Asia"s richest man, Mukesh Ambani"s JioMart is teaming up with Meta"s WhatsApp to offer Indians a new way to order groceries. JioMart, which comes under Reliance Industries Ltd., has been challenging the current domination of Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart not just in the retail space, but also in courts.
Customers can use WhatsApp"s "tap and chat" option to order daily essentials such as fruits, vegetables, cereal, toothpaste, and cooking staples like paneer (cottage cheese) and chickpea flour. The platform is offering free delivery across all products and there are no minimum order requirements.
The partnership comes 19 months after Meta Platforms Inc., previously Facebook Inc., invested around $6 billion into Reliance"s Jio unit, which is also India"s largest mobile operator. Unlike Amazon, Flipkart, BigBasket, or Grofers, Reliance"s JioMart relies on its biggest brick-and-mortar store chain, Reliance Retail, to execute the delivery by narrowing down nodes according to pin codes.
This model is more efficient for delivering the goods as they come from a Reliance retail store nearest to your delivery location as opposed to a warehouse tens of kilometers away. India is also WhatsApp"s largest user base and leveraging the messaging app for its retail industry is a fair shot by Ambani.