ONDC still needs to iron out processes to boost sales from kirana stores: Report

The open network for digital commerce (ONDC), a government initiative to bring e-commerce players and smaller stores under one platform, is dubbed transformative for the sector but still has a long way to go.

With the might of quick commerce players rampant, several small shop owners are counting on ONDC to make their online debut but the platform will have to smoothen out its processes before going live.

According to a report in The Economic Times, the network could only fulfill 62 of 174 orders it took on the day of its beta launch in September owing to few delivery partners and order-inventory mismatch.

Presently, eight e-commerce players and quick delivery service providers are on the ONDC network while 17 others are to join in soon.

For kirana or small mom-and-pop stores, listing on ONDC would mean competing with a huge dark store chain network where the order fulfillment and inventory keeping are extremely smooth.

ONDC will also have to fine-tune its options and user interface, tailoring it to small shopkeepers and dealing with thin margins while generating demand for its use over other apps that have fortified their presence in the e-commerce and q-commerce space.

Those heading the ONDC project, however, are hopeful.

“There are more kiranas than the dark store networks of all these [quick-commerce] players put together,” Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO of trade body Retailers’ Association of India told ET.

However, for several provision store owners, waiting to get payments for orders is what could deter them from listing or fulfilling these orders on ONDC, according to the report.

Cataloguing, 'process discipline' and commmissions (in the long run) seem to be the major deterrents between kiranas getting aboard the platform and continuing there but for now, ONDC seems like the light at the end of this digital tunnel.