Ola Consumer set to transform India's digital commerce

At Sankalp 2024, Ola Consumer launched innovations around ONDC, 100% electric logistics, AI-driven discovery, accessible credit, efficient and automated warehousing, robust manufacturing tech systems and a loyalty program. 

Bhavish Aggarwal, Founder, Ola Consumer said, "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."

ONDC will help reduce the cost of e-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, the press release noted. 

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 lakh additional jobs by March 2025 with this platform.

Automated warehousing:  With a vision to have fully automated dark stores and state-of-the-art fulfillment centers, Ola Consumer is looking at revolutionizing 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, premiumization, 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 trip deviation of less than 20 minutes and is limited to a maximum of two people.

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.