The New Social Network: How Messaging Apps Could Be A Booster for Indian E-Commerce — and Society

The festive season is upon us, and the signs of buoyancy are unmistakable. E-commerce players and enablers across India are ramping up their capacities to meet the surge in demand, with several platforms reporting double — even triple — digit growth in sales during the Navratri-Durga Puja season. But another trend has also been unfolding in parallel: the rapid rise in popularity of the Arattai messaging app, signaling that Indians are ready to explore new, homegrown communication platforms.

Put these two trends together, and an idea begins to take shape — one that blends technology, sociology, and commerce in a uniquely Indian way.


Messaging Apps Are the True Social Networks of Our Time

I belong to a generation that remembers when social media platforms were called social networking sites. Those early platforms connected real people — classmates, colleagues, cousins — with the promise of staying in touch. But over time, social media became megaphones for expressing political, social, intellectual, or religious views. The “connections” now often exist in the abstract: communities of shared opinions, rather than shared lives.

In contrast, messaging apps have quietly become the new social networking sites. They connect people who actually know one another — family members, friends, colleagues, and batchmates — people bound by personal interactions and shared experiences. These are real social circles, grounded in trust and intimacy. And that makes messaging apps the most natural space for a new kind of commerce — relationship-driven commerce.


The Sociological Edge: Trust and Familiarity

If traditional social media represent the public maidan, messaging platforms represent the private sitting room. Trust is already built in. That’s precisely where e-commerce players can step in, not as intrusive advertisers, but as relationship enhancers.

Rather than chasing faceless algorithms, e-commerce firms can collaborate with messaging platforms to bring carefully curated and bundled products and services right into family or friend groups — not as ads, but as suggestions that strengthen connection.


Curated and Bundled Commerce: Beyond Festivals

We already see e-commerce platforms offering festive bundles — Diwali décor hampers, Rakhi gifts, or Navratri thalis. But imagine extending that logic to personal and family occasions too:-

Birthdays and Anniversaries: Curated gift boxes, group gifting options, or even restaurant and bakery tie-ups for home celebrations.

Weddings: Bundled services for mehndi artistes, photographers, decorators, and invitation designers.

New Baby or Housewarming: One-tap bundles for baby care items, or eco-friendly home-start kits.

Seasonal Needs: Monsoon protection packs, winter wellness hampers, or school reopening kits for kids.

Service Appointments: Booking a doctor, lawyer, beautician, or even a pet groomer — bundled and offered through trusted chat-based interfaces.

Group Holidays and Get-Togethers: E-booking platforms can offer curated packages for families, alumni groups, or office teams — from transport to stay to activities — all coordinated within the same chat group where the plan originates.


Each of these bundles can be distributed or recommended within groups that already share that context — family groups, neighbourhood associations, school alumni groups, or workplace teams. In such environments, product suggestions feel contextually relevant and far less intrusive than generic ads on open platforms.


The New Channel: Messaging as Commerce Infrastructure

For e-commerce platforms, the messaging ecosystem can act as a low-cost, high-conversion distribution channel. People already discuss plans — for weddings, travel, or celebrations — in these group chats. If a platform can enter that conversation responsibly, with curated options that make life easier, rather than interrupt it, conversion likelihood skyrockets.

In fact, in India, millions of MSMEs already use WhatsApp Business. Thus, the plumbing for conversational commerce exists. The familiarity of chat-based interaction, combined with catalog integration and digital payments, makes this an immediately deployable model. Messaging apps like Arattai, if they follow similar integration paths, can easily become the next frontier for chat-led e-commerce.

This model has already worked in parts of East Asia, where chat-based platforms evolved into full-fledged commerce ecosystems. India’s own digital payment integration and social cohesion make it equally fertile ground for such a transformation.


Business Models and Partnerships

The partnerships needed for this evolution already exist in fragments — e-commerce platforms with their catalogs, messaging apps with their trust-based networks, and payment systems with UPI’s ease. What’s missing is the fusion layer: a set of APIs and shared incentives that make this collaboration seamless. Whether through in-chat catalogs, mini-stores, shared carts, or group payment links, these partnerships could turn chat-based relationships into commerce-ready ecosystems. Messaging apps gain engagement, e-commerce players gain conversion, and users gain convenience and relevance — a rare triple win.


Quick Experiments and Early Pilots

To validate this model, even small-scale pilots can reveal a lot. A few curated bundles during major festivals, a family-gifting pilot with group-split payment options, or a chat-integrated travel booking flow for small groups could serve as early indicators. These trials can measure what really matters — participation rates, conversion velocity, and group satisfaction. In doing so, they’d not only refine the commercial model but also uncover valuable sociological insights into how Indians make collective purchasing decisions in the digital age.


Guarding Against Intrusiveness

Of course, concerns about privacy and intrusiveness are valid. But if implemented ethically — through opt-in/opt-out options, group admin consent, and context-specific bundles — such collaborations can feel natural and even useful. After all, curated festive or personal bundles are designed not to exploit relationships, but to enhance them — to make shared experiences smoother, more joyful, and more memorable.


Looking Ahead

The sociology of technology often reveals that people repurpose digital tools for what they value most: connection, celebration, and shared meaning. Messaging platforms have become the new heart of that human network.

If e-commerce players recognize this shift, they won’t just find a new sales channel — they’ll discover a new philosophy of commerce, one built on trust, familiarity, and relevance.

In this age of digital hyperbole, that might just be the quiet revolution the digital economy needs.

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