ONDC, which stands for the Open Network for Digital Commerce, will help small businesses take advantage of e-commerce services.
In a bid to take on the dominance of private e-commerce companies such as Amazon and Flipkart, the government of India on Friday launched a platform called the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC). Dubbed as a reference platform of sorts for small businesses to get a shot at pivoting to online business models, without needing to give in to the dominance of big tech players in the industry, ONDC is now live in a pilot phase – during which the service will seek to onboard 150 businesses across five cities in India. The service is being pitched as one that can have a similar impact on small businesses as the way Unified Payments Interface ( UPI) – the digital payments service – transformed the digital payments landscape in India. Simply put, ONDC is a government-driven intermediary platform that will act as a marketplace for marketplaces. On one hand, it will give sellers tools to bring their businesses online, help connect to inventory suppliers, see dynamic product pricing based on demand and other factors, get cashless payment methods and access to a marketplace to sell their products.
