The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) in collaboration with the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) convened a CPG Roundtable – Bharat Commerce Chintan Shivir on 12 June 2026. The roundtable brought together leaders from leading consumer goods companies, distributor networks, technology providers, and logistics partners to discuss the digital transformation of India's General Trade ecosystem.
India's General Trade ecosystem comprises over 1.4 crore kirana stores, which account for nearly 75–80% of FMCG sales. The channel currently operates through fragmented ordering systems, limited inventory visibility, and manual sales processes, resulting in inefficiencies for retailers, distributors, and brands.
The discussions focused on DigiDukaan, ONDC's initiative aimed at digitizing kirana stores for B2B procurement. The initiative is designed to improve efficiency across the value chain by enabling kirana stores to improve margins through direct procurement, offering better visibility of schemes, improved fill rates, and enhanced working capital management. For distributors, DigiDukaan facilitates wider market reach without additional field costs through order and collection digitization while improving retailer coverage. For brands, it provides direct access to retailer demand signals, retail counters, and more effective deployment and tracking of schemes.
DigiDukaan has gained early traction in Hyderabad, where more than 10,000 retailers and over 35 brands have been onboarded through Qwipo. The platform is scheduled to launch in Jaipur on 19 June 2026 through Salescode, with expansion planned across Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Delhi-NCR in the coming months.
Industry leaders discussed key 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 explored how open digital infrastructure can improve retailer access, distributor productivity, demand planning, and scheme effectiveness across the FMCG value chain.
The roundtable provided a platform for stakeholders to share recommendations on distributor digitization, catalogue standardization, retailer onboarding, and technology integration. Participating companies were invited to collaborate as founding partners in the next phase of DigiDukaan's expansion.
The event was chaired by Additional Secretary, DPIIT, Shri Ateesh Kumar Singh, and saw participation from companies including HUL, ITC, Coca-Cola, TCPL, CavinKare, Marico, Bikano, L'Oréal, Moon Beverages, Anmol Industries, Nestlé, and Kirana King. The participating organizations expressed interest in engaging with and supporting the DigiDukaan initiative.