Ola Consumer set to transform India’s digital commerce; enhances retail experience for all Indians
Ola Consumer redefined the retail and commerce journey for consumers in India. With a vision to democratise and transform commerce, Ola Consumer launched innovations around ONDC, 100% electric logistics, AI-driven discovery, accessible credit, efficient and automated warehousing, robust manufacturing tech systems and loyalty program.
Bhavish Aggarwal, Founder, Ola Consumer said, ‘India is one of the fastest growing digital economies and we are already living in the future, a future where AI, electric mobility, and technologies are converging to create a commerce ecosystem that is uniquely Indian yet globally competitive. At Ola Consumer, our aim is to ensure that every consumer has access to the best products and services without barriers of traditional commerce. To further this goal, in the last six months, we have progressed beyond mobility and powered Ola Consumer with technology innovations, redefining commerce for India while delivering more value to our consumers, with a fair and efficient ecosystem. We are proud to serve India at scale and continue to do so with Indigenous technologies being at the heart of this transformation.’
Ola Consumer innovations include:
- ONDC
ONDC will be the UPI moment for commerce and will make a democratic ecosystem that will bring down the cost of commerce. Ola food and grocery on ONDC surpassed 40K orders per day in Bengaluru in a pilot concluded in 2024. Ola Consumer is set to introduce more categories on ONDC soon. To further support this growing ecosystem, Ola Consumer will offer one year of free Krutrim Cloud for all ONDC suppliers, applicable for startups and SMEs, under a fair usage policy. In addition, D2C brands will also be given one year of free access to Krutrim Cloud. - AI Shopping Co-Pilot
This conversational AI led groundbreaking tool will be focused on a personalised and highly interactive shopping experience. It will help users connect seamlessly with social media and other apps, creating a cohesive and integrated shopping experience across all platforms. The AI Shopping Co-pilot is a pioneering move towards making shopping next-level experiential for online users. - Electric Logistics
With a consistent focus on sustainable mobility solutions and providing a backbone to ONDC operations, Ola Consumer plans to drive cost synergies by electrifying delivery logistics and reducing logistics costs. This would serve as the future of work, a multi-work platform, and a choice of jobs for gig workers leading to reduced costs, with plans to increase jobs by 2.5 lac additional jobs by March 2025 with this platform. - Credit on demand
Ola Consumer announced several initiatives aimed at providing accessible and affordable credit solutions for all.
– Ola Credit – to make credit accessible in partnership with Tata Capital and Incred. The feature will ensure personal loans at the click of a button, supported by a 100% digitised process, and credit in the bank account within minutes.
– Ola Pay – Ola Consumer launched Ola Pay, which uses UPI on the Ola App to pay for rides, food, and groceries.
- Automated warehousing
With a vision to have fully automated dark stores and state-of-the-art fulfilment centres, Ola Consumer is looking at revolutionising the warehousing space that supercharges the commerce supply chain. The company already has partnerships with several large FMCG and D2C brands including ITC, Marico and Bombay Shaving Company for efficient and automated warehousing operations, elevating logistics to reduce manual wastage and high costs of storage.
In an effort towards elevated and supreme ride hailing experience, Ola Consumer is focusing on mobility services and customer centricity with affordability, premiumisation, and electrification. Ola plans to deploy 1 lakh 2W EVs throughout the next two years. Ola Share will also be a new feature for an affordable and readily available cab ride during peak hours and high demand routes. It promises a <20 mins trip deviation and is limited to a maximum of two people sharing to deliver an uncompromised customer experience.
Additionally, the company announced Ola Loyalty program – Ola Coin, which will reward end-users for every transaction they make on the Ola platform across mobility, ecommerce and logistics services. The program will be introduced in Bengaluru, followed by a rollout across India.
