Gupshup, has announced India’s very first Conversational Buyer App on the ONDC network, at their flagship event Conversations 2024 in Delhi. It enables buyers to use a Whatsapp-based conversational UI to discover, browse, and buy products from sellers across the ONDC network, without needing to download any other mobile app. Soon, Gupshup will also offer this product capability to its enterprise customers that want to integrate conversational commerce into their chatbots. This launch demonstrates the perfect alignment of Gupshup’s vision of a conversational internet with ONDC’s mission of democratizing digital commerce.
“India’s diverse population uses different mobile tools, varied languages, and possesses different levels of tech-savvy. But they all know how to chat via WhatsApp. Delivering conversational experiences via the messaging app is the only way to reach everyone. Gupshup’s Buyer App on ONDC brings the vast commerce network to users nationwide, usable in any language, quickly and easily. This will truly transform digital commerce on a population scale in India.” said Beerud Sheth, CEO, Gupshup.
More than 650 million Indians are now active on social media and messaging platforms. Despite this massive engagement, only 30% of users (approximately 200 mn) shop online. And a whopping 50% of the remaining 450 million haven’t even used any apps beyond social media and entertainment. Furthermore, 65% of savvy digital users find app downloads frustrating and 40% abandon a purchase if pushed to install apps.
“Gupshup Conversation Cloud makes it easy for businesses to build rich conversational commerce experiences with AI-powered natural language interactions, in any language, over text and voice, with deep personalization, across the entire customer lifecycle. This ONDC Buyer App is the perfect demonstration of the significant impact of conversational experiences and the unique ability of Gupshup’s platform to enable them”, said Gaurav Kachhawa, Chief Product Officer at Gupshup.
The Buyer App is in Beta and will initially have limited availability, allowing users to order food & beverages like biryani on WhatsApp. Customers will be able to share their location over chat, browse sellers close to them, order food, and make payments right from WhatsApp. Support for additional conversational channels such as Google RCS and Voice is also coming soon. With these capabilities, merchants, and businesses looking to participate in the ONDC eCommerce ecosystem can leverage the Gupshup ONDC Commerce Platform and speed up their time to market.
ONDC, which stands for Open Network for Digital Commerce, is a collaborative initiative that brings together various merchants and brands on a unified digital commerce platform. This interconnected network was developed by the Indian government’s Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade. The primary goal of ONDC is to foster an open and inclusive e-commerce ecosystem in India.
According to various reports, the initiative has seen significant traction since its official introduction in January 2023. It has processed over 49.79 million transactions to date with transportation services, particularly ride-hailing apps like Namma Yatri accounting for more than half of the monthly order volume. Among other sectors, the food and beverages category is another one experiencing rapid expansion.