These days there are apps for getting pretty much anything delivered to your door from take-out food to groceries and more. The likes of Uber and DoorDash might be in for a bit of competition, however, as Meta has released details of a brand-new end-to-end shopping service that will work from within WhatsApp. The new service is only available in India for now, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be rolled out to other regions in the future. Let’s go through the details.
As WhatsApp’s parent company, Meta has released a blog post detailing a new partnership between the messaging app and the Indian supermarket chain JioMart. The partnership marks a considerable step up from WhatsApp’s WhatsApp Business app, which allows companies to set up official company WhatsApp accounts that clients can use to contact them. Instead, the JioMart partnership almost turns WhatsApp into a shopping app, complete with JioMart’s full catalog, a delivery and payment system, and more.
One of the main objectives of the partnership is to make online shopping much easier for users who have never done it before. All users have to do to start browsing through the JioMart catalog is open a chat with JioMart and say Hi. Once they have done so they will be able to, “to seamlessly browse through JioMart’s entire grocery catalog. Shoppers can add items to their cart and make a payment to complete the purchase — all without leaving the WhatsApp chat.”
As well as the blog post announcing the move, Mark Zuckerburg also took to Facebook to talk about the launch, with adds further weight to the idea that this more than just your average collaboration. Another giveaway is this line from the Meta blog post:
“The JioMart on WhatsApp experience will revolutionize the way millions of businesses across India connect with their consumers while bringing unparalleled simplicity and convenience to people’s shopping experience.”
It looks like in India at least, JioMart won’t be the only business getting this considerable upgrade over the standard WhatsApp Business offering. Does this mean, that an expansion could also reach out to other regions? We will have to wait and see.
In other recent WhatsApp news, the messaging app is boosting its file-sharing capabilities.
