Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) technology service provider Digiit.AI Cloud, has onboarded about 50 local businesses in Coimbatore to the ONDC platform since 2022. The latest to be onboarded is Transze, an electric vehicle logistics provider.
According to Karthikeyan Arumugham, managing director of Digiit, Coimbatore is among the pilot cities for the ONDC project. The platform, he said, gives opportunities for small businesses to not only go digital but also offers several other facilities that enables small businesses to play like the big ones.
Transze has a fleet of more than 20 vehicles in Coimbatore, and will be used for logistics services for other MSMEs that have been integrated onto the ONDC platform in Coimbatore, he said. “There are 15,000 to 16,000 orders a day in Coimbatore. We need more logistics players. The early ones will get better opportunities.”
Mr. Arumugham said Digiit conducts several outreach programmes in Coimbatore and so the awareness on digital business is high among the local retailers, traders, and businesses in the MSME segment.
Vivian Julius, who operates Elixir Computers in Gandhipuram in Coimbatore city, went online this year selling on Amazon.in and in a month, fulfilled 25 orders. He is among the 41,000 offline retailers in Tamil Nadu and 4,000 in Coimbatore city who have joined the Local Shops programme on Amazon.in.
Abhishek Jain, head of Local Shops in Amazon India, told The Hindu that businesses that have local retail outlets, can deliver goods to customers, and can provide services such as installations, can become sellers on Local Shops on Amazon. For the retailers, this gives them an opportunity to expand their business.
Cities such as Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai and Tirunelveli are contributing to the growth of this segment on Amazon in Tamil Nadu. About 85,000 stores are added annually from across the country on Local Shops, and almost 12% are from Tamil Nadu, he said, highlighting the growing number of offline small businesses that are going digital.
S. Karthikeyan, secretary of the Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Coimbatore, however, said there were several challenges for the local trades to go online. “They look at e-commerce as a competition. There is a need for better awareness and going online should be made remunerative for the trade,” he said.
