The Sheen is wearing traditional electronic commerce. In spite of all their size and scale, platforms such as Amazon, Flipkart, Zomato and Swiggy are dealing with user fatigue, the disappointment of the seller and a workforce walking along a tightrope.
Customers now routinely question whether “guaranteed delivery” means “the next day” or “next neighbor”. Sellers feel more and more as contestants in a game program where the rules change without prior notice: navigate the structures of changing commissions, opaque algorithms and arbitrary suspensions. And platform workers? They are treated as code: easily replaced, scalable endlesly, but largely invisible.
Also ultra ultra fast, a novelty, a novelty is beginning to feel unsustainable. Blinkit, the dear of 10 -minute groceries now backed by Zomato, is changing speed expectations throughout the sector. But with that acceleration comes the questions: Who has the cost? What happens to small stores when the demand for instant gratification annuls locality considerations, transparency of prices and well -being of workers?
This is the tension in the heart of today’s electronic commerce: convenience versus control, speed versus sustainability and platform power versus participatory access.
Experiments in abundance
Enter the idea or open the network. Throughout the world, experimental ones are taking place in silence that challenge the monopoly model of the platform. In Nairobi, Wasko (abbreviation for “market people”) connects about 50,000 informal retailers with manufacturers in six African countries, offering compliance with real -time orders and credit access to small traditional suppliers of digital systems.
In Europe, Prestashop, an open source electronic commerce builder of more than 300,000 stores. Merchants have their shop windows and data, while a prosperous developer ecosystem helps companies customize everything, from UX to inventory flow. It is a modular tools kit.
In Indonesia, platforms such as Warung Pintar Digitize Mom-And-Pop Stores, equipping them with point of sale technology and helping them to join larger distribution networks without being absorbed by them.
In Latin America, Tiendanube (Nuvemshop) allows more than 100,000 small companies to establish personalized online stores. It connects them with local logistics and payment suppliers in Brazil, Mexico and Argentina, without blocking the issue in a single application or interface.
Opening the pipes
The most influential open network model, thought, can be UPI (interface of unified payments) of India. With more than 13 billion monthly transactions, UPI has redefined payments, not by centralization, but when opening the pipes. Any bank, any application, any user: plug and reproduce. Upi showed that when the infrastructure is open, innovation blooms. You need a system that allows everyone to build.
That is the promise of the next digital trade wave: interoperability, data portability and network justice.
Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, has launched solid-a Project that allows users to store their personal data in decentralized “PODs.” Applications must request access; Users decide what to share. Your Amazon car, Flipkart returns and Myntra’s desire lists could live with you, not within a farm of servers owned by a billion dollar company. Sellers can control their inventory and pricing without fear. And buyers can buy in applications.
Built to decentralize
The ONDC of India (Network Open for Digital Commerce) is a digital public infrastructure, built to decentralize. Its objective is to ensure that anyone can build an electronic commerce platform.
Digihaat is a buyer application built in Rails ONDC. A manual loom artisan in Varanasi, for example, can use Digihaat to list products, store its catalog in a shaleable format and reach buyers using any ONDC compatible application.
Rahul Vij, Digihaat Operations Director, says: “It’s about giving each seller a digital voice, without expelling them to speak the language of another person.”
In a world of walls, open networks offer bridges, an interoperable connection at the same time.
(The writer is an independent consultant at Nirmit Bharat, ONDC)
More like this
Posted on April 20, 2025