Karnataka CM, Paytm Boss and others hail ONDC’s launch in Bengaluru

The Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) went live for the public in Bengaluru on Friday. This milestone in India’s ecommerce growth story was hailed by Chief Minister of Karnataka, Basavaraj S Bommai, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, co-founder of NSE-listed Paytm, Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce & Industry and more. Goyal, on September 7, had mentioned that ONDC will offer new avenues for buyers and it will “democratise and expand reach for sellers.

ONDC is a government-backed initiative that aims to reduce the dominance of ecommerce giants and provide a platform to small retailers and merchants to sell their products. 

The beta testing which began today will feature more than 200 merchants across grocery and F&B (food & beverages). The buyers can place orders on ONDC via buyer-side apps like Paytm, IDFC, Spice Money, CraftsVilla, and MyStore. The selling will happen via seller-side apps such as Unilever Ushop, Uengage,  nStore, and Bizom, and more.

The delivery will be managed by logistics start-ups such as Dunzo and Loadshare. 

Anil Agrawal, the founder of ONDC announced the launch on twitter. He wrote, “Building trust in #ONDC is critical. As we launch beta testing for a limited set of users, a consultation paper on how trust in the open network could be strengthened has been published for stakeholder comments. Looking forward to insightful engagement!”

The buyer-side commission is capped at 3 per cent and the seller side commission ranges between 10-15 per cent, a few sources familiar with the matter told BT report.