PhonePe forays into e-commerce on ONDC

Walmart-owned fintech company PhonePe has forayed into e-commerce with the launch of a new consumer application named ‘Pincode’. It will be a buyer-side application on the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), which is a government-backed initiative to democratise e-commerce in India.

“PhonePe is launching a new consumer app because ONDC is such a vast ocean of promises. For the consumer, we believe a category or a tab will not solve the problem. We need a new shopping app that puts the store at the heart of the interaction,” Sameer Nigam, Co-founder and CEO of PhonePe, said at the app’s launch event in Bengaluru on Tuesday.

Pincode will be a pure hyper-local ecommerce app that will connect sellers on the ONDC network to consumers. The service is currently live only in Bangalore. The app is now available for download on Google Play Store and App Store.

“ONDC is created with a vision to allow every physical retail business and service provider in the country to participate in this ongoing digital revolution, the e-commerce revolution. We feel that the way to realize this vision is to connect local neighborhoods digitally in a way that both consumers and sellers find attractive, that both find convenient, and both find affordable,” he said.

Nigam said Pincode will remain a pure-play hyper-local player on ONDC and will not get into private labels, dark stores or logistics business.