• Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

Good anticipations as govt seems to be to reshape e-commerce landscape with ONDC

Buoyed by the achievement of many electronic initiatives in the region from Aadhaar to Co-Win and UPI transactions, the Union govt has embarked on an formidable undertaking “Open Community for Digital Commerce” (ONDC).

ONDC is a not-for-profit, open e-commerce platform that aims to supply a amount taking part in discipline for all kinds of sellers, from kirana outlets to retail chains and even greater e-commerce players.

The pilot phase of ONDC was kicked off not too long ago in five cities (Bengaluru, Bhopal, Coimbatore, Delhi-NCR, Shillong) with 150 sellers, and more than the following 6 months the footprint is predicted to raise to 100 metropolitan areas throughout the country with about 3 crore sellers. Reports suggest that there are 1.2 crore kirana shops in the state and just 15,000 of them are e-commerce enabled.

On the net retail Gross Goods Price (GMV) has tripled more than the earlier 5 many years and but it signifies just 4.3 for each cent of the total gross sales in the retail section. In comparison, e-retail as a percentage of total retail revenue in South Korea, China and the British isles are at 26 per cent, 25 for every cent and 23 for every cent, respectively.

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A new report indicates that the e-commerce current market is predicted to maximize from an estimated $75 billion by 2022 to $350 billion by 2030. It should also be pointed out that Amazon and Flipkart account for about 60 for every cent of the e-commerce sector in India. Can ONDC seize the minute in the retail area?

As of now, substantial gamers like Amazon, Paytm and many others have designed apps/portals in which purchasers, sellers, logistics and payment are built-in onto their system. So, a customer who is connected to one particular app or portal (say Paytm) can obtain merchandise from that portal alone. If the customer wants to buy from any other application (say Amazon), he/she has to log into the application and acquire goods. Presently, all the e-commerce players have a centralised approach. ONDC on the other hand has a decentralised network technique. In this article, the similar Paytm platform can be used by the customer to lookup for a solution. In its place of seeing just what is offered by Paytm sellers, the buyer can pick from a variety of sellers: it could be from a close by kirana shop or from other recognized e-commerce gamers. This presents liberty of alternative for the potential buyers and sellers as perfectly. Most importantly, the purchaser can obtain goods or products and services without logging into unique e-commerce portals or applications.

The prospective buyers and sellers can transact irrespective of the system or application they use to be digitally obvious. This sort of a community electronic infrastructure enabled by ONDC can perhaps disrupt hospitality, journey, food items shipping and mobility segments in addition to the retail segment.

The ONDC is primarily based on an open protocol known as Beckn, which permits interoperability of a extensive wide range of potential buyers and sellers. This exertion to standardise all features in the full chain involving several entities for exchange of products and products and services is much wanted as it would allow seamless expertise for all the individuals within the ONDC community. The system is expected to complete the part of an enabler for e-commerce enlargement and to be a marketplace- and group-led initiative alternatively of staying a regulator. Most importantly, these an open and decentralised network would absolutely spur innovation.

It aims to do the job on a few crucial areas: dynamic pricing, inventory administration and optimisation of supply price tag, and thus carry down the charge of undertaking business for all players, together with shops.

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Many technological know-how startup firms have previously started off doing the job on ONDC. To present extended-expression vision and assist for the initiative, non-public sector banks (HDFC, Kotak, ICICI), public sector banking institutions (SBI) and economical establishments like BSE and NSDL among others are jointly proudly owning ONDC. Many news studies show that lots of private banks, tech huge Google and FMCG corporations like Dabur, ITC and Unilever are likely to be a part of the ONDC network.

One of the largest worries ONDC will encounter is to replicate or far better the current user expertise and excellent of provider furnished by major e-tailers in the state. As the e-tailers possess the conclusion-to-close system, they are ready to give assurance on the excellent of merchandise and timely supply. ONDC would have to have to involve the ideal checks and balances to generate predictability in the decentralised technique.

In addition, a powerful grievance redressal and dispute resolution system ought to be in spot for earning the believe in of consumers and sellers alike. While some of the significant e-tailers provide area language aid in their portals and applications, ONDC could perform a substantial part in language localisation, voice- based research and improved consumer knowledge.

There ended up a number of unsuccessful makes an attempt to digitise kirana suppliers in the earlier. Absence of accomplishment can be attributed to technological know-how that was nevertheless evolving as properly as low-speed world-wide-web, large mobile facts tariff and minimal consciousness amongst kirana shop owners. Right now, India’s 4G information charges are among the lowest in the environment at $.68 for every GB. In addition, availability of more affordable cell telephones will help in onboarding consumers on to the ONDC ecosystem. Awareness between area sellers, nevertheless, holds the critical to accomplishment. Most importantly, recognized e-commerce players collaborating in the ONDC initiative will be a get-gain for the all round ecosystem as India attempts to catapult into the digital commerce space. Can ONDC replicate the achievement of UPI, in which the banking sector actively participated? It will be a obstacle, but with lively participation from stakeholders, there is hope. 

(The writer is an ICT qualified and a columnist based mostly in Bengaluru)