For all its scale, India's general trade network continues to rely heavily on offline relationships and manual processes, creating inefficiencies across the retail supply chain
Now, the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), in collaboration with the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), is looking to address these challenges through DigiDukaan
The platform connects retailers, distributors and brands through a common digital network, enabling neighbourhood stores to place orders, access promotional schemes and manage procurement more efficiently
India’s neighbourhood kirana stores form the backbone of the country’s retail economy. More than 1.4 Cr kirana stores account for nearly 75-80% of FMCG sales, making general trade the dominant channel for consumer goods distribution.
Yet, despite their scale, most kirana stores continue to rely on fragmented ordering systems, manual sales processes and limited inventory visibility. Orders are often placed through distributor sales representatives, over phone calls or via informal channels, leaving retailers with little visibility into stock availability, promotional schemes or delivery timelines.
Now, the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), along with the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), is looking to address this issue through ‘DigiDukaan’.
An ONDC-powered initiative launched by DPIIT, DigiDukaan aims to digitise B2B procurement for India’s kirana ecosystem. The platform connects retailers, distributors and brands through a common digital network, enabling neighbourhood stores to place orders, access promotional schemes, and manage procurement more efficiently.
For retailers, DigiDukaan claims to offer better visibility into products, pricing and schemes. Distributors can digitise order collection and expand retailer coverage without a corresponding increase in manpower costs, while brands can gain access to retailer demand signals and better visibility into secondary sales.
Launched in Hyderabad in March this year through ONDC network participant Qwipo, more than 10,000 retailers and over 35 brands have been onboarded under DigiDukaan so far, the DPIIT said.
Following the pilot, DigiDukaan is set to launch in Jaipur on June 19 through Salescode.ai, an ONDC network participant and technology provider. DigiDukaan is also slated to launch in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Delhi NCR in the coming months.
For all its scale, India’s general trade network still runs largely on offline relationships and manual workflows, leading to inefficiencies across the supply chain.
While retailers grapple with stockouts and working-capital constraints, distributors spend heavily on maintaining large field sales teams. Brands, meanwhile, struggle to forecast demand, track secondary sales and measure the effectiveness of promotional campaigns.
As consumer behaviour shifts and digital-first retail models gain ground, these shortcomings have become harder to ignore.
Industry leaders at a recent consumer packaged goods (CPG) roundtable, organised by the DPIIT and ONDC, flagged rising sales force costs, fragmented retailer engagement and inventory inefficiencies as the key challenges for the sector. DigiDukaan aims to address these challenges.
DigiDukaan’s biggest differentiator is the infrastructure underpinning it. Rather than operating as another standalone marketplace, the initiative is built on ONDC’s open network framework, which allows retailers, distributors, brands and technology providers to transact across interoperable platforms.
The goal is to create a common digital infrastructure for retail procurement, similar to the role UPI plays in digital payments. Through the network, kirana stores can connect with multiple brands, distributors and service providers regardless of the platform they use, reducing dependence on any single commerce marketplace.
The initiative comes as ONDC ramps up efforts to expand its digital commerce ecosystem. While it continues to broaden its presence across sectors, transaction volumes have been under pressure over the past year amid intense competition from ecommerce and quick commerce platforms.
Launched by DPIIT in 2021, ONDC was conceived as an open alternative to platform-centric ecommerce models, enabling buyers and sellers to transact across interoperable applications rather than within closed ecosystems. The network has since expanded into logistics, mobility and financial services, facilitating 21.8 Cr transactions during FY26. It is currently operational in 616 cities and has onboarded more than 7.64 Lakh sellers and service providers.
As part of its next phase of evolution, ONDC raised ₹220 Cr from strategic investors, including Uber, Zoho, One97 Communications and BSE, earlier this month.
According to ONDC CFO Krishan Agarwal, the investment points to the growing confidence in the ability of open digital networks to create a level playing field for businesses.
Edited by Vinaykumar Rai
Source: Inc42 - Startups
