PhonePe launches hyperlocal e-commerce app Pincode

Walmart-backed PhonePe has announced its foray into local ecommerce with the launch of its consumer app Pincode, built on the government's Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) platform.

The app will be launched in Bengaluru for grocery and food shopping.

With 450 million users, PhonePe claims to have one in four Indians use the platform. With Pincode, the business wants to make it possible for retailers, MSMEs, and farms to interact with a larger local ecosystem. PhonePe is concentrated on developing an inclusive, hyperlocal quick commerce alternative rather than competing with e-commerce behemoths like Flipkart or Amazon.

PhonePe Founder and CEO Sameer Nigam said that the Pincode app will be available initially in Bangalore and it will expand to other cities after the app achieves transactions of around 10,000 per day.

"PhonePe is launching a new shopping app that puts stores at the heart of interaction. Pincode is going to open up in Bengaluru.

"We are going to launch it city by city. We are going to first take transaction volumes like 10,000 a day before we open the next city. We are looking at 100 thousand per day by December," Nigam said.

He said this is the second consumer app from PhonePe in about seven years.

Nigam said a separate app has been launched because the expectations of customers are going to be different.

The app will pilot in Bangalore with grocery, food, pharma, electronics and home decor.

Retailers available on government-supported ONDC (Open Network for Digital Commerce,) can join the app