Recently, the govt announced that tomatoes will be sold in select cities on ONDC at seventy rupees per kilo. Can tomato price hike be to ONDC what demonetization was to digital payment? Folks at ONDC must be wishing so.
But here is why, inspite of being seemingly comparable, the two instances are drastically different.
1. Demonetization was a much more acute case of deprivation. Not having cash and not having tomatoes don’t pinch similarly.
2. The duration of cashlessness was much longer. There wasn’t much hope in waiting it out. Will people wait the temporary tomato scarcity out or rush to ONDC? Is the reward of tomato attractive enough to form a queue?
3. The solution was much simpler in the case of digital payments. There was an app and there was a physical endorsement of its POC at the physical store.
ONDC is a complex concept that is still being decoded by the industry. Users will take more time.
4. As said in the above point, visibility. Digital payment was a visible solution. There was a concept, its proof and competition. We forget how critical competition is to creating an ecosystem.
ONDC needs to be way more visible before attracting users like payment apps did.
5. Let’s say people throng to ONDC. But then the question will be can the platforms retain those users who came to save forty rupees? Or, will they exit as soon as the discounts stop?
Isn’t that the issue most traditional ecommerce companies struggling with?
I think we will need to wait and see. As they say, kuch nahin hoga toh tajurba hoga – even if we achieve nothing else, we will gain experience.
