On any given evening, thousands of women pause their scrolling to watch Sangeetha Rajesh sell sarees live on Facebook. Armed with just a smartphone, she sells up to 1,000 sarees a day — without a website, ads, or marketplaces. Long before ‘live commerce’ became a buzzword, she had already sold over 10 lakh sarees, direct-to-consumer business by connecting weavers directly to buyers and redefining traditional retail for a digital-first India.
Sangeetha’s journey into entrepreneurship did not begin in fashion. A trained remedial educator, she previously ran schools and child development centres for special children. She begins, “Education was my first career. But in a service industry, you can only scale yourself so much. I knew I wanted a business that could grow without being dependent entirely on me.”
Over 15 years ago, she entered the saree trade believing it would be simple. “I thought the saree business was easy. But once I entered, I realised how complex and demanding it really was,” she admits. To better understand the industry, she enrolled at NIFT and began working closely with artisans, especially reviving Kalamkari work when it was no longer widely practised.
Facebook entered her life not as a sales platform, but as a storytelling medium. “I would go and sit with artisans, document their work, and explain the craft to people,” Sangeetha explains. With no budget for models, she draped and modelled the sarees herself. She adds, “Customers saw me as one among them — not a big brand or a corporate seller. That built trust.”
As her Facebook community grew, she began selling live and hosting exhibitions across major Indian cities. When Kalamkari designs were widely copied and demand slowed, she pivoted again — this time to direct sourcing from weavers. “I realised that if I went straight to the weavers and sold live from there, I could cut middlemen, reduce costs, and offer better prices,” she says.
Sangeetha began livestreaming from weaving clusters across Surat, Varanasi, Jaipur, Gadwal, Pochampally, Narayanpet and Kanchipuram, often bringing weavers live on screen. She notes, “Customers ask questions directly to the weavers. That transparency creates enormous confidence. It benefits everyone — the customer, the weaver, and me.”
The turning point came during the COVID-19 lockdown. Facing criticism for selling sarees during a crisis, Sangeetha found support from her online community. She recalls, “My customers stood up for me. They said, ‘If we can work from home, why can’t she?’”
One livestream from Surat cemented her belief in the scale of live commerce. Helping a vendor stuck with unsold export inventory, she offered sarees at Rs 500. She highlights, “I sold 15,000 sarees in a single day. That’s when I understood this market is not small at all.”
Today, she conducts five-hour Facebook Live sessions almost daily, selling up to 1,000 sarees a day and generating lakhs of monthly turnover. Her strategy relies on volume rather than high margins. “Sometimes I keep only a Rs 50 margin. That’s not profit — that’s the market acquisition,” she explains.
Despite opening a 5,000 sqft experiential store in Banjara Hills, Sangeetha remains firmly digital-first. She notes, “The store is only for experience. My business model does not depend on physical retail. I am the driving force behind my sales.”
What continues to surprise her most is the decisiveness of her customers. She continues, “Women are excellent decision-makers. If they want something, they buy it instantly. And now, many men attend my live shows and buy sarees for their wives — that is truly heartwarming.”
The biggest challenge, she believes, is uncertainty. She reflects, “Every idea has a life cycle. You must constantly observe your customers and adapt.” Long-term planning, she feels, is overrated. She further adds, “There is no off-season anymore. If sales are slow, it means we missed the signal.”
For Sangeetha Rajesh, success on Facebook has little to do with algorithms. “I don’t understand hashtags or algorithms. Being original is my virality,” she concludes.