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Buy groceries now without having to download a new application! You can now simply shop on WhatsApp!

Reliance Retail has yet again proven its business acumen by collaborating with Meta to launch the world’s first end-to-end purchasing experience on the popular instant messaging platform, WhatsApp. 

This would come as a big breakthrough for WhatsApp as it would mean a sizable improvement in their income. JioMart has been launched on WhatsApp post diligent testing, of two years, conducted with a select group of customers by JioMart and Meta. 

After many hurdles, earlier this year, Whatsapp was granted permission to extend its UPI-powered payments service to 100 million users in the country. WhatsApp, a user-friendly app used by half a billion people in India alone, would ease the entire shopping journey. It is as simple as browsing the entire catalogue of JioMart, adding the item of your liking to the cart and making payment through the UPI. All done without having to leave the chat. 

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, said in a statement that “chat-based” end-to-end shopping experiences are “the go-to way people and businesses (will) communicate in the years to come.”

Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries, had years ago said, “we have to collectively launch a new movement against data colonisation. For India to succeed in this data-driven revolution, we will have to migrate the control and ownership of Indian data back to India — in other words, Indian wealth back to every Indian.”

This venture fortifies his claims as it aims to overtake brands such as Amazon and Flipkart in India. Reliance Mart, a $221 billion Indian conglomerate under Reliance Retail, is currently the largest retail chain, however, its online presence has a limited array of offerings.

“Reliance Retail is looking at touching as many consumers across the country and WhatsApp is a logical platform as India is the largest market for the messaging app in the world,” said Devangshu Dutta, CEO of Third Eyesight, a retail consultancy firm.

Isha Ambani, director at Reliance Retail Ventures, has said that the large retail is on a new commerce initiative to partner with one crore merchants, in the next five years, to feed its expansion to cover the whole country.