The government’s initiative ONDC has said its beta version has now become live in Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata. The Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) is an initiative of the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT).
It said that along with Bengaluru and Meerut, which were chosen for going beta live in September 2022 and December 2022, respectively, the network is now accessible to buyers (consumers) and sellers in these additional five cities.
Consumers will be able to purchase from the sellers on the ONDC network through four active buyer applications — Paytm, Mystore, Spice Money, and Magicpin, it said. Currently, the network has over 40,000 sellers live in over 200 cities, out of which more than 18,000 sellers operate from these five cities.
ONDC had its alpha roll-out in April 2022 in five cities to test live transactions with a closed group of sellers and buyers while gradually expanding its footprint.
The main objective to go beta live is to allow consumers to experience the open network for the first time, collect real-time feedback and also test the network at scale before the pan-India roll-out.
T Koshy, MD and CEO, ONDC, said, “We hope that with this beta announcement, more and more businesses will be inclined to join us, benefiting from an early-mover advantage. Additionally, as we touch more consumer territories, it also gives us the insights and opportunities to improve the network.”
ONDC is an open technology network based on open protocol and will enable local commerce across segments, such as mobility, grocery, food order and delivery, hotel booking and travel, to be discovered and engaged by any network-enabled application.
The platform allows buyers and sellers to connect and transact with each other online, regardless of what other applications they use. The buyers and sellers do not have to use the same platform or same mobile app to have a transaction. They can use different applications and still do business transactions.
The benefits of ONDC include access to more buyers; better discoverability of products and cost; autonomy on terms because of multiple choices for being digitally visible; lower cost of doing business; and more options for value chain services like logistics and fulfilment.
How To Place An Order Through ONDC?
Step 1: To place an order through ONDC, one needs to visit the ONDC website – https://ondc.org/.
Step 2: After visiting the website, click on the ‘Shop on ONDC’ tab on the homepage.
Step 3: Select a platform through which you want to order and click on ‘Shop Now’. The currently available platforms are Paytm, Mystore, Craftsvilla, To Life Bani, Meesho, Pincode, and Maginpin.
Step 4: Now, select the items you want and order as you do it on other platforms.
Step 5: Make payment. It’s done!
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