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JioMart logs into WhatsApp to take on online rivals Amazon and Flipkart

Ordering groceries, vegetables and daily essentials is just a WhatsApp away. This is possible with billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s e-commerce platform, JioMart, tapping into the popular messaging app to scale up online business in its fight for dominance in the giant Indian retail market with Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart. 


Mr Ambani’s twin children, Akash and Isha, gave a preview of the ordering at Meta’s second edition of the Fuel for India event on Wednesday. 


A new tap-and-chat option allows users to order groceries through WhatsApp. Delivery is free and there is no minimum order value. Customer can fill their shopping carts within the app and pay either via JioMart or by cash on delivery. 


“The JioMart experience through WhatsApp is actually, very simply put conversational in nature. WhatsApp is extremely simple and easy to use; so there’s no customer inhibition when ordering for supplies,” said Mr Akash. 


“It’s extremely intuitive – so there are no barriers to technology. And digital shopping is now just an extension of messaging via WhatsApp to JioMart; it’s all taken care of in a couple of steps effortlessly,” he added. 


Ms Isha said that all a customer needed to do was just order away on JioMart. “Bread, butter, vegetables, beverages, everything that you need in your household that day or that week... look up a product, set up a subscription for a regular buy if that’s what you want, or get personalised recommendations based on your past purchase history, it’s all there,” she said. 


Facebook, now known as Meta, in April last year had invested $5.7 billion for a 9.99 per cent in Jio Platforms, the digital and telecom arm of Mr Ambani’s Reliance Industries (RIL). 


The partnership was aimed at connecting over 400 million WhatsApp users and half a million retailers that Reliance has on its network. And playing a catalyst is cheap data that 425 million subscribers of Reliance Jio get. 


The orders are executed using the network of Reliance Retail, the biggest brick-and-mortar store chain. 

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