The Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) project was launched by the government in April last year with an aim to democratise e-commerce. ONDC works on open-sourced methodology and enables small retailers and stores to sell their products or services directly to customers.

What is ONDC?

ONDC is an open e-commerce protocol introduced by the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) of the Ministry of Commerce. The network enables buyers and sellers to interact with each other without the need of a third-party application. Sellers through ONDC can become visible to customers across the country who are using any of the partner applications.

How is it beneficial for customers?

Buyers can explore and buy a wide range of products from various brands and local businesses. Products across categories including food and beverage, beauty and personal care, home and decor, electronics, and fashion have been made available for buyers through ONDC.

In order to shop through ONDC, customers can open buyer applications such as Paytm, Mystore, Craftsvilla, Spice Money, Meesho, Magicpin, and Pincode.

 A buyer just needs to open the buyer application and search for the desired product. The application also displays the nearby local stores and retailers based on the customer’s location. After selecting the store, one can explore the prices and place an order.

Benefits for sellers  

ONDC allows sellers and local businesses to compete with e-commerce giants such as Flipkart and Amazon through ONDC. The network makes them discoverable online to customers increasing their reach. Through ONDC, buyers and sellers don’t need to be on the same application to carry out a transaction. A seller also doesn’t have to be governed by the specific policies of an e-commerce platform and can use any ONDC-compatible application to do business.

What is the significance of ONDC?

According to Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, ONDC will “help our small retail survive the onslaught of large tech-based e-commerce companies”. The minister said ONDC will democratize the benefits of e-commerce the way UPI helped democratize payment systems.

ONDC has been brought to make the –commerce space more inclusive for and accessible for customers, who can shop for anything from either from their preferred local business or any other retailer. The network also aims to standardize operations like order management, cataloguing, order fulfillment, and inventory management. (NDTV)

The post E-Commerce Giants Have A Challenger In Indian Market: All About ONDC appeared first on Newswire.

The Indian government’s open e-commerce network ONDC has expanded its operations into 236 cities in the country while adding more than 36,000 merchants, a senior company official said on Thursday.

The government launched the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) last year to give small businesses and retailers access to processes and technologies usually provided by big e-commerce platforms such as Amazon and Walmart .

The non-profit company’s network currently displays products and services from all participating e-commerce platforms in search results across all apps on its network.

“ONDC is handholding small merchants while aiming to make e-commerce more inclusive and accessible for consumers,” T. Koshy, CEO of the company told reporters.

The network is slowly and steadily recording an uptick in transactions, he said.

The government has said existing platforms are tightly controlled, keeping out many small players. It expects ONDC to increase competition and foster start-up innovation.

Koshy said the company was in talks with cab operators to launch operations in at least four cities, after successfully launching mobility operations in two cities in South India.

More than 55,000 taxi cab owners have already joined the network, and consumers were using it for about 35,000 rides a day, he said.

The platform has helped cab owners to provide services while saving on hefty commissions paid to other platforms and offer lower rates to passengers, said Shaikh Salauddin, head of Telengana Four Wheeler Drivers Association, and a taxi driver.

“The ONDC move has helped to promote fair competition in the e-commerce and helping consumers and small players.” ONDC aims to raise e-commerce penetration in the next two years to 25% of India’s consumer purchases, from nearly 8% now, in a country of 1.4 billion people.

On Tuesday, the government said the state-run Indian postal service, which has a network of nearly 160,000 post offices, will also join the ONDC network to provide logistics services to small traders across the country. (Reuters)

The post Indian government’s e-commerce network ONDC expands into 236 cities, CEO says appeared first on Newswire.