ONDC wants platforms like Amazon, Flipkart, to join both seller and buyer sides of network

This also comes at a time when ONDC is trying to increase participation — and one of the ways this is being done in is by offering small discounts.

The Open Network in Digital Commerce (ONDC) is in touch with marketplaces such as Amazon, Flipkart, Swiggy as well as mobility players like Ola and Uber, and is asking them to join both buyer-side and seller-side apps.

Speaking to Moneycontrol, ONDC Chief Executive Officer T Koshy, said they they are in touches all marketplaces, ranging from ecommerce to mobility. “We are in touch with all of them. If you look at the smallest of the marketplaces coming in — Snapdeal has just gone live. Any marketplace which is coming onto the ONDC network as a marketplace — there is buyer side and seller side — is requested and recommended that they come both sides, not on the same day, but they may take one first and the other later, but we've made it like a request,” Koshy said.

He was speaking to Moneycontrol on the sidelines of the event by PhonePe to launch its app for foraying into hyperlocal e-commerce, ‘Pincode’.

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As part of the ONDC model, there is a buyer-side and seller-side app, along with separate logistics providers. All apps — such as e-commerce, D2C or ride-hailing — can be a buyer-side app where users can access the products. Similarly, a seller-side app is a platform where the seller registers and puts up their catalogue of products or services. An e-commerce platform can choose to enlist itself as both buyer and seller app—or only one of those. Pincode, PhonePe’s app that was launched on April 4, is a buyer-side app.

This also comes at a time when ONDC is trying to increase participation — and one of the ways this is being done in is by offering small discounts.

“What we have done is essentially to jumpstart the initial participation. We made some very small incentives, especially to the merchants to bring their catalog online because without the transactions, it's a cost for them. We are trying to make good of those costs for six months to nine months, then by the time it would build up its own momentum, it will be okay,” Koshy said.

However, he maintained that they will not go down the route of increasing discounting to raise adoption.

“We cannot be trying to adopt usage by throwing money at people. We have to help adoption based on what we are offering to them. Initially, it is an attention-grabbing mechanism, not a way of trying to convince them only on the basis of discounts. In that case, it will never scale. We are looking at a population-scale participation for billions of people to come. So I don't think it will be beyond any reasonable expectation to be funded through,” said.

However, when asked if these discounts did spur usage, he added that in food and grocery, they had about 30 transactions a day in December which has now climbed to 350-400 transactions a day. However, it cannot be attributed to discounts alone, but also that they have publicising it more, he added.