Zoho jumps on to ONDC bandwagon with seller app called Vikra

Sellers on Vikra will be visible on popular buyer-side apps on ONDC like Paytm, Ola and Snapdeal

Bootstrapped SaaS unicorn Zoho on September 25 launched a seller-side platform on the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), an interoperability project backed by the government to break the stranglehold of e-commerce giants such as Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart.

At its annual technology conference, Zoho said sellers using the Vikra app can easily get on to the ONDC network to set up online stores and start selling.

“Vikra is fully ONDC protocol compliant, one can manage complete operations using Vikra and over and above we also give business analytics,” Zoho’s global head of finance and operations Sivaramakrishnan Iswaran said.

Sellers on Vikra will be visible on popular buyer-side apps on ONDC such as Paytm, Ola and Snapdeal. Sellers can also enable instant notifications to users on WhatsApp through Zoho’s platform.

"Potential economics of bridging the ecommerce divide is huge, however, there are challenges faced by sellers and marketplace platforms,” Iswaran said.

Vikra focuses on onboarding, order fulfilment, shipping, product cataloguing, managing customer disputes and analytics, Iswaran said.

It also enables interoperability with other Zoho applications such as Zoho Books, Zoho Inventory and Zoho Commerce.

It is available for immediate use and as an introductory offer, a seller fee of 1 percent of the total transaction amount on the sale amount will be charged.

Over the past year-and-a-half, multiple new-age companies such as Paytm, Ola, PhonePe, Meesho, Magicpin and Shiprocket have taken to ONDC, aimed to take on big online retail players such as Amazon, Flipkart, Zomato and Swiggy.

With ONDC, the government hopes to increase e-commerce penetration to 25 percent over the next couple of years, reaching a gross merchandise value of $48 billion.

ONDC recorded a 5 percent month-on-month growth in transactions in August at 12.58 million, compared to a 21 percent surge in July, amid a tightening of cash incentives for mature segments like food and grocery by the government-backed interoperable network.

Out of the total, 4.74 million transactions were in the mobility category through Uber, Ola challenger Namma Yatri. The remaining 7.84 million were in the non-mobility category, which included retail purchases made by consumers and on-network logistics transactions to deliver those orders.