JioMart, an e-commerce venture run by India’s most valued firm, is testing an “ordering system” on WhatsApp, teasing the first peek at the collaboration between Facebook and Indian telecom giant Reliance Jio Platforms.
Users in Navi Mumbai, Thane and Kalyan, three sub-urban areas of Mumbai, can now use JioMart’s WhatsApp business account for grocery shopping.
They can initiate an order by texting “Hi” to +91-8850008000, which prompts a link that opens a mini store on the browser, allowing them to pick a range of grocery products including toothpaste, snacks, tea and coffee, rice, and cooking oil.
Once an order has been placed, which currently does not include a way to pay digitally, JioMart automatically assigns a neighborhood store to them and sends an invoice through WhatsApp. There is a possibility that users might not be required to pay through WhatsApp, which started to test its payments service in India two years ago.
WhatsApp has yet to receive approval from New Delhi for a nationwide rollout of Pay in India. Local media reports claimed earlier this year that WhatsApp had started to expand Pay’s reach in the country in various phases. Facebook’s Mohan said last week that only 1 million WhatsApp users in India, same as before, have access to its mobile payment service.
