New Delhi, Dec 16 More than 1.16 lakh retail sellers are now live on Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) from over 630 cities and towns across the country (as of December 9), the government said on Tuesday.
ONDC lowers entry barriers for small and micro businesses by enabling interoperability across multiple buyer and seller-side applications, thereby increasing competition in digital commerce.
“The presence of multiple platforms offering the same products and services promotes greater price transparency for consumers. Additionally, as sellers of different sizes and from diverse geographies become accessible on the network, consumers benefit from a wider selection of products and services, enabling more informed and competitive choices, said Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, Jitin Prasada, in Lok Sabha.
ONDC, unlike traditional e- commerce platforms that operate in silos, creates an open ecosystem where sellers can reach customers across multiple platforms without being restricted by platform- specific terms and conditions.
According to the minister, it plays a big part in ensuring that small businesses, local traders and MSMEs are not digitally excluded in the emerging e-commerce environments by providing a fair, transparent, and non-discriminatory discovery within emerging e-commerce environments through open protocols that make all sellers equally visible across network regardless of size, scale or digital sophistication.
Seller-side apps make their full catalogues discoverable to all buyer-side apps, while buyer-side apps disclose key parameters used for sorting or listing search results, enabling sellers to understand and improve their ranking. Common open specifications adopted by all network participants further enhance transparency and prevent opaque or biased listing practices.
Further, Ministry of MSME’s Trade Enablement and Marketing (TEAM) scheme promote adoption of digital commerce by SMEs, small sellers including Self Help Groups (SHGs), Farmer Producer Organisation (FPOs), artisans, rural entrepreneurs and local retailers through the ONDC.
Under this scheme, these small sellers are provided support in digital literacy, awareness, cataloguing, and onboarding, with a focus on inclusivity by targeting 50 per cent of beneficiaries as women-led SMEs, said the minister.
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