Mukesh Ambani Led Reliance To Integrate JioMart Into WhatsApp To Tap Into Its 400 Million User Base

Reliance Retail Limited plans to integrate its e-commerce app JioMart into WhatsApp within six months, reports LiveMint.

The move will help Reliance Retail to grow, challenging the domination of Amazon and Flipkart by reaching out to over 400 million users of WhatsApp in India. Currently Reliance is India’s biggest offline retailer.

India’s fast-growing retail market is estimated to reach USD 1.3 trillion by 2025 with the online retail market occupying a lion’s share in the increased value pie.

The integration of both WhatAapp and JioMart will allow the users of India’s most popular messaging service to order products without having to leave the app.

“It is essentially marrying the strengths of both companies. The JioMart integration is essentially adding a retail layer for WhatsApp chats. With payments now available on WhatsApp, it makes all the more sense. Now your chats, retail and payments will all be integrated within the same interface," said Jayanth Kolla, founder and partner, Convergence Catalyst, a research firm.

A WhatsApp spokesperson told LiveMint that they are aiming to bring millions of small businesses and the customers they serve into the digital economy through this investment with Jio.

“Essentially, the idea is to keep users within WhatsApp, and the APIs (application programming interface) allow that. APIs for any catalogue-based service will be built in such a way that as soon as new inventory comes in, it will keep feeding two-directional data to both Jio systems and what is front-ended on WhatsApp," said Sanchit Vir Gogia, chief analyst and founder, Greyhound Research.

In April 2020 Facebook Inc, the owner of WhatsApp, bought a 9.9% stake in Reliance Industries’ digital unit Jio Platforms for USD 5.7 billion.

Many reports in 2020 have already indicated that Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries and Facebook are exploring the possibility of creating a Super App on the lines of WeChat in China.

A Super App consists of several features like digital payments, social media, gaming and travel bookings.