On Tuesday, SoftBank-backed e-commerce company Meesho announced that it had digitised more than 30,000 small businesses from West Bengal on the platform. The company also said it had hired Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) chairman and former national team captain Sourav Ganguly to conduct a marketing campaign for the upcoming festival.

Over the past year, Meesho has witnessed a significant increase in the number of MSMEs from West Bengal joining the platform. The statement said that the top categories preferred by suppliers in the region include apparel, personal care and wellness, consumer electronics and home décor. The e-commerce company recently added Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam and Odia to its platform, looking at 377 million potential regional users.

The platform has hired prominent Indian cricket administrator, commentator and former national cricket captain Sourav Ganguly to carry out a marketing campaign for the upcoming festival, the statement said. It claims the platform recorded over 100 million transacting users in the last year, with customers from Tier 2+ markets being the main driver of this growth, accounting for 80% of all shoppers.

The company also said that the platform recently recorded over 102 million downloads in Q4 FY22, a 5x year-over-year increase.