Reliance AGM: JioMart testing integration with WhatsApp, says Mukesh Ambani

Reliance’s e-commerce venture JioMart hit a single-day peak of 6.5 lakh orders, Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani announced at the company’s 44th annual general meeting on Thursday. He said JioMart has brought online 3 lakh merchants and shopkeepers across 150 cities.

Ambani also announced a set of integrations between WhatsApp and JioMart on a trial basis. “Our joint teams are actively developing the full New Commerce solution linking merchants and consumers, and we plan to progressively launch these over the next few quarters,” he said. Facebook has a 9.99% stake in Jio Platforms and is its largest minority shareholder.

Kirana orders grew by 3 times and order frequency has gone up by 2 times, Ambani said. JioMart is aggressively onboarding kiranas in non-metros through which it wants to service local grocery orders.


Demand for online grocery has shot up due to the pandemic and conglomerates want in on the action. The Tata group recently acquired a majority stake in online grocer BigBasket. Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart are also ramping up their grocery plans as more consumers turn to online platforms for essentials. According to an industry report, India’s online grocery market was estimated at $3 billion last year. Data from PGA Labs -- the market intelligence unit of Praxis Global Alliance -- said this number is expected to touch $22 billion by 2025.

In FY21, JioMart’s market share stood at 4%. Market leader BigBasket had a 37% share, followed by Grofers at 13%, according to PGA Labs.

“JioMart's growth is a testament to its already loyal customer base, 80% of whom are repeat shoppers. [Our] aim is to transform and grow the small merchant ecosystem so our merchant partners prosper,” Ambani said.

JioMart, which started out selling groceries and essentials, now also sells clothes, jewellery and electronics. It is also running pilots of subscription-based deliveries of morning essentials such as milk, bread and eggs.

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