ONDC To Help Small Retailers Survive Onslaught Of Ecommerce Companies: Piyush Goyal

The Centre’s ambitious Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) will help small retailers survive the onslaught of large tech-based ecommerce companies, Union Minister Piyush Goyal said on Monday (March 6).

“Our effort will be to encourage more and more startups and small companies, even at the local level… who will get the small retail, the mom-and-pop stores integrated into the ecommerce ecosystem,” Goyal said at an event in New Delhi.

The ONDC platform, launched in the latter half of 2022, is an open network aimed at unbundling the existing closed network of digital commerce and enabling small businesses to participate in the space. The platform is currently in beta testing mode in 15 Indian cities, including Bengaluru, Delhi NCR, Shillong, Bhopal, and Lucknow.

So far, the platform has boarded over 18,000 merchants across product categories. The likes of Delhivery, Paytm, Phonepe, IDFC Bank, Kotak, Shiprocket, Dunzo, and, most recently, Amazon have integrated some of their services with the ONDC.

“Just like UPI was able to democratise payment systems, we do hope ONDC will play its role in democratising or socialising benefits of ecommerce to the people at large,” Goyal said. 

Goyal stressed the need for India to further strengthen its manufacturing industry and said that this is the time for all manufacturers/ FMCG providers and consumers to work collectively to scale up domestic production to create jobs and business opportunities.

The Indian government is looking to have 1.2 Mn sellers and 900 Mn buyers on the ONDC network by 2024 and achieve a gross merchandise value (GMV) of $48 Bn. The open network is the government’s attempt to democratise ecommerce in the country and end the monopoly of giants like Flipkart and Amazon.

Highlighting the achievements of the ONDC, the Economic Survey 2022-23, tabled in the Parliament in January, said that it is enabling interoperability, bringing down transaction costs, and will spur ecommerce adoption in the country.

The ONDC is a part of the government’s India Stack, a set of open APIs and digital public products covering identity, payments, among others. The account aggregator framework, UPI, and Aadhaar are among the other components of India Stack.