WhatsApp Grocery Shopping: JioMart, the retail arm of Reliance Industries (RIL) Chairman Mukesh Ambani’s Jio telecom business, is set to launch WhatsApp-based shopping services in India this week, according to company insiders who spoke with Reuters.
This service will be available for free and there is no minimum order value. According to users who got WhatsApp shopping invites with a 90-second tutorial and catalog, among the daily essentials on offer are fruits, vegetables, cereal, toothpaste, and cooking staples like paneer cottage cheese and chickpea flour.
The nationwide launch of this grocery shopping feature is expected by early next week in India where WhatsApp is widely used for messaging, news, and other services.
Indians may now order groceries from Mukesh Ambani’s JioMart over WhatsApp using a new “tap and chat” feature, as his Reliance Industries confronts Amazon.com Inc. and Walmart-owned Flipkart’s dominance.
It will provide free delivery and there is no minimum order value, according to users who got WhatsApp shopping invites, among the daily essentials on offer are fruits, vegetables, cereal, toothpaste, and cooking staples like paneer cottage cheese and chickpea flour.
The WhatsApp grocery option joins Reliance’s JioMart, which debuted in 200 cities last summer, years after foreign competitors had a head start in Indian e-commerce. Groceries are still a small, but fast-increasing, area of internet retail, so there’s plenty of room for growth.
WhatsApp Grocery Shopping, A slew of domestic startups, including SoftBank Group Corp.’s Grofers, Google’s Dunzo, Naspers’ Swiggy, the Tata conglomerate’s recently acquired Bigbasket, and newer entrants like Zepto, are crowding the grocery delivery arena with promises of discounts and instant deliveries, alongside Amazon and Walmart.
The grocery is one of India’s 20 million mom-and-pop shops, which are emerging as significant partners for Amazon, Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries, and Walmart’s Flipkart online division as they compete for a piece of the lucrative $1 trillion Indian retail industry.
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