Amazon joins a government-backed e-commerce initiative aimed at “democratizing” online shopping in the South Asian market, making fun of challenging the dominance of companies such as the US retail group.
In a statement on Friday, Amazon said it will integrate its logistics network and SmartCommerce, a platform for digitizing neighborhood stores, into Open Network for Digital Commerce, a nonprofit established by India’s Ministry of Commerce in 2021. said.
Manish Tiwary, Country Manager of Amazon India, said in a statement, “Amazon’s vision and commitment to India goes hand in hand with ONDC’s goal of digitizing SMEs to provide convenience and choice to customers across the country. match.
Part of ONDC’s pitch so far is to break Amazon’s and Walmart’s Flipkart dominance in the Indian e-commerce market.
ONDC is an “interoperable” network that allows buyers and sellers to conduct business regardless of the apps and services they use, eliminating consumer dependence on using the proprietary services operated by Amazon and Walmart. Destroy
With ONDC, New Delhi is looking to replicate the success it had with UPI, an interoperable mobile payment network that disrupted the walled garden mobile wallets of companies like Paytm and MobiKwik. Paytm joins his ONDC network.
And while ONDC is still in its infancy, industry executives say there is still much work to be done with the model.
For example, it is unclear who is responsible if a customer’s order never arrives. And unlike his UPI, where New Delhi actively promoted its digital payment network, ONDC has received little public acclaim and support.
“Amazon has a clear roadmap for becoming part of the ONDC network and is the first to join as a logistics partner of the ONDC network, a global pioneering idea established with the purpose of democratizing digital commerce. India,” said T Koshy, MD and CEO of ONDC, in a statement.
