Reliance Retail Ltd. plans to embed its e-commerce app JioMart into WhatsApp within the next six months. This will allow approximately 400 million users to order products without having to leave WhatsApp. Reliance Retail will pose a serious challenge to Flipkart and Amazon’s domination in India’s fast-growing online retail market.
JioMart, launched in May across 200 cities and towns is an Indian online grocery delivery service, started as a joint venture between Reliance Retail and Jio Platforms. JioMart delivers grocery and daily essentials from nearby stores. When a customer orders using the JioMart app, the app maps the user to a nearby kirana store. The delivery is either done by the kirana shop or by RIL’s logistics.
JioMart and WhatsApp will be working closely to create growth opportunities for millions of Indian small merchants and enable customers seamlessly transact with kirana shops.
WhatsApp Business app has its own inventory management feature which allows businesses to showcase their products and services by creating a catalogue. The catalogue is displayed on the business profile. WhatsApp recently added a shopping button that gives customers access to a business’s catalogue directly from their chat screen.
