The Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) has revolutionized digital commerce. Since its inception, ONDC has recorded notable milestones. They include pilot programmes successful implementation in select cities like Bengaluru and Delhi.
Photo: ONDC (@ONDC_Official)
The Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) has revolutionized digital commerce. Since its inception, ONDC has recorded notable milestones. They include pilot programmes successful implementation in select cities like Bengaluru and Delhi.
The first ONDC fair price shop was launched by the food and public distribution department as a pilot to on-board in Una and Hamirpur districts of Himachal Pradesh. Services and products available on ONDC platforms have expanded to numerous other categories such as Mobility, Fashion, Beauty and Personal Care, Home & Kitchen, Electronics and Appliances, Health & Wellness and B2B. As on January 2, 2024, the sellers and service providers are spread across 616+ cities expanding the geographical coverage of the ONDC network.
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The ONDC initiative has several key objectives. To begin with democratization of commerce has broken the dominance of large e-commerce platforms by enabling interoperability across networks.Inclusivity has increased with empowering small businesses, retailers, and local artisans to access the digital marketplace.Cost Efficiency has come into effect with lower cost of customer acquisition and transaction processing for sellers.Market Expansion has taten place by bridging regional and linguistic gaps, bringing untapped markets into the fold of digital commerce.Customer empowerment has increased options for buyers by providing access to a broader array of sellers.
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The implementation of ONDC is having a profound impact on India’s economy includibng Market Democratization: Ensuring that businesses of all sizes can thrive. Economic Growth: Increased digital commerce activity contributing to GDP.Job Creation: Expanding opportunities in technology, logistics, and ancillary services.Consumer Empowerment: Offering diverse options and competitive pricing.
The ONDC actively collaborates with multiple government bodies to expand its reach and effectivenes including Ministr
It provides the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) ,which form the backbone of India’s economy, with a unique opportunity to overcome challenges such as limited digital reach and high platform costs. Its key benefits include increased visibility, reduced costs, skill development and fair competition.
The ONDC protocols also standardize operations like cataloguing, inventory management, order management and order fulfilment. Thus, small businesses would be able to use any ONDC compatible applications instead of being governed by specific platform centric policies. This will provide multiple options to small businesses to be discoverable over network and conduct business. It would also encourage easy adoption of digital means by those currently not on digital commerce networks.
In fact, the DPIIT also organised the ‘ONDC Startup Mahotsav’, a first of its kind event here in May last. The event symbolized the celebration and collaboration of two of DPIIT’s flagship initiatives – the Startup India initiative and ONDC. The event witnessed participation of around 5,000 startups in hybrid mode. Over 125 ecosystem stakeholders including startups, unicorns and high growth businesses such as EaseMyTrip, Livspace, Pristyn Care, Cars24, and Zerodha, signed Letter of Intent (LoI) during the event.
It has taken various initiatives to increase awareness, adaptation and training among small businesses for fully leveraging the benefits of ONDC and become ONDC compliant.
These include conducting awareness workshops in collaboration with various industry associations across the country to educate the small sellers and businesses about ONDC and its benefits. Multiple joint workshops are being organised in collaboration with RAI, PHDCCI, FICCI, NASSCOM and FHRAI. ONDC has delivered virtual training & technical training through open digital sessions, which was attended by large number of startups, students, business leaders, bureaucrats etc.
The ONDC has developed a Handbook to help sellers (especially first-time sellers) succeed in digital commerce in 14 languages and are being distributed widely. ONDC is in collaboration with Bhashini to improve app development and e-commerce in Indic languages.ONDC has launched a Feet on Street program to support the Network Participants (NPs) in identifying and educating sellers about the benefits of ONDC and how to join through Seller Applications, hand-holding support to sellers to onboard on Seller Applications and creating a first-level basic catalogue.To connect every village in India to the national digital market, CSC-Common Services Centers have gone live on ONDC.WhatsApp Bot “ONDC Sahayak” launched in 5 languages, to help sellers and buyers get information about ONDC.ONDC has launched an Academy, which is a repository of educational and informative textual and video content. ONDC Academy is providing a curated learning experience providing guidance and best practices for a successful e-commerce journey for each and every participant of the ONDC network.
An initiative by the department for promotion of industry and internal trade (DPIIT) with an authorised capital of Rs 500 crore, many public and private banks and financial institutions have contributed equity to ONDC till now. It serves as a unified platform where stakeholders can interact freely without the constraints of exclusive ecosystems.
By fostering open protocols and reducing dependency on monopolistic platforms, ONDC aims to catalyze innovation and inclusivity in the digital commerce landscape.
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