Last week, Facebook invested a sum total of $5.7 billion (INR 43,574 crore) for a 9.99 percent equity stake in Jio Platforms Limited to enter into a commercial agreement that allows the two tech-giants to venture into helping small businesses operate more effectively leveraging the ever-expanding digital platforms. While it has only been a few days since the two signed the pact, it seems that we already have one of the ventures, JioMart, already live in certain areas of Mumbai, namely: Navi Mumbai, Thane, and Kalyan.
To give you some background, JioMart is an e-commerce platform that allows users to order groceries online. It promises to offer over a catalog of over 50,000 products, with free home delivery and no minimum order limit. The service will be available via an app for both Android and iOS and is expected to come out soon. Once available, it will allow customers to order products and get them home delivered. However, in the meanwhile, it is allowing customers to place orders on WhatsApp and collect them from their nearby merchant when it’s ready.
How to Order Products from JioMart using WhatsApp
1. First, add the JioMart number: 88500 08000, to your contact list.
2. Open WhatsApp and send “Hi” to the number you just saved.
3. Once done, JioMart will revert to your text with a message that has a URL to select your locality and order products. The link is only valid for 30 minutes. So, if you fail to order within this time, you need to send “Hi’ again to get a new link.
4. Tap on the link and fill out the form will all the details. Hit Proceed.
5. Next, you will be provided with a list of products you can order. Here, select the items and hit the “Place Order” button below.
6. Now, once your order is ready, you will receive an update from the merchant. After this, you can head to the store and collect it.
And that’s it!
At this point, the service is only available in certain areas in Mumbai (Navi Mumbai, Thane, and Kalyan). So, if you happen to be from these areas, you can order groceries over WhatsApp to avoid standing in queues at your local grocery store. Moreover, as of now, the service is only offering groceries and daily essentials but is expected to expand its offering once the JioMart app goes live.