Flipkart, Jabong facilitate customer experience with Instant Messaging

Instant messaging is extensively used not only for personal chatting but also to reach out to millions of mobile users, as with E-commerce companies that have started using instant messenger platforms to widen their customer base. Now anyone who is a regular online shopper can easily chat with their preferred e-tailer about new products, complaints or paying for a purchase through their smartphone messaging services like WhatsApp, WeChat and Line.

Flipkart and Jabong are the first two e-commerce companies to have started such an initiative. They have tied up with WeChat to launch official accounts besides tying up with Line, which has a feature that allows users to make payments using credit cards.

In October when Flipkart launched a Line account, it received over 250,000 followers in less than a week and its WeChat account received tens of thousands of followers. Jabong launched its customer support services and campaigns targeted at messenger users on WhatsApp and other platforms.

WeChat permits users to complete online transactions from within the messaging app, although currently payments can be made only through credit cards. Brands and stores have to approach the company to set up their accounts.

It is common in Japan and China, where instant messaging is a massive marketing channel for ecommerce companies such as Alibaba, which sell goods worth billions of dollars on instant messengers.

India is the second-largest mobile phone market in the world. Online leaders such as Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon already get the majority of their traffic through mobile devices.- See more