to have a network of 10 million resellers and 10,000 supplier partners together catering to customers across over 2,000 towns across the country. The firm is backed by Vy Capital, Stellaris Venture Partners, Unilever Ventures and Kalaari Capital.

Shop101’s suppliers can leverage Glance’s daily active user base of over 125 million to grow their businesses.
“As leaders in the mobile content space, both Glance and Roposo are disrupting the way users create, discover, and consume content, making them the preferred platforms for top celebrities and creators to connect with their audience. With the addition of Shop101, we aim to make these platforms the top shopping destinations for millions of users as well,” said Piyush Shah, co-founder, InMobi Group, and president & COO, Glance.

In China, the live commerce model accounts for over 20% of the total e-commerce sales. Live commerce attempts to replicate the ease of physical shopping on digital platforms, enabling the shoppers to interact with the brand endorsers and order products in real-time.