PhonePe's ONDC app Pincode goes live in 10 cities, to expand services

The company says it will expand category offerings and expand nationwide

Pincode, a local shopping app on the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) platform, on Tuesday announced it has gone live in ten cities.

The PhonePe-backed app was launched in Bengaluru and is now in Mumbai, Delhi, Noida, Gurugram, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Pune and Kolkata. Among other things, it sells groceries, pharma, fashion and electronic products.

“The initial response and rapid consumer adoption of Pincode has given us the confidence to expand our services. We are fully committed to championing local sellers and delivering an exceptional shopping experience to our consumers," said Lalit Singh, the company’s general manager.

“Pincode is committed to growing the ecosystem, and we will continue expanding our category offerings and scaling our presence nationwide. In the coming months, we have ambitious plans for expansion into more cities," he said.

The Pincode app, since its launch in April this year, has delivered more than 100,000 orders, the company said in a statement. It processes 5,000 orders daily.

Magicpin, a rival ONDC app backed by online food delivery company Zomato, has said it has delivered 20,000 orders per day since April.

ONDC is a non-profit, facilitative platform set up by the government’s Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) as an alternative for online shopping. It is an alternative to the prevalent app-centric e-commerce models.

ONDC helps consumers directly connect with sellers and transact on any buyer app on the network, reducing the entry barriers for small businesses to compete with larger rivals.

ONDC made headlines a couple of weeks ago for offering cheaper prices for the same food orders than food aggregators Swiggy and Zomato via seller apps like magicpin and Pincode.