Zoomed Out | Open Network for Digital Commerce — here's why payment aggregators are key for its success

When a buyer goes and searches for a product on the ONDC buyer app, he will get the results from different e-commerce platforms and listings, and get to compare prices, features, and discounts available in a single view. 

Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) is an alternative to the existing platform-centric model backed by the government of India to create a common digital infrastructure for the Indian e-commerce industry. ONDC, is a private non-profit Section-8 company established by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT).

Interoperability, decentralisation and unbundling are the main principles of the ONDC network. The aim is to develop open e-commerce, democratise digital commerce for buyers and sellers, facilitate seamless interoperability between various e-commerce platforms and enable consumers, merchants, and service providers to transact digitally with ease. 

For example, in an e-commerce transaction, the seller-side, logistics, payments, and buyer-side activities can be handled by different entities, this way the ONDC infrastructure breaks down complexities into micro activities and makes the network unbundled. It enables e-commerce platforms to access a common set of application programming interfaces (APIs) and data services, which will enable them to offer a range of services to their customers. Also, data availability and control over a transaction lie at both the seller and the buyer side, making it decentralised.