How Meta and JioMart plan to disrupt grocery shopping with WhatsApp

Meta and an e-commerce venture between India’s Reliance Retail and Jio Platforms are all set to bring grocery shopping to WhatsApp. Touted as a global-first end-to-end shopping experience on the popular instant messaging platform, the launch has been tested since the last two years. Users in India can start shopping on JioMart via WhatsApp by simply sending ‘Hi’ to the JioMart number on WhatsApp.

Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director, Reliance Industries says, “Mark (Zuckerberg) and I shared a vision of bringing more people and businesses online and creating truly innovative solutions that will add convenience to the daily lives of every Indian. The JioMart on WhatsApp experience furthers our commitment of enabling a simple and convenient way of online shopping to millions of Indians.”

JioMart on WhatsApp will enable people in India, including those who have never shopped online before, to seamlessly browse through JioMart’s entire grocery catalog. Shoppers can add items to their cart and make a payment to complete the purchase — all without leaving the WhatsApp chat. WhatsApp, which is used by about half a billion Indians each month, got the approval to extend its UPI-powered payments service to 100 million users in the country earlier this year after several delays. If the shopping experience picks up then it could be a major revenue source for WhatsApp which has largely avoided serving ads to app users.

“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,” says Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a statement.