Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently invested $5.7 billion in Reliance Industries Ltd. The investment was made to bring the company’s JioMart venture to WhatsApp. The e-commerce venture of Reliance Retail is now live in three neighbourhoods surrounding Mumbai and now they even have access to WhatsApp’s 400 million user base in India.
At the time of the ongoing coronavirus lockdown, the JioMart’s WhatsApp portal will most likely be an instant hit. With such an investor on board, Mukesh Ambani is not far from taking on Amazon and Walmart. While JioMart can leverage this to reach the masses, Facebook hopes this will make WhatsApp the primary method for small businesses to connect with their customers.
How to use JioMart to order grocery on WhatsApp?
JioMart has created a WhatsApp number - 8850008000. The customers will just need to save the number on their phones. Once you add the number, send a simple text on WhatsApp. JioMart’s WhatsApp service will come up with a default reply, “Welcome to JioMart - WhatsApp Order booking Service. We are currently accepting orders only for selected localities in Navi Mumbai, Thane and Kalyan. Orders placed by 5 pm every day are likely to be available for pick up at your nearest JioMart Kirana within 48 hours.”
This message will be followed by a custom URL, which users can use to place an order in any of the available localities. Once the customer has successfully placed an order, they will be notified with the order and the store details on WhatsApp.