E-commerce giant Amazon on Friday said it will join the government’s open source, not-for-profit, e-commerce platform Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC).

For now, Amazon’s logistics network (from pickup to delivery) and SmartCommerce services will be the two arms to initially integrate with ONDC. The two platforms, however, will “continue to explore other potential opportunities for stronger integration between the two in future”, Amazon said in a statement.

SmartCommerce is an Amazon Web Services-powered suite of software-as-a-service (SaaS) products that enables MSMEs to build and scale their business, especially proving beneficial for new merchants wanting to get on ONDC.

The announcement comes after T Koshy, CEO, ONDC, had said Amazon was preparing to integrate with the platform in October.

Manish Tiwary, country manager, India consumer business, Amazon India, said, “Amazon’s vision and commitment for India is closely aligned with ONDC’s objectives of digitally enabling small businesses, and providing convenience and choice to customers across the country.”

Rival Flipkart has already put its logistics arm, eKart, on ONDC.

In January, ONDC was delivering 50-60 orders each day and had an average order value (AOV) of Rs 200-300, Koshy had told FE. He had said the AOV would climb higher as newer categories like fashion, beauty and personal care, and electronics are made available.

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Giants like Reliance, Microsoft, Snapdeal and Hindustan Unilever have also said they will join ONDC, which aims to democratise e-commerce by allowing sellers to access more shoppers’ data — something which Amazon and Flipkart do not allow — industry players have said.

Further, the ONDC has scaled its beta stage offerings to about 85 cities since September 30 and has players like Paytm, Shiprocket, Delhivery fulfilling orders on the network.

“We are happy that Amazon has a definite roadmap to being a part of the ONDC network and is taking its first step in coming in as the logistics partner in the ONDC network…” Koshy said.

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ONDC had initially started off by delivering low-ticket items like grocery and food from restaurants but is ramping up the system as it aims to reach around 900 million buyers and sign up 1.2 million sellers on the shared network within the next five years. Those targets will also enable the ONDC to increase the e-commerce penetration in India to 25% by 2025, up from around 5% currently, Koshy said.