When you think of India, you immediately imagine colorful, crowded streets where refined professionals in suits as well as day workers in lungis both consume their daily refreshing dose of tea at the local tea shop. Considering the fact that we are talking about the second-largest population in the world, crowds here are surely justified.

There is always a brother who is asked to bring milk from a nearby store for preparing tea for random guests. Other times there are middle-aged couples going on a romantic shopping spree of buying vegetables every evening. Or there are flatmates looking for a buyer for their fridge that is no longer needed. There is always someone either buying or selling an item. As a result, the Indian retail market is a mega-dollar business.

New initiatives are being taken by the government of India to promote the birth of new startups, it is only likely to create an online platform that helps in nurturing of these new businesses all the while abolishing the domination of market giants like Amazon and Walmart. So it also takes us one step forward towards Atmanirbhar Bharat by circulating money within the country and stopping outflow to foreign companies.

Currently, most of this retail market still operates offline. In fact, in the year 2021, the online retail market was only about  $50 billion dollar business. And you would be amazed to know it’s less than 5% of the total offline market which is worth $1 trillion dollars.  So, there is a MASSIVE opportunity here.

Expanding this 5% share to just 15% could actually be a total game-changer. And, GOI’s latest initiative aims for just that!

Presenting to you… ‘ONDC’, the messiah of MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises).

What is ONDC?

Let’s try to understand through simple words

1. A Kirana store nearby or a local vendor you buy fruits from entering into a digital e-commerce platform.
2. You buy an item by Amazon, another item by Nykaa, and yet another by Flipkart but from the same portal.

• Seeks to provide more opportunities for local and small businesses while situation.
• Seeks to provide efficiency in buying. This is the basic framework of ONDC.

ONDC is a technology similar to UPI. Just like UPI holds the details of all the participants involved in the financial network, ONDC also holds the details of all the platforms (that can be grocery apps like Blinkit or a restaurant or Kirana stores or delivery partners like Dunzo) and the many millions of buyers that participate in the e-commerce network.

All in all, ONDC resolves to increase access of sellers to buyers.

Now in more complex words, Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) launched by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade of the Government of India in April, is a nonprofit e-commerce platform projected as an alternative to dominant global giants Amazon and Walmart. It seeks to develop an open network for small and big players in the market.

Just like UPI revolutionized digital payments in India, ONDC can transform India’s digital retail industry.

Aims of ONDC

1. The main aim of ONDC is to expand the market and bring in baby retailers.
2. The next goal is to remove the monopoly of large players like Amazon and Flipkart. This will allow retailers to go digital on their own terms without adhering to e-commerce rules set by big players and yet reach a huge bulk of users.
3. Third is creating solutions on top of the pre-designed networks,which means creating more business. Just like Bharatpay, Paytm, Phonpe are built on the base of UPI.

All these conclude to provide momentum and acceleration to the Indian Economy.

What’s in it for Small businesses?

Now the most awaited part, how are small businesses benefited from ONDC? ONDC  aims to create new opportunities by supporting small, micro, and medium companies, and small merchants to get them on online platforms.

Suppose there is a local toy shop named Sarvottam Toys and it gets registered on the ONDC platform. It will enjoy the following-

1. Ease of Exhibition-It won’t need to own a website to exhibit its product, Moreover, it won’t have to pay major online shopping sites like Flipkart and Amazon to showcase its toys.
2. Discovery-Children from all over India can see their toys, no matter if their shopping apps are Amazon, Flipkart, or Firstcry. If your products are on ONDC, you are everywhere!
3. Your SHOP your RULES– You don’t need to follow the marketplace rules made by giant retailers. You are your own master.
4. Connectivity– Sarvottam Toys don’t have to worry about delivering an order; there will always be delivery partners like Dunzo and Goodwill available for them.
5. Consistency– You don’t have to wait until your regular customer’s kids break their toys to buy new ones. If you are listed on ONDC, you will get more orders. That’s assured!

How can Small businesses join ONDC?

If you are a small retailer or a newborn business looking for a way to nurture this massive platform of opportunities, ONDC, ABL tech is the solution for you.

We at ABL Tech will help you to grow economically by registering your business on ONDC.

How to get business on ONDC?

Abetterlogic will boost your profile on the ONDC portal by creating an attractive layout for your business. We ensure that you will always be on top of your business categories.

All types of queries will be resolved from the ABL side. Contact us.