In May, the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) experienced significant growth, achieving a new milestone with 89 lakh transactions recorded across retail and ride-hailing sectors. This marked a notable 23% increase compared to the previous month.
Breaking down the data, the state-supported network revealed that the majority of the transaction volume originated from the retail segment, reaching a new peak of 50 lakh orders in May. This showcased a month-on-month growth of 39%, up from 35.9 lakh orders in April.
During the reviewed month, the network witnessed a single-day record of 2 lakh retail transactions. Additionally, both the grocery and food delivery categories surpassed the 10 lakh order milestone individually for the first time in May 2024.
ONDC stated that within the home and kitchen sub-segment, there were 6.3 lakh orders, while fashion recorded 3.3 lakh transactions. The remaining 20 lakh orders were distributed across other retail sub-segments.
“Indicating a diversification of ONDC’s retail business, shares have increased in categories such as groceries, fashion, home, and kitchen. The food category used to make up 76% of all retail orders, but thanks to the increase in contributions from other categories, it only made up 20% of orders in May of this year, according to the statement.
Conversely, the ride-hailing segment on ONDC experienced modest expansion, with the platform logging 38 lakh trips in May, compared to 36 lakh transactions in April. It’s worth noting that ONDC achieved its peak number of trips this year in March, reaching 40 lakh.
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Geographical Distribution of Orders
Regarding geographical distribution, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, and Maharashtra emerged as the top regions with the highest number of orders on the state-backed network.
On a broader scale, ONDC also stated that the network now comprises 5.35 lakh sellers spanning 1,200 cities. Of these sellers, 84% are classified as “small sellers,” collectively accounting for 56% of the total orders on the platform.
This comes as more and more Indian startups in the ecommerce landscape are lining up to join the ONDC to shore up their business operations. In the last 18 months, a number of notable businesses have joined the ONDC Network, including Shiprocket, Ola, Paytm, &
For instance, recent reports surfaced indicating that Ola was developing a feature to allow users to purchase groceries, fashion, and apparel directly through its app. Similarly, PhonePe expanded its services to include food delivery and ticket booking through ONDC.
Moreover, companies such as Delhivery, Dainik Jagran, Uber, IDFC Bank, Kotak, Dunzo, and Tata Neu have integrated some of their services with ONDC. Furthermore, the Gautam Adani-led Adani Group was reportedly considering entering the ecommerce and fintech sectors with the support of ONDC.
Last week, Reliance Retail, another conglomerate, reportedly initiated a pilot program on ONDC through Fynd, aiming to gauge the potential of the network.
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Established in 2021 under the supervision of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), ONDC is an open protocol-based network designed to facilitate local commerce across various sectors, including grocery and mobility, among others.
With the support of this platform, the government aims to boost India’s ecommerce penetration to 25%, while ONDC sets its sights on achieving a gross merchandise value (GMV) of $48 billion in the next few years.
