By
Chimamanda U. Martha
April 12th, 2024
JioMart on WhatsApp seek to revolutionize and simplify the consumer shopping experience. This will be the first-ever end-to-end shopping experience on the popular instant messaging platform.
Meta is planning to bring a grocery shopping feature to all WhatsApp users in India. As per details, Meta has partnered with India’s telecom giant Jio platforms and sister firm Reliance Retail for this.
The two players together will bring JioMart grocery shopping to WhatsApp. This will be the first-ever end-to-end shopping experience on the popular instant messaging platform. The launch comes following two years of integration and testing between Meta and JioMart. As per the official announcement from Reliance Retail:
“A global first, JioMart on WhatsApp will enable users in India, including those who have never shopped online before, to seamlessly browse through JioMart’s entire grocery catalog, add items to cart, and make the payment to complete the purchase – all without leaving the WhatsApp chat”.
This launch also comes as a strategic partnership between Meta and Jio Platforms to accelerate India’s digital transformation. The announcement also notes that JioMart on WhatsApp will revolutionize and simplify the consumer shopping experience.
Meta Invests in Jio Platforms
Meta and Jio Platforms entered into a strategic partnership back in 2020. Meta is a significant minority investor in Jio Platforms, which is India’s largest telecom subscriber with 421 million subscribers. During its annual general meeting (AGM) on Monday, August 29, Jio announced that it shall be investing $25 billion to roll out 5G services across India by the end of 2023.
JioMart is a $221 billion conglomerate of Reliance attempting to take on giants like Amazon and Flipkart in India. Reliance Retail is one of the largest retail chains in India, however, lacks an e-commerce presence. Speaking on the development, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, said:
“Excited to launch our partnership with JioMart in India. This is our first-ever end-to-end shopping experience on WhatsApp – people can now buy groceries from JioMart right in a chat. Business messaging is an area with real momentum and chat-based experiences like this will be the go-to way people and businesses communicate in the years to come.”
Considering that Meta and Jio Platforms are working together, there could be many exciting developments in the future as well. Meta which is working on the Metaverse could bring unique virtual experiences to Jio 5G phones coming soon in the future.