In a major push to modernise India’s vast general trade ecosystem, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) and the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) have brought together leading FMCG companies, distributors, technology providers and logistics partners to accelerate the rollout of DigiDukaan, a digital procurement platform designed for the country’s 1.4 crore kirana stores.
The initiative took centre stage at the CPG Roundtable – Bharat Commerce Chintan Shivir, held on June 12, where industry stakeholders discussed strategies to drive digital transformation across India’s traditional retail network.
General trade remains the backbone of FMCG sales
India’s general trade channel accounts for nearly 75-80% of FMCG sales, but continues to face challenges such as fragmented ordering systems, limited inventory visibility and manual sales processes. DigiDukaan aims to address these inefficiencies by creating a unified digital procurement ecosystem for retailers, distributors and brands.
For kirana stores, the platform promises better margins through direct procurement, improved visibility of promotional schemes, enhanced fill rates and stronger working capital management. Distributors stand to benefit from wider market reach, digital order collection and improved retailer coverage, while brands gain direct access to retailer demand signals and more effective deployment of trade schemes.
DigiDukaan targets procurement digitisation
At the centre of the discussions was DigiDukaan, ONDC’s initiative aimed at digitising B2B procurement for kirana stores. The platform seeks to improve operational efficiency by enabling retailers to procure directly, gain better visibility into trade schemes, improve fill rates and strengthen working capital management.
For distributors, DigiDukaan offers opportunities to expand market reach without incurring additional field-force costs through digital order and collection processes. Brands, meanwhile, can access retailer demand signals directly, improve scheme deployment and gain greater visibility into retail-level performance.
Early success and expansion plans
DigiDukaan has already demonstrated encouraging traction in Hyderabad, where more than 10,000 retailers and over 35 brands have been onboarded through Qwipo. Building on this momentum, the initiative is set to launch in Jaipur on June 19 through Salescode, with further expansion planned across Mumbai, Bengaluru and Delhi-NCR in the coming months.
Industry discusses key distribution challenges
Industry leaders participating in the roundtable highlighted several challenges facing the general trade ecosystem, including fragmented retailer engagement, rising sales-force costs, inventory inefficiencies, limited visibility into secondary sales and increasing competition from digital-first retail models.
Participants also explored how open digital infrastructure can improve retailer access, distributor productivity, demand planning and scheme effectiveness across the FMCG value chain.
Stakeholders invited to shape next phase
The roundtable served as a platform for stakeholders to share recommendations on distributor digitisation, catalogue standardisation, retailer onboarding and technology integration. Participating companies were invited to collaborate as founding partners in the next phase of DigiDukaan’s expansion.
The discussions were chaired by DPIIT Additional Secretary Ateesh Kumar Singh and saw participation from leading companies including HUL, ITC, Coca-Cola, Tata Consumer Products, CavinKare, Marico, Bikano, L’Oréal, Moon Beverages, Anmol Industries, Nestlé and Kirana King.
The participating organisations expressed strong interest in supporting the DigiDukaan initiative, signalling growing industry momentum towards building a more connected, efficient and digitally enabled FMCG distribution ecosystem for India’s millions of neighbourhood retailers.