In the upcoming few months, Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) plans to reach 100,000 daily orders in the retail sector as it gets ready to introduce a second iteration of its network design and agreements, which is anticipated to add new features and significantly enhance customer experience, said a report by Moneycontrol.
At the ONDC Elevate event earlier this week, which was attended by all of the network participants (NPs) and high-ranking government officials, the goal of 100,000 orders was announced, the report added.
This is expected to occur over the upcoming few months as NPs adopt a new set of network specifications. The current version, 1.1, is in use, and the upcoming 1.2 version will, among other things, improve order tracking, offer more options for order fulfilment, such as in-store pick-up by customers, and automate the grievance redressal process to a greater extent, sources said.
The 1.1 version of the ONDC specifications was released in March as a basic template to get the network up and running with the bare minimum of features and technical requirements for NPs. The next version is expected to be released in a few weeks.
Another industry source told Moneycontrol that the 1.2 version is supposed to be implemented by June, and then work on the 1.3 version will start, with a release scheduled for September, just in time for the holiday shopping season.
"I believe that version will be even more fine-tuned in terms of network design and get the customer experience level on ONDC to the level of the Amazons and Flipkarts of the world," he said.
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ONDC has yet to react to inquiries about the latest developments.
It was previously reported that retail orders on ONDC plummeted by more than half to roughly 12,000 last on May 15, compared to the previous weekend, after big discounts for users on logistics were reduced owing to a change of incentives distributed by the network last week.
According to sources, the issue of discounts came up for discussion at the ONDC event earlier this week, as a top government official stated on stage that the network will eventually wean itself off of large incentives for customers, as such practices by large e-commerce platforms have harmed small sellers in the country.
Another significant issue raised was the nature of huge e-commerce businesses' integration with ONDC. The government had earlier said that platforms that only bring their buyers or sellers to the network by building an ONDC-specific app should not be allowed.
