ONDC Reaches 700k Sellers Amid Competition

- The Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) was incorporated on December 31, 2021, and launched as an initiative by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Government of India, to foster a decentralized e-commerce model. - By March 2025, the network had processed over 200 million cumulative transactions, with a notable acceleration of 100 million transactions occurring in the last six months of that period. - While the mobility sector, including ride-hailing services like Namma Yatri, has seen consistent growth, the retail segment has experienced a decline in orders. - ONDC operates on a lower commission structure, charging around 5-8%, which is significantly less than the 25-35% commission often levied by established platforms like Amazon and Flipkart. - In May 2025, ONDC appointed Vibhor Jain as the acting CEO, following a series of high-profile departures including the founding MD and CEO Thampy Koshy, Chief Business Officer Shireesh Joshi, and Non-Executive Chairperson R S Sharma. - The network has introduced various incentive programs to stimulate growth, including discounts for buyers, subsidized delivery costs, and incentives for buyer and seller apps to drive demand and seller onboarding. A recent revision introduced a "growth multiplier" to reward platforms for their week-on-week growth in orders. - Major e-commerce players are engaging with ONDC in different capacities; Amazon has integrated its logistics network and smart commerce services, while not making its main shopping website part of the network. - The initiative aims to unbundle e-commerce functions like cataloging, inventory management, and fulfillment, allowing businesses to use their own data for analytics and forecasting, a departure from the platform-centric model where aggregators typically own the transaction data.