How Magicpin from Paytm’s forgotten ‘Mini App Store’ helped it capture the ONDC momentum

Fintech giant Paytm has discovered a strategic weapon in its ‘Mini App Store’, helping it to join the ONDC (Open Network for Digital Commerce) party with full force. Paytm’s ONDC interface has been plagued by glitches and traction was negligible up until recently when orders began to surge on the network following PhonePe’s arrival on ONDC with Pincode in early April, prompting Paytm to wake up to the opportunity. It swiftly turned to Magicpin, an existing app in its Mini App Store, which has also been a strong network partner in the food and beverage category on ONDC.

“Paytm has been sleeping on ONDC, they were never really serious about it. When PhonePe launched Pincode and orders began to improve on the network, they felt they will lose this narrative. They quickly embedded Magicpin user interface (UI) for the food vertical on ONDC. It is nothing but a mini-app opening within a Paytm,” said a person aware of the integration.

Paytm was the first buyer side application to go live on ONDC in September 2022.

Launched in October 2020 to counter Google's monopoly in the space, ‘Mini App Store’ houses a collection of custom-built mobile websites which provide users app-like experience without having to download them separately.

Magicpin is a hyperlocal discovery and discount platform for offline and physical retail. With a strong presence in the food sector, Magicpin claims to have a network of 250,000 brands and retailer stores, and over 10 million users. As the network began to gain momentum, Paytm brought in Magicpin as a Technology Service Provider (TSP) and embedded its user interface (UI) for its food vertical and simultaneously launched targeted marketing campaigns including cash backs to capture the momentum.

Consequently, ONDC saw orders grow an impressive 100-fold in the past one month, surpassing its June target by reaching a daily order volume of about 20,000-25,000 ahead of schedule in mid-May.

“Unlike a PhonePe model where they are investing heavily on building the whole ONDC offering internally, Paytm decided to partner with a TSP which is an expert in the food and beverage sector, and has a readymade interface. It comes out of the box, because Magicpin has the knowhow. All you need to do is to integrate and tap into the demand,” said another person aware of Paytm’s ONDC business.

The Magicpin integration helped Paytm capture a good chunk of the food and beverages orders on ONDC. Sources claimed that Paytm saw daily orders hitting 10,000 on weekends, more than 90 per cent of which are food and beverages.

“Almost all of Paytm’s orders are food, that’s because of Magicpin. The UI that opens up on Paytm’s food section is of Magicpin mini app. They (Paytm) are only doing food now, there are hardly any orders from grocery or other verticals, because other verticals have their own interface which is not that great,” the aforementioned person added.

While Magicpin as a seller-app also feeds vendors to all buyer app including PhonePe’s Pincode, its customisation and other UI-specific advantages offers Paytm an edge over others, sources said. “At a protocol level, there are challenges that buyer apps are working on with ONDC. Food is slightly tricky, there are several add-ons and customisations, which were readily available to Paytm due to Magicpin’s mini app interface, which is not available on other buyer apps. Therefore, food orders are low on other platforms. ONDC has now released an updated protocol, which supports such customisations and others are implementing,” said a person part of a buyer-side application.

Magicpin has its own buyer-side operations too. The company claimed it has clocked in 100 per cent growth in daily orders on the ONDC network in the week ending May 07, 2023, touching 20,000 orders a day. A portion of these orders are come through Paytm’s food vertical.

As per sources, Paytm is now building its own interface besides working on other elements to improve user experience on the platform.

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