Amazon has introduced that it will be part of the Indian government’s ONDC (Open Network for Electronic Commerce) platform, a governing administration-backed task aimed at enabling modest retailers and kirana suppliers in sections of the state to access procedures and systems typically deployed by substantial e-commerce platforms
The development is specifically appealing provided that ONDC’s extremely function is to “democratise” e-commerce in India which is mostly captured by Amazon and Flipkart. An ONDC approach paper printed previous yr had flagged the climbing dominance of world wide players in India’s e-commerce ecosystem, pointing out that the substantial quantum of investment decision required to establish rivals to the integrated methods available by the massive gamers has turn out to be an entry barrier for digital marketplaces.
It also flagged the incapability of market sellers to go out of the system ecosystem, given that the price produced by these tiny players is stored with the larger platforms.
Amazon mentioned that it will combine its logistics community and its software program suite identified as SmartCommerce with ONDC. SmartCommerce is an Amazon Website Solutions-run suite of SaaS products and solutions that allows MSMEs in India to build and scale their enterprise across electronic mediums and will have enablers for onboarding to the ONDC network.
“This will be Amazon’s preliminary collaboration with ONDC as we go on to discover other likely alternatives for much better integration concerning the two in foreseeable future,” the firm stated.
“We are pleased that Amazon has a definite roadmap to getting a element of the ONDC network and is getting its 1st stage in coming in as the logistics partner in the ONDC community which is a globally revolutionary notion proven with a view to democratise digital commerce in India, and we also hope that the customer and vendor platforms are on-boarded as early as achievable,” said T Koshy, MD and CEO of ONDC.
ONDC is to be dependent on open up-sourced methodology, employing open requirements and open community protocols unbiased of any unique platform. It is remaining formulated as a counter to the existing duopoly in the Indian e-commerce industry which is largely dictated by Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart.
In May 2022, the Section for Promotion of Market and Inside Trade (DPIIT) went reside with a exam operate of ONDC in cities like Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Coimbatore, Bhopal, and Shillong wherever it ideas to onboard 150 sellers. In August, Microsoft turned the initial major technology business to join the network with an intention to introduce social e-commerce — team getting working experience — in the Indian market.
A number of other participants are also at this time are living on the ONDC network, offering a number of companies in the e-commerce supply chain these as buying, promoting and giving logistics expert services. Amongst these that are stay are Paytm, which has joined the platform as a customer, and Reliance-backed Dunzo, which is supplying logistics products and services for hyperlocal deliveries.
