Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), the government-backed interoperable e-commerce network, has announced the launch of business-to-business (B2B) trade on its platform. With this, ONDC has enabled merchants to engage directly with other businesses in wholesale trade.

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Leveraging the open network, businesses can expand their reach, forge new partnerships, and tap into previously untapped markets. This transition further allows them to move away from their predominantly offline operations, a statement said.

"With the launch of the B2B-enabled open network, we are ushering in a new era of e-commerce where businesses can thrive online, overcoming the challenges that have held them back,” said ONDC CEO T Koshy.

While the first B2B transaction on the network took place on May 21 at a gathering of network participants (NPs) in Bengaluru. Two startups SignCatch and Rapidor have successfully enabled both the B2B buyer and B2B seller side on ONDC.

ONDC is currently in 240 cities with 47 network participants. Out of which seven are logistics, 12 are buyers and remaining are seller apps. In the first week of January, interoperable e-commerce network saw about 50 daily transactions in the food and grocery space. Currently, that has scaled up to 10,000-20,000 daily transactions.

ONDC last week revised its incentive scheme for participants in a bid to reduce dependency on discounts for adoption. The new scheme caps the maximum discount at Rs 100 per order, compared to the earlier cap of Rs 125. The daily order volumes fell to an average of 9,000, down 64 percent from the peak of 25,000 that was achieved earlier this month.