Your Local Kirana Store Goes Online Thanks to JioMart-Whatsapp Tie-up

Thanks to the investment by social media giant Facebook, JioMart will leverage the power of WhatsApp messaging to bring local vendors, independent hawkers and small kirana stores online. The move was announced as a part of the deal signed between Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook and Mukesh Ambani-backed Jio Platforms back in April which also involves Reliance Retail. JioMart is an online groceries delivery platform and originally announced at beginning of the year as part of Jio Platforms' expansion into the e-commerce space in India.

"JioMart is built to digitally enable, empower and engage kirana stores. Kiranas will stay connected and transact with their customers on the JioMart platform, facilitated by a multifunctional POS," said Isha Ambani at the 43rd Reliance Annual General Meeting.

JioMart will allow local vendors and small kirana businesses will be able to register on the online groceries delivery platform, and receive seamless orders through WhatsApp. As we all know, WhatsApp is the ubiquitously preferred messaging and communication service across different segments of internet users. This could, therefore, help in expanding the scope of business for kirana stores that so far largely survived on offline, physical orders. This should lead to JioMart seeing considerable growth as it would bring the convenience of offering to users their favourite, local grocery stores.

As of May, JioMart was available across 200 cities and towns in India including all leading metro cities like Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, and Kolkata. While Reliance is yet to launch a dedicated app for JioMart, it has a dedicated website (www.jiomart.com) which is currently live. It is beyond doubt, that the latest move by Reliance is expected to throw a tough competition to other prominent grocery delivery services like Amazon India, Flipkart, and Big Basket.

JioMart deliveries had been in the test run phase in Mumbai as a small pilot project. The deliveries were available in Navi Mumbai, Thane, and Kalyan. Reliance also started signing up small Kirana stores which would allow customers to order online and get groceries delivered from their neighbourhood shop to their doorstep amid the coronavirus crisis.