India’s e-commerce platform, Snapdeal, will debut on the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) next month. The company entered into the onboarding agreement to join the ONDC platform earlier this month. Teams on both sides are close to completing the technical integration needed for a pan-India launch by the middle of August.

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At the time of launch, access will be available in over 2500 cities and towns nationwide, and as the ONDC network is expanded during the year, more cities and towns will be added. Various inter-city and intra-city logistics will be provided by several independent logistics companies that collaborate with Snapdeal.

Snapdeal will debut on ONDC with three major categories: fashion, home, and beauty & personal care.

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The launch of ONDC is in line with Snapdeal's current goal on linking small and medium-sized businesses with a sizable and expanding online market, particularly among customers residing outside of India's metropolitan areas.

A network of sellers from the North (Delhi-NCR, Jaipur, Agra, Ludhiana), West (Surat, Rajkot, Mumbai), South (Tirupur, Chennai, Bengaluru), and East (Kolkata, Guwahati), among others, would assist Snapdeal's launch on ONDC.

According to Snapdeal President Himanshu Chakrawarti, “The increasing digitization of India’s retail is a transformative opportunity that can greatly benefit the sellers, buyers and other stakeholders. ONDC’s efforts will catalyze this growth in the right direction and will help create an inclusive, enabling, open-access-based digital commerce ecosystem. Snapdeal looks forward to a strong partnership with ONDC in this path-breaking endeavor”.

The addition of Snapdeal to ONDC will expedite their efforts to connect with more buyers and sellers and cover a bigger geographic area. “We look forward to leveraging Snapdeal’s long-standing expertise in serving India’s online users,” said ONDC CEO T Koshy.

“We also look forward to working closely with them to build an online ecosystem that truly serves the needs of the country,” he added.

Also read: Explained: What is ONDC project and how will it curb digital monopolies?