India 11 May 2023: The recent ET article has made some general statements about ONDC without supporting facts or data to substantiate these claims and also made misleading assumptions to present what appears to be a distorted picture of the real progress made by ONDC.
ONDC is a network enabler and not a platform, and therefore it has systematically worked towards adding more Network Participants, merchants, cities and transactions (orders per day) to the network.
In April 2022, ONDC commenced its Alpha testing with the first-ever real-world transactions and commenced its “beta testing” with grocery and food delivery domains in Bangalore at the end of September last year.
The network has grown steadily ever since, with quantum leaps especially in the last few months. For example, the number of retail merchants increased from 800+ in Jan’23 to 35,000+ as of now, while the number of orders increased from 50 per day in Jan to peaking at 25,000+ orders per day in the last week. ONDC has expanded its geographic footprint, with the number of cities with merchants present, having increased from 85 in Jan to 230+ now.
ONDC also added mobility in Kochi, in January and in Bengaluru in April, which has seen a jump to 35,000+ rides a day from these two cities.
At the same time, other domains like Fashion, Beauty & Personal Care, Electronics & Appliances were added since January this year, and are gradually expanding — 600+ merchants in these domains and 1,300+ transactions have been completed since these domains have recently gone live. Most of these orders have been intercity, with major intercity logistics providers like ShipRocket, Delhivery, Loadshare etc. being live as part of the network.
These milestones have been achieved as ONDC’s Network Participants increased from 26 in January 2023 to 46 as of today. Notable new additions on the buyer side include PhonePe’s Pincode and Airpay, while leading enterprises such as HUL and ITC, as well as promising startups, have gone live on the seller side.
This continuous acceleration in participation is truly an indication of the confidence and trust that ONDC has been able to establish in a large segment of businesses and consumers.
ONDC has dedicated programs to empower previously undigitized sellers, and has successfully onboarded a large number of first-time small merchants. Remarkably, despite the recent surge in volumes, the network has maintained key performance indicators such as order fill rate and delivery timelines that are consistent with current industry standards.
Product-related complaints through ONDC have been negligible. Any issues that have arisen have been promptly and effectively addressed or are being addressed, with users receiving refunds wherever applicable.
ONDC has also established a user council, consisting of industry leaders, to provide valuable feedback and insights towards strengthening the network’s operational processes.
