The Indian authorities’s open e-commerce community ONDC has expanded its operations into 236 cities within the nation whereas including greater than 36,000 retailers, a senior firm official mentioned on Thursday.
The federal government launched the Open Community for Digital Commerce (ONDC) final yr to present small companies and retailers entry to processes and applied sciences often supplied by huge e-commerce platforms resembling Amazon and Walmart.
The non-profit firm’s community at present shows services from all taking part e-commerce platforms in search outcomes throughout all apps on its community.
“ONDC is handholding small retailers whereas aiming to make e-commerce extra inclusive and accessible for shoppers,” T Koshy, CEO of the corporate, advised reporters.
The community is slowly and steadily recording an uptick in transactions, he mentioned.
The federal government has mentioned current platforms are tightly managed, holding out many small gamers. It expects ONDC to extend competitors and foster start-up innovation.
T Koshy mentioned the corporate was in talks with cab operators to launch operations in a minimum of 4 cities, after efficiently launching mobility operations in two cities in South India.
Greater than 55,000 taxi cab house owners have already joined the community, and shoppers have been utilizing it for about 35,000 rides a day, he mentioned.
The platform has helped cab house owners to supply companies whereas saving on hefty commissions paid to different platforms and supply decrease charges to passengers, mentioned Shaikh Salauddin, head of Telengana 4 Wheeler Drivers Affiliation, and a taxi driver.
“The ONDC transfer has helped to advertise honest competitors within the e-commerce and serving to shoppers and small gamers.”
ONDC goals to boost e-commerce penetration within the subsequent two years to 25 p.c of India’s shopper purchases, from almost 8 p.c now, in a rustic of 1.4 billion individuals.
On Tuesday, the federal government mentioned the state-run Indian postal service, which has a community of almost 160,000 put up workplaces, may even be part of the ONDC community to supply logistics companies to small merchants throughout the nation.
