PhonePe Discontinues Pincode App to Refocus on B2B Services

PhonePe is stepping back from the competitive Indian online retail market, officially discontinuing its Pincode e-commerce application. The Walmart-backed fintech giant confirmed it will pivot the division’s resources toward developing B2B services tailored for offline merchants.

Sameer Nigam, founder and group CEO of PhonePe, stated on Thursday that maintaining a consumer-facing quick-commerce platform had become a distraction from the company’s primary mission. The firm intends to channel its efforts into helping local retailers enhance their operational efficiency, visibility, and profit margins.

A Shift in Strategy

Pincode was introduced in April 2023, utilizing the government-backed Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) to provide hyperlocal delivery of groceries, food, medicine, and home goods. Despite its attempt to challenge incumbents like Swiggy, Zomato’s Blinkit, and Zepto, the service struggled to gain traction.

While competitors rely on “dark stores,” Pincode’s model focused on fulfilling orders directly from neighborhood kirana shops. This approach proved difficult to scale. Over the past year, the company had already attempted several pivots, including:

• Reducing its offerings to focus primarily on food categories.
• Launching a 10-minute delivery service in major cities such as Bengaluru, Mumbai, New Delhi, Pune, and Hyderabad.
• Expanding into rapid medicine delivery in select markets starting in April.

Focusing on B2B Growth

With the Pincode app now shut down and its web traffic redirected to the main PhonePe site, the team is transitioning to a B2B-only model. Vivek Lohcheb, CEO of Pincode, noted that resources are being reallocated to scale a suite of business solutions for retailers across India.

PhonePe already maintains a footprint in this sector by providing small businesses with:

• Inventory and order-management tools.
• ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software.
• Direct sourcing and replenishment services for various product categories.

As of July, the company reported that it had digitized over 1,000 local stores across cities including Varanasi, Bengaluru, and Mumbai, granting them access to digital storefronts and last-mile delivery infrastructure.

Broader Implications

This organizational change occurs as PhonePe prepares for a potential public listing in India, targeting mid-2026. The company, which spun off from Flipkart roughly three years ago, filed confidential draft papers with the Securities and Exchange Board of India in September. Following its success as a dominant player in payments via the Unified Payments Interface, the firm is under pressure to demonstrate growth in new sectors.

This is not the company’s first foray into the shopping space. In 2019, it launched “Switch,” a super-app feature within its payments platform that aggregates various third-party services, including travel, shopping, and food delivery.