Covid-19 impact: Retailers, edtech platforms tap Facebook, WhatsApp

The covid-19 pandemic has pushed businesses towards social media platforms to connect with their customers like never before. While edtech platforms are using Facebook Live for online training, a phone retailer is doing business through Facebook and a grocery store is taking order on WhatsApp.

As the outbreak spread and people stayed indoors, time spent on online platforms has grown. Facebook with its 280 million user base and WhatsApp with 400 million user base in India are two of the leading social media platforms and businesses are capitalising on them.

Samsung has asked its offline retailers to set up Facebook business pages to sell smartphones. Around 800 retailers have already been trained to set up business pages. With a slightly different approach, rival Vivo has been using its Facebook page to record interest of customers in phones so that it can reach out to them with assistance on which model to buy.