ONDC To Be Thrown Open To Public In 1-2 Cities By September-End: Piyush Goyal

Union Minister for Industry and Commerce Piyush Goyal reportedly said that the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) would likely make its public debut in one or two cities later this month. 

Noting that there are no plans to rush into a launch, Goyal said that the government would properly test the platform before making a public launch.

“I want to make sure that when we come up for public launch, it’s well tried and tested and has sufficient capacity to handle large volumes,” the Economic Times quoted Goyal as saying.

Goyal also said that the ONDC is envisaged to enable 500 small companies to become unicorns, as against one or two players clinching a trillion dollar valuation. 

“While India can’t wish away the emergence of large ecommerce players, ONDC will provide more choice to the customers and give small mom-and-pop stores more visibility,” he added. 

The minister is currently on a six day trip to San Francisco and Los Angeles till September 10 to attend the India-US Strategic Partnership Forum conference and the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) ministerial meeting.

The minister’s statement follows a similar comment by ONDC CBO Shireesh Joshi who had said that the platform could become available to the public by early September. This, however, is in stark contrast with CEO T Koshy’s statement last July that the platform will be rolled out for public use in 75-100 towns by August. 

ONDC aims to reach around 100 cities, 30 Mn sellers and 10 Mn vendors by the end of 2022. As per latest estimates, the platform was operational on a pilot basis in 15 cities with around 100 sellers at the end of August. .

Goyal said that ONDC will increase the visibility and reach of around 60 Mn brick-and-mortar store

Modelled on the lines of UPI, ONDC will work towards breaking silos of multiple ecommerce platforms and will unify them with a single, inclusive open network. 

According to a report, ecommerce majors such as Flipkart, Amazon and Ecom Express are in various stages of talks with the ONDC team to join the platform. The report further added that these players have also expressed their willingness in adopting as well as in helping build the platform. 

Interestingly, Flipkart’s arm PhonePe has already signed up to join the platform. Apart from this, startups such as Dunzo, Paytm, and Grab are also on the platform. 

According to an Inc42 report, the country’s total addressable ecommerce market opportunity is estimated to soar to $400 Bn by 2030.