ONDC clocks 5.5 million orders in December

Government-backed e-commerce protocol Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) touched a major milestone in December, crossing 5 million transactions in a month for the first time, Moneycontrol reported citing unidentified people.

The platform recorded 3.4 million (63%) orders in the mobility category while 2.1 million (37%) were in the retail category, totaling 5.5 million transactions in a month, the report said.

ONDC did not immediately respond to an email seeking confirmation of the numbers.

Food delivery and fashion purchases topped retail orders, each accounting for one-third of the total. 

Retail orders have soared to 2.1 million from about 12,200 transactions in January last year. 

In September, transactions had crossed 600,000, and further rose to 1.2 million orders in the week to Diwali in October, ONDC chief business officer Shireesh Joshi had pointed out.

The government is promoting ONDC as a first of its kind global initiative aimed at democratizing digital commerce in India. 

ONDC aims to bring parity and provide a level-playing field to large and small scale enterprises, facilitating efficient exchange of goods and services.

ONDC provides open protocols for e-commerce, which can be used for setting up public digital infrastructure in the form of open registries and open network gateways to enable the exchange of information between providers and consumers. 

Providers and consumers would be able to use any compatible application of their choice for exchange of information and carrying out transactions over ONDC.

Backed by the central government’s department for promotion of industry and internal trade (DPIIT), ONDC began its pilot project on 29 April 2022 and the beta phase began on 30 September the same year. 

The network crossed 150,000 sellers last year, and continues to add thousands of sellers every month. “Today, we have nearly 150,000 merchants, which includes 90,000 taxi and auto drivers,” T. Koshy, chief executive officer at ONDC, said in July. 

The buyer apps listed on the ONDC platform include Paytm, Magicpin, Snapdeal, Craftsvilla, and Nammayatri. It also plans to bring services such as insurance loans and mutual funds to the platform. 

Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma said last month that the company has seen close to 11.8 million customers routed to its product from the ONDC platform.

Sharma said Paytm plans to bring 10 million merchants by 2025 on the government-backed platform.