On Monday, One97 Communications, the firm that powers Paytm, announced that its CEO and founder, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, is considering adding 10 million merchants to the government-backed Open Network for Digital Commerce platform by 2025.
One97 Communications, the parent company of Paytm, announced that its CEO and founder, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, is thinking of adding 10 million merchants to the government-backed Open Network for Digital Commerce platform by 2025. He also mentioned that the company has observed that the platform has led nearly 11.8 million customers to its product, according to news agency PTI.
“Paytm’s ecosystem is built around small merchants, and the mission that we are on is to help small merchants and small businesses become part of the mainstream economy. We did it by payments.
Everybody to whom we have given new payments wants to have new customers. That is when ONDC comes. We plan to bring 10 million merchants on ONDC before 2025 ends,” Paytm founder said on the sidelines of an ONDC event.
All e-commerce players are welcome to onboard their services on the government-backed Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC). This platform features digital payment companies like Paytm, PhonePe’s Pincode, and the hyperlocal e-commerce startup Magicpin.
Sharma said that ONDC has over 10 million members, or one-fifth of the nation’s e-commerce sector.
“If you bring many merchants, customers are searching for them. The issue of trust and discovery has to be sorted out, but a large number of customers are ready to come online and shop,” the report quoted Sharma as saying.
According to T Koshy, managing director and CEO of ONDC, the government-backed portal has recently begun operating.
“In January, we had around 1,200 transactions. This month, we have almost 5 million transactions. We have found that transactions are happening from 600 cities already. People are figuring out how to shop whenever they get access from national-level apps. It begins an avalanche in the next 1-2 years. We aim to add one more zero to the current level of transactions in a year,” Koshy said.
