The Beta phase of the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) has been introduced in several prominent Indian cities, such as Mumbai, Delhi NCR (including Noida, Gurugram, and Faridabad), Chennai, Hyderabad, and Kolkata. This significant step follows the successful scaling of seller densities in these cities.
What is ONDC?
ONDC has announced that the network is now accessible to buyers and sellers in a total of seven cities across the country. Residents of these cities now have the chance to utilize four active buyer applications, namely Paytm, Mystore, Spice Money, and Magicpin, to make purchases from sellers on the ONDC network.
The network currently boasts an impressive number of more than 40,000 sellers, who are spread across over 200 cities. Out of these, more than 18,000 sellers are operating in the five cities where the Beta phase was recently introduced.
Before the Beta phase, ONDC had conducted an Alpha phase in April 2022, testing live transactions with a closed group of sellers and buyers. The main purpose of launching the Beta phase is to allow consumers to directly experience the open network, collect real-time feedback, and thoroughly test the network on a larger scale before it is fully implemented nationwide.
T. Koshy, the Managing Director and CEO of ONDC expressed his insights on the development, stating, “We initially began with Bengaluru and Meerut, and we now have a considerable number of sellers, which is sufficient to expand the network to other cities.” He further added, “With this Beta announcement, we hope that more and more businesses will be inclined to join us, benefiting from the advantage of being early adopters. Moreover, as we expand our reach to more consumer territories, it presents us with invaluable insights and opportunities to enhance the network.”
What is ONDC?
It is an initiative of the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) under the Ministry of Commerce, Government of India, designed as a set of specifications to foster open, unbundled, and interoperable networks in digital commerce. The aim is to eliminate dependency on a single platform, creating an environment that encourages fair competition and innovation in the digital commerce space.
