Here’s how JioMart kirana e-commerce will work on WhatsApp: Mukesh Ambani’s retail dream taking shape

Mukesh Ambani’s retail dream has started to take shape with his New Commerce plan finding roots, thanks to Reliance Jio’s multi billion dollar deal with social media platform Facebook. While it is expected that the deal will help Jio leverage Facebook’s reach in India via its WhatsApp platform, there are many other ways that RIL will benefit via this deal and give stiff competition to the likes of Amazon and Flipkart in the country. “At some stage, JioMart could be a mini-app within WhatsApp (a concept similar to WeChat mini-programs) which would avoid new 400 mn downloads of JioMart and give JioMart immediate access to 400 mn users of WhatsApp for grocery,” Credit Suisse said in a note.

JioMart platform has already gone live in three regions viz Navi Mumbai, Thane and Kalyan, where it has started taking orders from customers for the items of daily needs. WhatsApp is at the core of this launch. Customers get a link to access the application on WhatsApp, which redirects to the JioMart platform. The confirmation status is also received on WhatsApp itself. “Collaboration with WhatsApp enables it to address a large user set spending a considerable amount of screen time on the app. This saves JioMart from separately acquiring customers on its platform, which is a key barrier when a new app or a service is launched,” the report said.