Gupshup announces India’s first conversational shopping app for ONDC

Beta storefront to support commerce and food ordering on WhatsApp

Mumbai, India, June 26, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Gupshup, the global leader in Conversation Cloud, announced India first-ever conversational buyer app on the ONDC network, at their flagship event Conversations 2024 in Delhi. It allows buyers to use a WhatsApp-based conversational user interface to discover, browse and purchase products from sellers on the ONDC network, without the need to download another mobile application. Soon, Gupshup will also offer this feature to its enterprise clients who 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 to democratize digital commerce.

“India a diverse population uses different mobile tools, varied languages ​​and has different levels of technological knowledge. But they all know how to chat via WhatsApp. Delivering conversational experiences through the messaging app is the only way to reach everyone. Gupshup’s buyer app on ONDC makes the extensive trading network available to users across the country, usable in any language, quickly and easily. This will truly transform population-level digital commerce into 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 (around 200 million) buy online. And 50% of the remaining 450 million didn’t even use apps other than social media and entertainment. Additionally, 65% of digitally savvy users find app downloads frustrating and 40% abandon a purchase if they are pressured to install apps.

“Gupshup Conversation Cloud makes it easy for businesses to create rich conversational commerce experiences with AI-powered natural language interactions, in any language, by text and voice, with deep personalization, throughout the entire process. customer life cycle. This ONDC buyer app is the perfect demonstration. of the significant impact of conversational experiences and the unique ability of the Gupshup platform to make them possible,” 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 and drinks like biryani on WhatsApp. Customers will be able to share their location via chat, browse sellers near them, order food, and make payments directly from WhatsApp. Support for additional conversational channels like Google RCS and Voice will also be available soon. With these capabilities, merchants and businesses looking to participate in the ONDC e-commerce ecosystem can leverage the Gupshup ONDC commerce platform and accelerate their time to market.

ONDC, which stands for Open Network for Digital Commerce, is a collaborative initiative that brings together diverse merchants and brands on a unified digital commerce platform. This interconnected network has been developed by the Ministry for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade of India. The primary objective of ONDC is to foster an open and inclusive e-commerce ecosystem in India.

According to various reports, the initiative has enjoyed considerable success since its official introduction in January 2023. To date, it has processed over 49.79 million transactions with transportation services, particularly ride-hailing apps like Namma Yatri, which account for more than half of the monthly order volume. Among other sectors, the food and beverage category is also witnessing rapid expansion.

To understand how Gupshup is building an inclusive e-commerce ecosystem with ONDC, watch this video.

About Gupshup

Gupshup is the global leader in Conversation Cloud that enables businesses to advertise, communicate and converse with their customers by leveraging AI and CPaaS. Gupshup’s conversational engagement solutions enable over 45,000 brands across India, Latin America, Europe, South East AsiaTHE Middle EastAnd United States to deliver a better customer experience and increased revenue while reducing costs. Citibank, AkzoNobel, Khan Academy, Unilever, Dream11, Netflix, Flipkart and Ola are some of its major clients. With an industry-trained conversational AI platform and real-time unified profiles, Gupshup powers over 10 billion messages per month. Estimated at $1.4 billion, the company has renowned investors such as Tiger Global, Fidelity Management and Research Co. LLC, and others, at its cap table. For more details, please visit www.gupshup.io.

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Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9zaD8q3RW4
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