The number of retail merchants on ONDC increased from more than 800 in January 2023 to over 35,000 as of now.
ONDC will help make the ecosystem more competitive by allowing users to search across platforms
ONDC, which is seen as the rival of food ordering platforms like Zomato and Swiggy among others, can transform the e-commerce space given its potential to connect a large number of buyers and sellers across the platforms. Though users recently showed about a 60 per cent price difference on burgers ordered from ONDC and Zomato/ Swiggy, the difference will be reduced now as the incentives have been capped.
Rohit Kumar, founding partner at public policy firm TQH Consulting, said, “ONDC will help make the ecosystem more competitive by allowing users to search across platforms. So, in that sense, it will create pressure on established platforms to rationalise prices. Also, ONDC does seem to be offering discounts at the moment to drive uptake. In the long term, price differences are likely to decrease and may be dictated by differences in quality of service.”
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 more than 800 in January 2023 to over 35,000 as of now, while the number of orders increased from 50 per day in January to peaking at more than 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 over 230 now. ONDC also added mobility in Kochi, in January and in Bengaluru in April, which has seen a jump to over 35,000 rides a day from these two cities.
How To Place An Order Through ONDC?
Step 1: To place an order through ONDC, one needs to visit the ONDC website – https://ondc.org/.
Step 2: After visiting the website, click on the ‘Shop on ONDC’ tab on the homepage.
Step 3: Select a platform through which you want to order and click on ‘Shop Now’. The currently available platforms are Paytm, Mystore, Craftsvilla, To Life Bani, Meesho, Pincode, and Maginpin.
Step 4: Now, select the items you want and order as you do it on other platforms.
Step 5: Make payment. It’s done!
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