Mr. Paramdeep Singh Anand, CEO, FieldAssist on the Impact of ONDC on Retail and E-commerce

“In the eye of consumers, what works best while shopping online is easier comparisons for regular products and quicker discoveries of unique products. With ONDC, these two appear to be promised deliverables. For retailers, it is wider reach, better sales, and lesser charges and hassles. Again, seems promising with ONDC. But the question lingering in many veterans’ minds is, at what cost. For consumers, where a huge portion is common man, their privacy and money are of key importance. How is that ensured by ONDC whether in terms of delivery addresses or cost of deliveries, payment failures or delivery failures, and where would the ownership rest still remains a question to be answered. Similarly, for distributors and retailers who often pay for new stocks in advance, and end up competing with the bigger retailers and distributors online who are capable of diluting topline for higher sales. How would it all impact them? How would the thresholds of promotion and discount margins be defined? The excitement is comprehensible. It is a bold, big step in a great direction. The concern, however, around the misdirection or misappropriation due to lack of sufficient information is what poses a greater challenge.”