New Delhi, 6th July 2023: Following the scaling of seller density in some cities, the Open Network for Digital Commerce has now opened its Beta phase in Mumbai, Delhi NCR (including Noida, Gurugram, and Faridabad), Chennai, Hyderabad, and Kolkata.
According to the most recent ONDC release, the network is currently available to buyers and sellers in seven Indian cities. Consumers in these seven cities can now purchase from ONDC network vendors via four active buyer applications: Paytm, Mystore, Spice Money, and Magicpin.
The network currently has over 40,000 sellers scattered throughout 200 cities. More than 18,000 dealers operate from the five cities where the Beta phase was just launched.
ONDC launched its Alpha phase in five cities in April 2022 to test real transactions with a limited set of suppliers and buyers. The network stated that the primary goal of going Beta is to allow consumers to experience the open network for the first time, receive real-time feedback, and test the network at scale prior to the pan-India rollout.
T Koshy, MD and CEO of ONDC, shared his thoughts on the development and said, “ We started with Bengaluru and Meerut and now have a sizeable number of sellers, enough to extend the network to other cities.”
He also added, “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.”
The Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) is a project of the Ministry of Commerce’s Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT). It is a set of specifications intended to promote open, unbundled, and interoperable open networks, hence reducing reliance on a single platform.
