82% C-Suite execs see ONDC increasing customer reach: Publicis Groupe India & DIF report

Publicis Groupe India and Digital India Foundation (DIF) recently launched their insightful report, ‘Decoding ONDC-Perspective For Marketers’, with top leaders from various corporations in addition to the Publicis Groupe India Leadership Team.

This report is the first of its kind rich reference material for the C-Suite and Brand Leaders on preparedness and transition to the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) age of commerce.

The forecasted reach of the ONDC network over the next five years is 250 million buyers by 2027 and a geographic footprint of 75% pincodes in India. Long-tail local neighbourhood supply for categories, including grocery, fashion, home handicrafts, flight tickets, and insurance, among others will be available on ONDC. ONDC in addition with Open Credit Enablement Network (OCEN) and Account Aggregators would transform the supply chains and lending operations of retailers, wholesalers and logistics operators in India. Due to investments in digital public infrastructure, more than 2 million retailers are expected to be enabled with the e-commerce landscape. ONDC will be one of the core parts of comprehensive reform of digital markets in India in a fair, open and transparent manner.

In a Publicis survey done involving the C-Suite and top executives, as many as 91% of respondents reported that ONDC is relevant to their business, while 82% of respondents cited increased customer reach. 64% of respondents cited product discoverability and 64% saw reduced dependence on large marketplace providers as the benefits of ONDC. 18% respondents have already started integrating with ONDC.

Consumer packaged goods were the most advanced when it came to awareness of ONDC. Banking and Financial Services, Travel, Transport, and Logistics, Food Services and Hospitality are the other industries who are making ONDC part of their growth strategy.

The launch event had a great line of speakers, including Publicis Groupe South Asia CEO Anupriya Acharya; Arvind Gupta, ONDC Board Member and Co-Founder and Head, Digital India Foundation; and Lalatendu Das, CEO of Performics India.

The highlight of the evening was an engaging panel discussion on ‘Industry Expectations & Preparedness’ featuring Suresh Narayanan, Chairman & MD, Nestlé India; Ahmed ELsheikh, President-India Region at PepsiCo; Neil George, Managing Director, NIVEA India; and Arvind Gupta. Amaresh Godbole, CEO, Digital Technology Business and Executive Sponsor for Commerce D2C at Publicis Groupe India moderated the discussion. The view among many of the panelists was that a lot would depend on the smooth rollout of ONDC, how it augments the current digital commerce landscape and how the consumer interfaces with it.

However, the scope for ONDC is huge as in India the digital sales is still only 7.8% of the total retail sales; versus 46.3% in China and 36.3% in the UK.

Arvind Gupta, Co-Founder & Head, Digital India Foundation and ONDC Board Member, said, “The joint report with Publicis highlights the vast potential of ONDC and enabling digital public infrastructure for SMEs, local neighbourhood stores and brand leaders and how it will revolutionise the e-retail, e-transactions, and logistics domains and offer more value for consumers. The report is packed with new insights and information; it helps the MSMEs owners, local shopkeepers, C-Suite and top executives to re-imagine the e-commerce landscape and pivot to new opportunities. The report launch event opened up dialogue and exchange of ideas with various stakeholders on the possibilities presented by ONDC and how companies, small business owners and civil society can best leverage them.”

Lalatendu Das, CEO, Performics India, noted, “ONDC opens up exciting and innovative avenues for marketers to drive e-commerce in India. During our research, we found general optimism towards ONDC. While the jury is still out on how quickly ONDC can attain economies of scale, many of the marketers we spoke to, have started making calculated bets. In the report, we have outlined a structured approach for marketers to get the best out of their ONDC investments. In Publicis Groupe, we are keenly observing developments on ONDC and the e-commerce landscape in general to bring the latest insights to our clients.”

Anupriya Acharya, CEO, Publicis Groupe South Asia, said, “Pivoting to Commerce capabilities is a top priority for us. Our focus in recent months has been to gear our vast pool of Commerce specialists, to help our clients prepare and deliver for ONDC. UX for search-based app navigation, content and taxonomy best practices for product discoverability, technology know-how to build on the Beckn protocol, the right data architecture to manage and turn first party data into insights, and store operations for smooth last mile delivery are just some of the things that our teams have been skilled for.”