E-commerce major Amazon has announced the integration of its logistics network (from pickup to delivery) and smart commerce services with the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC). The latter is a private non-profit company established by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade of the Government of India. 

The development is expected to provide greater technical support to the seller community and further empower small businesses. It will also benefit crores of consumers with wider choices.

This will be Amazon’s initial collaboration with ONDC,  and the company is expecting to explore other potential opportunities to develop stronger integration between the two in the future.

In a statement, the company has claimed to digitise over four million small businesses and 'kirana' stores in India. 

Speaking on the occasion, Manish Tiwary, Country Manager, India Consumer Business, Amazon India, said, “Amazon’s vision and commitment for India are closely aligned with ONDC’s objectives of digitally enabling small businesses, and providing convenience and choice to customers across the country. We are excited about the opportunities to mobilise Amazon’s industry-leading infrastructure and technology, including logistics, and small business digitization tools, to help the ONDC accelerate its objectives. 

“We are happy that Amazon has a definite roadmap to being a part of the ONDC network and is taking its first step in coming in as the logistics partner in the ONDC network which is a globally pioneering idea established with a view to democratise digital commerce in India, and we also hope that the buyer and seller platforms are on-boarded as early as possible,” T Koshy, MD ( managing director) and CEO (chief executive officer) of ONDC commented.