WhatsApp lets users in India do their shopping in app

WhatsApp allows Indian users to shop and pay for groceries in the app. The groceries can be ordered from the Indian online store chain JioMart. It is not yet known if and when the feature will be available in other countries.

The entire process takes place in WhatsApp itself and Meta calls it therefore ‘the first end-to-end shopping experience on WhatsApp’. In order to do the shopping, Indian users have to send a message with ‘hi’ to JioMart’s number. Then they can view the catalog, select groceries and order them. It was already possible to view the items in the app, but settlement of the groceries took place externally.

JioMart is part of the Indian tech company Jio Platforms. With the shopping function “Meta and Jio Platforms want to accelerate the digitization of India”, the companies write. In 2020, Meta has invested $5.5 billion in the Indian company, wrote The Hindustan Times at the time.