ONDC for democratisation of e-commerce: CEO Thampy Koshy

Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) on Friday said it has entered the e-commerce space not to create competition but to democratise the online market space.

The Indian market, which is largely dominated by brick-and-mortar models, has witnessed a rapid expansion in the e-commerce segment in the past few years, with global players like Amazon entering the market.

Speaking to PTI on the sidelines of Shiprocket SHIVIR 2023 here, Koshy said the existing e-commerce platforms are doing a great job, but they are meant for a certain class of customers and segments of society.

"The digital penetration of e-commerce is still a very small, elite phenomenon, while we celebrate their outreach into smaller towns and cities, but even there, it is elite. This is evident from the product messages meant for financially well-off people. That would also have significant influence and power," he said.

He further said the thought process behind starting ONDC is the democratisation of the e-commerce space, and bringing in even small players from all over the country into the online market ecosystem.

"ONDC is meant for collaboration, not competition," he said.

Earlier speaking at the event, he said ONDC started with a limited number of merchants in 5-6 cities, but it now has thousands of merchants across categories onboard.

At the conclave, Shiprocket launched an e-commerce Trends Report with ONDC.

ONDC is an initiative of the Commerce and Industry Ministry to create a facilitative model to help small retailers take advantage of digital commerce.