How south Asia’s bridal industry built a WhatsApp empire
Once a year, between December and February, brides-to-be and their families from all over the the US and Europe flock to India and Pakistan to escape the cold, wintry weather, visit family and, perhaps most importantly, shop for wedding outfits.
Designers and retailers prepare for the influx of non-residential Indians, or NRIs, by setting up sales, pop-up events or previews of their upcoming lines of lehenga cholis, anarkali and saris.
But the pandemic has slowed down NRI season, with surges in infections and limitations on travel making it hard for parents of soon-to-be brides and grooms to make the long journey to cities such as Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi or to the state of Gujarat.
In response, many retailers have moved a growing part of their businesses online, increasingly turning to two platforms to facilitate the close collaboration between designer and customer that is often required to complete a purchase of a single dress: Instagram and WhatsApp.
Click through many major Indian dress stores’ websites these days and you’ll find a WhatsApp icon on the corner of the page. Want to customize a specific product? Click on the link to start a WhatsApp chat with the store.
With 2 billion users around the globe, WhatsApp for years has been ubiquitous in many parts of the world, though Americans have been slower to adopt the messaging platform as a primary means of communication. Even among second-generation South Asian Americans, WhatsApp is often seen as the platform on which their mothers and aunties receive and spread misinformation and chain mail.
The pandemic has expedited the adoption of WhatsApp as a place to not just communicate but to coordinate expensive and personally significant purchases among South Asian
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