ONDC daily orders double, exceed 10k as marketing boosts seller signups
- ByStartupStory | May 2, 2023
Within a week, Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) experienced a twofold increase in the number of daily retail orders, surpassing 10,000. This was a result of intensified marketing campaigns and the swift inclusion of additional sellers. Initially, the number of orders, consisting mainly of food and grocery items, reached 5,000 per day on April 24, and then exceeded 10,000 on April 30.
Sources familiar with the matter have stated that approximately 40% of the orders placed on ONDC are originating from Bengaluru, while another 40% are being generated from major cities such as Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, and Hyderabad. The remaining orders are being received from over 200 other cities where ONDC has launched pilot projects.
ONDC classifies the sale of items such as food, grocery, home décor, and electronics as retail sales, while the booking of cabs and autos via the Namma Yatri app falls under the mobility category. As per a previous report by Moneycontrol, the network has surpassed 25,000 daily rides being booked.
T Koshy, the CEO of ONDC, has revealed that the network is actively collaborating with influencers to market their platform, and other participants such as buyer and seller-side platforms are also contributing to its promotion as the operational processes continue to become established. However, Koshy has refrained from providing any specific details regarding the demographics or volume of orders being handled by the network and its participants.
In order to generate consumer demand, ONDC is offering a discount of Rs. 50 per order. Additionally, the merchant base of ONDC has expanded considerably, increasing from approximately 800 in December to 93,000 at present. This growth is partly attributed to the incentive scheme for seller-side apps to register new merchants. Out of the total seller base, 35,000 sellers are operating in non-mobility categories such as food, grocery, home décor, and electronics.
ONDC has outlined plans to expand its operations by partnering with agri product aggregators to enable farmers located in remote areas of the country to sell their products online. T Koshy, the CEO of ONDC, stated that consumers would soon be able to purchase a wide variety of agricultural products directly from the farms, including items such as pure honey, saffron, and millets.
As a government-backed initiative, ONDC aims to curb the dominance of a few large platforms in the e-commerce and food delivery sectors, such as Amazon, Flipkart, Swiggy, and Zomato. The ultimate goal of ONDC is to increase the e-commerce penetration rate in the country to 25% over the next two years, thereby reaching 900 million buyers and 1.2 million sellers, while achieving a gross merchandise value of $48 billion.
ONDC has identified dynamic pricing, inventory management, and delivery cost optimization as the three key pillars to reduce the cost of doing business for retailers. The network conducted a soft launch in five cities, including Bengaluru, Delhi NCR, Shillong, Bhopal, and Coimbatore, in April 2022. Additionally, ONDC has launched a Beta pilot in Bengaluru and several Tier-II cities.
Several major FMCG players, such as Unilever, ITC, Dabur, and Nivea, as well as banks like Kotak Mahindra and IDFC First, are currently integrating with the network at various stages.
ONDC is leveraging the software created by the Beckn Foundation, a non-profit organization backed by Infosys Chairman Nandan Nilekani, to establish a successful digital commerce platform in India, following in the footsteps of the United Payments Interface (UPI) in the digital payments space.
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