Hindustan Unilever (HUL) is gearing up to assist nearly 1.3 million kirana stores in integrating with the government’s Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), empowering them to compete with e-commerce and swift-service grocery retailers. This initiative complements HUL’s Shikhar, an internal ordering app empowering local stores to directly place orders, currently contributing about one-third of HUL’s sales from nearby retailers. Last year, HUL, a prominent FMCG company, marked its debut as the first FMCG participant on ONDC through its multi-brand direct-to-consumer platform, UShop.
Kedar Lele, the Executive Director of Customer Development at HUL, highlighted the importance of enabling retailers to manage orders autonomously, aligning with the brand’s aim to democratise e-commerce. He emphasised that Shikhar empowers retailers to advance towards self-reliant ordering.
Lele expressed the forward-looking vision of potentially incorporating 1.3 million retailers into ONDC, enabling access to a diverse product range extending beyond HUL’s offerings. This initiative, trialled in New Delhi and Bengaluru across 60 outlets, is poised to expand nationwide. ONDC, a platform focused on democratising e-commerce, is anticipated to offer technological advancements and enhanced business mechanisms benefiting small retailers.
In India, among approximately 12 million local stores, a mere 0.12% are technologically equipped, and e-retail represents only 4% of the massive $800 billion retail market. The ONDC initiative is poised to address these disparities. HUL, with its vast retail network spanning nine million kirana stores, received praise from parent company Unilever for its digital prowess and innovative tech ventures like Shikhar, adopted in several developing nations.
