Mumbai, Sep 8 (TIWN): JM Financial Institutional Securities Ltd. has released its report on Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) terming the company a population-scale initiative to democratise e-commerce, the detailed report concludes that it has the potential to create a win-win scenario for incumbents as well as new entrants. The report also terms extreme operational complexity as the roadblocks for ONDC.

"With its primary focus of enabling e-commerce for small retailers and MSMEs, ONDC has the potential to enhance retail digital penetration in the country at an even faster pace than what was seen during the COVID lockdowns. The network will enable a wider customer catchment to small retailers and direct customer access to MSMEs, creating millions of million-dollar businesses," said the report.

Using an open source protocol, ONDC switches the approach from closed platforms to a network that creates interoperability across all on boarded applications, says the report.

"This interoperability enables unbundling, which allows all participants to play to their strengths -- a banking app with millions of consumers focuses on boarding/engaging consumers while a SaaS provider for online sellers handholds the sellers. Further, the buyers get to stick to their app of choice for accessing a broad selection while sellers do not need to spend time and capital in working with multiple platforms in silos. Overall, this can drive capital efficiency for the players, helping them achieve profitability," said the report.

As per the report, the roadblocks to success of ONDC include solving the chicken and egg situation between supplier and buyer on boarding, customer complaints redressal (as a fragmented process also creates gaps for the process to fall through), competition issues in case the large incumbents or massive brands are on boarded as well as those related to data privacy and ownership.