Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), which is funded by the government, made the announcement that it is entering the business-to-business (B2B) commerce area on Monday (June 5), after its recent incursion into the online grocery and food delivery industries.
Because the network is now participating in business-to-business trading, retailers will be able to conduct wholesale transactions directly with other companies.
“Leveraging the open network, businesses can expand their reach, forge new partnerships, and tap into previously untapped markets. This transition further allows them to move away from their predominantly offline operations and unlock new opportunities for growth and success,” ONDC said in a statement.
ONDC said that SignCatch, which is an omni-channel retail platform, and Rapidor, which is a B2B business enabler, have effectively enabled both the B2B buyer-side platforms and the B2B seller-side platforms on the network, which has fostered smooth interoperability between sellers and buyers. Because this functionality is in place, Rapidor’s B2B buyer platform may now send orders directly to SignCatch, where they can be processed.
This most recent turn of events comes about a week after ONDC established a new incentive system for buyer and seller apps that caps discounts at INR 100 per transaction.
The new policy regarding incentives went into effect on June 1 and will remain in place until June 28. This decision was made at a time when ONDC was seeing a reduction of 64 percent in the daily average number of orders, which brought the number down to 9,000 from 25,000 during its height.
The prices of food dishes on ONDC are much cheaper than those offered by foodtech heavyweights Zomato and Swiggy. In the meantime, despite the fact that groceries were the first category to be made available live on ONDC, they seem to be gaining popularity on the site.
ONDC is set to enter the fintech market and is mulling over whether or not to enrol insurtech, mutual fund, and personal loan providers in the coming months. This news was first published earlier today.
Many people consider the debut of ONDC, which took place a year ago, to be the UPI moment for India’s online shopping industry. The open network is already accessible in 235 locations throughout India, and during the next six months, they want to reach a daily volume of over one hundred thousand orders.