Trell launches social commerce shopping sale, in-app currency

Representative Image (Source: ShutterStock)

Short video platform Trell announced a six-day sale from December 15 and launched its own in-app currency, in a bid to boost its social commerce business launched last year.

Social commerce refers to the use of social media websites such as Instagram, Facebook and Chingari to promote and sell products. It is a nascent $800-million segment in India, but expected to grow 65 percent annually till 2025, according to estimates by consultancy firm Redseer.

The 'Grand Trellion Sale' by Trell follows the script of End of Year Sale by Amazon and Big Savings Day by Flipkart. Trell, which has over 100 million users, on-boarded new brands ahead of the sale to increase the overall number of brands on the platform from 600 to 1,000, said its co-founder Pulkit Agrawal.

Agrawal expects the sale to boost traffic from 40-50 percent to 100 percent. He said most of the short video platform’s users come from tier II and tier III cities. The company eventually expects to service at least one million orders in a month as compared to 300,000 products in February this year.

The platform has also launched in-app currency called Trell cash.

"Users can watch videos and earn cash which can be redeemed during the upcoming sale. One Trell cash is one rupee," explained Agrawal. ​

In terms of category, Trell recently added fashion, which now contributes 15 percent to the overall sales.

Personal care contributes to about 40 percent of sales, followed by beauty and fashion. Agrawal declined to share actual sales numbers.

Although it is a small segment now, social commerce is projected to be a $70 billion market by 2030, according to Bain and Co. This has attracted a bunch of short video platforms such as Roposo and Chingari to enter this market.

"There is a lot of demand to be part of this marketplace. Many brands are in the waitlist. Also, lot of brands from home care category are showing interest," said Agrawal.