Mumbai, April 27: Reliance Industries has made its JioMart e-commerce platform go live on WhatsApp a few days after social media giant Facebook and Reliance Jio signed a $5.7 billion deal. The platform has been launched amid the coronavirus lockdown to cater to customers in Navi Mumbai, Thane and Kalyan. It will be rolled out in other cities shortly.

According to reports, the company has also launched a new WhatsApp number so that customers can easily place an order for over 50,000 products including groceries and other essential items along with private labels owned by Reliance Retail. Reliance has reportedly got lakhs of small scale businesses and Kirana stores for the services. Reliance Jio-Facebook Deal Will Be 'Catalyst' in Making India One of World's Leading Digital Societies, Says Mukesh Ambani.

Below is a step by step process on how it works:

JIO Mart WhatsApp Message

    1. Save the JioMart WhatsApp number -88500 08000 on contacts.

    2. Send a Hi

    3. You will get an automated message saying-'We are currently serving selected localities in Navi Mumbai, Thane and Kalyan'.

    4. A link is shared, which a customer needs to fill up.

    5. Remember orders placed by 7 pm every day will be available for pick up at your nearest JioMart Kirana within next 2 days.

    6. The link is only for individual use and will be valid for only 30 minutes. In order to generate a new link send Hi in the chat window.

JioMart is an online-to-offline (O2O) business platform where customers can place an order online, but one can only purchase the products offline by going to the nearest local retail stores. Once the app is launched, JioMart promises free home delivery, express delivery services and ‘never before savings’ once the app is launched.

Last week, Facebook announced to invest Rs 43,575 crore in Jio Platforms for a 9.99 per cent stake. Commenting on the deal, Mukesh Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) said, "The partnership will prove to be a catalyst to make India into one of the world's leading digital societies."

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 27, 2020 12:54 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).