ONDC Claims 25,000 Daily Transactions, A 500X Jump Since January

ONDC (Open Network Digital Commerce), a government-backed network enabler platform  which has become the talk of the town for its significantly lower food price offerings in comparison to Swiggy and Zomato, has announced a 500X increase in its daily transactions. 

ONDC started its pilot in April last year, followed by a Beta testing in September 2022. The network enabler has recently witnessed its daily transaction jump from 50 in January this year to 25,000 orders in the last week. 

ONDC in a statement said that it has witnessed a rapid increase in onboarding retail merchants on its platform. It further added that it had around 800 retail merchants in January this year, which rose to 35,000 now, a 4,275% increase within five months. 

ONDC has also expanded its geographic footprint with the number of cities from 85 in the beginning of the year to more than 230 cities now. 

Further, ONDC has also reported a substantial increase in its daily rides between two cities where it recently introduced mobility services. The two cities –  Kochi and  Bengaluru – now reporting 35,000 rides per day.

Apart from food and grocery, ONDC is also witnessing a gradual increase in the number of merchants from domains including fashion, beauty and personal care, electronics and appliances since January. It said that with more than 600 merchants from these sectors, the network has reported completion of over 1,300 transactions. Most of these transactions have been intercity and have been fulfilled with the help of Shiprocket, Delhivery, and Loadshare. 

Its network participants have also increased from 26 in January to 46 as of today which includes PhonePe’s Pincode, Airpay on the buyer side, whereas ITC and HUL along with several startups have joined the platform from the seller front. 

Since last week, ONDC has been gaining netizens’ attention. Several experts could find a possibility of the end of the duopoly enjoyed by food delivery aggregators – Swiggy and Zomato with the coming of ONDC’s substantially lower food price offerings.  

However, just yesterday, financial brokerage firm Motilal Oswal Securities stated that ONDC is not an immediate threat to Zomato. It said, “We do not perceive direct ordering as a major concern for the industry. However, we see ONDC as a potential threat to Zomato, only if it meaningfully scales up across categories, allowing it to achieve greater efficiency compared to the walled gardens.” 

Although, the brokerage firm did mention that if Zomato’s efforts to rationalise its take rate are hindered, then there is a possibility that the company’s goal of achieving profitability will get further delayed. 

Inc42, has done an in-depth analysis on how ONDC could disrupt the entire food-tech industry here.