Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), on June 5, launched of business-to-business (B2B) transactions on the government-backed interoperable ecommerce network.

While the first B2B transaction on the network took place on May 21 at a gathering of network participants (NPs) in Bengaluru, two firms that have joined the network, Rapidor and Signcatch, have executed approximately 160 test transactions in the last week.

Commenting on the launch, T Koshy, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of ONDC, said that the possibilities in B2B are much more as there are fewer established platforms in this space, compared to B2C."

The network began alpha testing in a few cities last April and advanced to beta testing in September. In recent months, it has increased its efforts to attract customers and sellers to the network through various incentive programmes and discounts.

Koshy added however, the participants must, of course, consider profit. However, the margins should be low enough that even small retailers and purchasers can participate. The only thing they need remember is that profit must be achieved through large volumes rather than small values.

At the launch, ONDC said that it had constituted a working group to explore the addition of credit and various financial products on the network.

The credit products could be available on ONDC over the next two months, according to network CEO Koshy. Last week, a change in the incentive structure had reduced retail transactions on the network by approximately 64 per cent, to 9,000 per day, from a peak of over 25,000.