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LONG WAY AHEAD: ONDC CEO
"This is not “abracadabra” with all and another 400 entities are in the
sellers and buyers adopting some pipeline. They include established
magic solution and everybody players like HUL, Nivea, ITC,
“living happily ever after”, it’s a long YESBank and GlobalLinker and
journey," T Koshy, CEO, ONDC wrote a number of innovative start-ups
in his LinkedIn post last month. like Digiit, eSamudaay, Gofrugal,
"The first challenge is to get a GrowthFalcons, Sellerapp, Ushop
threshold level of transactions in and many more. On the logistics
the network to create a natural pull side Loadshare, Dunzo and
for all the buyers and sellers. This is Shiprocket are already live with
a classic “Chicken and Egg” Story. eKart, Grab and IndiaPost close on
Unless there are buyers enabled their heels. (List of entities signed
by buyer applications there is no for being Participants is available at
incentive for the sellers to be on www.ondc.org)."
the network and unless sufficient Koshy concludes that from the
merchants are offering diverse side of ONDC, "we have brought
products, there is no incentive for some of the best experts to join
buyers to be on the network and ONDC in helping the players from
buyer platforms to put resources various segments of the industry
behind the idea. Realising this to innovate and exploit this new
challenge, ONDC has taken a two- freedom to win on innovation and
pronged approach. First is to work specialisation and not just based on
with digitally mature entities to bring scale. We believe this hand holding
them on board at the earliest to prime will help to break the current
the network and second is to support platform-centric models and unleash
digitally handicapped entities to take innovation across the industry
advantage of this network. The former completely transforming commerce
is to ensure that the network is and supply chain as we
attractive to a broader cross-section know it now."
of buyers so that the sellers coming
on board have commercial benefits
from this network."
What is really exciting, writes
Koshy, is that the idea is so powerful
that it has already attracted
several entities to be early
adopters. "They include entities
like PayTM, IDFC First Bank and a
few innovative players like MyStore,
Spicemoney, and Craftsvilla
launched their buyer apps already
and many more like CSC, PhonePe,
and Axis Bank in an advanced stage
of onboarding. On the seller side,
around 12 entities are already live

between supplier and buyer onboarding, food delivered and order a washing and National Payments Corporation
customer complaints redressal (as machine in the same cart on their of India (NPCI) have bought a stake
a fragmented process also creates preferred buyer app." in ONDC with 20 government and
gaps for the process to fall through), At present, the buyer and the seller private organisations having confirmed
competition issues in case large need to be on the same platform to investments worth Rs 250 crore
incumbents or massive brands are on finalise a transaction. In comparison, ($31 million).
boarded as well as those related to data ONDC will onboard buy-side apps, sell- The key challenge of ONDC is to
privacy and ownership. side apps and enablers such as logistics onboard SMEs. "Some government
"Looking at UPI evolution, ONDC providers, and payment gateways and, organisations are trying to onboard like
might also need to decide on its hence, enable a buyer to transact from Farmers Productive..and then there is
positioning as a non-regulatory a wider base of sellers by accessing the one district-one product programme
authority or becoming a rule-setting multiple sell-side apps. of the government," says Dixit.
body in order to ensure that the network The opportunity to monetise a large If everybody comes on board, the
remains fairly attuned for the small user base may also be the reason current digital penetration of 5-7
retailer to not get marginalised." why major Indian banks, Bombay percent can easily go up to 19 percent by
Outlook: "ONDC can potentially Stock Exchange (BSE), National 2030, Dixit added and said 90 percent of
enable a consumer to book a cab, get Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) the target can be met by 2026. 
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