PhonePe's ONDC app Pincode records 100% growth on a daily basis

Pincode was launched earlier this month as a hyperlocal commerce platform. It offers six major categories, including grocery, food, pharma, electronics, home decor, and fashion.

Pincode, the interoperable e-commerce app launched by Walmart-owned PhonePe earlier this month, is growing 100 percent day on day, a senior company executive said on April 25.

To be sure, this growth would be on a very small base as the app was launched three weeks back. The executive did not reveal the exact number of order volumes at present, but mentioned that the fill rates were over 90 percent. Fill rates are a very important metric in online commerce as it denotes the percentage of products ordered which get delivered to the consumer.

"When we launched QR codes six years ago and we started discussion with merchants, we realised that the real competitor was not card but cash. It was hard to explain what will they get if they move from cash to digital payments," said Lalit Singh, director of product management, PhonePe.

“Next level for them is to move their entire shop to digital shop," he added.

When asked about the decision to build a new app for ONDC rather than doing it through the PhonePe app, Singh said that the move was based on consumer behaviour.

"When a consumer comes to a payment app, they want to make the transaction as quickly as possible and leave. However, for shopping, you want the consumer to stay on for more time and explore," he said.

Earlier in the day, Union Minister Piyush Goyal said that the government wants e-commerce companies to join ONDC via their main apps rather than launch new apps. The minister said that while e-commerce platforms would benefit from ONDC by getting a ready catchment of sellers, they ought to offer the benefit of more choice in terms of sellers to their buyers.

Singh of PhonePe said that it was important that the consumer is given a clear narrative of what all he can do in an app, something that may be limited in case of pushing commerce on the same app as payments.

He also said that while PhonePe has just launched a buyer-side app to begin with, the company may also build a seller-side app in the future.

In the ONDC system, different interoperable platforms are responsible for interface with consumers, managing sellers, doing logistics, and payments, among other things.

Pincode was launched earlier this month as a hyperlocal commerce platform. It offers six major categories, including grocery, food, pharma, electronics, home decor, and fashion. The app is currently only available in Bengaluru, but there are plans to expand to other cities, with the expansion limited to no more than 10 cities in the first year.