Delhi govt invites expressions of interest for creating Dilli Bazaar e-commerce platform

Officials in the know of the matter said the government has envisaged Dilli Bazaar as a state-of-the-art e-marketplace that will empower Delhi-based businesses to grow and diversify.

The Delhi government has set the ball rolling on its ambitious e-marketplace initiative “Dilli Bazaar”, with the industries department inviting expressions of interest from agencies to design, develop, operate and maintain the “Dilli Bazaar” platform, including the digital portal as well as associated offline services.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal announced the Dilli Bazaar initiative after realising that many sellers needed support to move online and capitalise on the pandemic-induced e-commerce opportunity. (HT Archive)

Officials in the know of the matter said the government has envisaged Dilli Bazaar as a state-of-the-art e-marketplace that will empower Delhi-based businesses to grow and diversify. The user-friendly and easy to operate platform will be designed by deploying the best-in-class technology to enhance the digital presence of local businesses, including traders, sellers, wholesalers, service providers and manufacturing units, among others.

The first phase of the project will focus on bringing on board product sellers, while the second phase will bring service providers to the platform.

Dialogue and Development Commission (DDC) of Delhi has concluded a detailed three month consultation exercise with various market associations of Delhi, existing e-commerce platforms, and logistics providers, as well as national and internal benchmarking, to create a unique road map for Dilli Bazaar, said DDC vice-chairperson Jasmine Shah.

Shah said it was after realising that many sellers needed support to move online and capitalise on the pandemic-induced e-commerce opportunity that chief minister Arvind Kejriwal announced the Dilli Bazaar initiative.

The platform, she said, will help promote local businesses by providing them access to larger markets and a level-playing field. “As the government will help sellers set up their virtual shops at zero cost, local businesses will be able to “Covid-proof” themselves and access a global online community,” Shah said.

Every seller on the Dilli Bazaar platform will have her own store-front where they can showcase their unique products along with detailed product catalogues. The seller will thus have an additional virtual store running round the clock , one that will help her reach both domestic and international customers.

The platform also envisions to be among the first and largest e-commerce marketplaces to be compliant with Union government’s open network for digital commerce (ONDC) initiative, enabling the seller to be easily discoverable and allowing them to conduct their businesses across multiple buyer platforms. Customers on that platform will be able to search by products, markets, sellers and geographical area.