JioMart launches on WhatsApp in select locations; here's how to order groceries
JioMart WhatsApp Ordering Service is available in areas round Mumbai, and the app is expected to roll out shortly. Here's how customers can place orders.
About four days after Reliance Jio signed a $5.7 billion deal with Facebook, its JioMart service has gone live on WhatsApp.
It is available in select locations on the outskirts of Mumbai — Navi Mumbai (where Jio is headquartered), Thane, and Kalyan. The JioMart app is likely to roll out shortly.
JioMart is Reliance's much-awaited O2O (online-to-offline) play, where users can browse through products and place orders online, and complete the transaction offline at a physical store.
Reliance is calling this the 'new commerce' model and has already roped in lakhs of kiranas for the service, which is being touted as Desh Ki Nayi Dukaan.
How to place orders on JioMart
To place orders from JioMart Kiranas, users have to send an introductory WhatsApp message to +91 88500 08000.
They receive a "Welcome to JioMart WhatsApp Order Booking Service" message, along with a shopping link that is active for 30 minutes.
The link takes them to a page where they have to enter their personal details like mobile number, area, locality, society name, and house number.
Post that, they are taken to a selection of essential grocery items, which they can add to their cart. JioMart had earlier announced that it would offer a catalogue of more than 50,000 products.
Once the order is generated, JioMart sends customers an invoice along with the kirana store's address details and Google Maps location.
The customer gets an SMS from the Kirana Partner once the order is ready, after which they can pay at the store and pick up the order.
At present, there is no minimum order limit. Customers will have to place their orders by 7 pm everyday, which would be ready at their nearest JioMart Kirana within the next two days.
The Reliance-Facebook partnership, the biggest in India's internet ecosystem till date, is believed to be a game changer for small-and-medium businesses — over 60 million of them. Jio has been digitising several SMBs over the past one year.
"With the power of WhatsApp, we can enable people to connect with businesses, shop and ultimately purchase products in a seamless mobile experience," Facebook said in the deal announcement.
(Edited by Teja Lele Desai)