“Existing e-commerce platforms are popular because they remain consumer-focused. They have created robust trust in their platforms based on their ability to deliver on promises on products, fulfillment of orders in time, no-questions-asked returns policies, and consumer-friendly refunds and cancellations. ONDC will be tested against these benchmarks,” the statement quoted Goyal as saying.
After conducting a pilot launch in five cities with a closed user group, the government’s ambitious Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) will soon open for beta testing with the public in limited areas.
Since April end, ONDC has been testing with a closed user group for end-to-end execution. The number of network participants are expected to increase to more than 30 in the coming weeks, an official statement said. The issue was discussed at the review meeting on the progress of ONDC on Tuesday.
The meeting was chaired by Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal. At the meeting, the minister emphasized that it was crucial to remember that the basic purpose of ONDC was to assist small, undigitised trader and assisted them to get digitized and avail of opportunities offered by the e-commerce ecosystem.
“Existing e-commerce platforms are popular because they remain consumer-focused. They have created robust trust in their platforms based on their ability to deliver on promises on products, fulfillment of orders in time, no-questions-asked returns policies, and consumer-friendly refunds and cancellations. ONDC will be tested against these benchmarks,” the statement quoted Goyal as saying.
Goyal asked the industry department to work with all state governments and create awareness about the utility of ONDC, and devise programs in collaboration with state governments to help small traders, artisans, handicraftsmen, farmers, MSMEs take advantage of this open network.
