As anticipated, the release of the specific app Pincode from Walmart-owned finance startup PhonePe in early April led to a spike in orders. The other significant buying app on the network, Paytm and PhonePe both started aggressively marketing it after that.
The government-sponsored programme Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), which aims to democratise e-commerce in India, has grown impressively by 100 times in the previous month, exceeding its June target by achieving a daily order volume of roughly 20,000–25,000 ahead of schedule in mid-May.
The Section 8 company’s initial goal was to receive 100,000 orders by the end of the year. According to those close to the organisation, ONDC has raised its goals and is aiming to meet this deadline by the end of July, in large part because of the active marketing initiatives of buyer applications.
“Paytm has also become very active since PhonePe arrived. Presently, buyer applications are offering a variety of deals, including cash backs. Additionally, ONDC offers a reduction in delivery costs. Since then, orders have multiplied by 100X in a little over a month, according to the founder of a seller-side application.
As anticipated, the release of the specific app Pincode from Walmart-owned finance startup PhonePe in early April led to a spike in orders. The other significant buying app on the network, Paytm, and PhonePe both started aggressively marketing it after that.
“Prior to Pincode, there were 200–300 orders per day. Following the pin code, it changed to 3000. It made Paytm awake. Additionally, ONDC has started to run a number of promos and campaigns. As a result, the number of orders has increased to over 20,000 every day, and by this month, ONDC ought to be processing at least 30,000 orders each day. They projected one lakh orders by the end of the year, internally. There is forward movement. It shouldn’t be too difficult for them to increase orders three times in the coming months, according to a source close to the company.
According to insiders with knowledge of the network, Paytm, which had previously been slow to invest in the ONDC vertical, has now shown significant interest. Along with investing in marketing, the Vijay Shekhar Sharma-founded business is promoting seller apps to address catalogue and inventory-related problems to boost order fulfilment. The remainder of the orders is distributed among the other buyer applications, according to Paytm, which records 10,000 orders on weekends and Pincode, which records the same number every day consistently.
By the end of 2023, PhonePe wants to reach a daily order volume of one lakh, and Paytm has a similar, if not earlier, goal. Sources claim that PhonePe will continue its marketing initiatives through the end of the year, which may encourage Paytm to do the same.
The impressive rise cannot be exclusively credited to buyer applications’ marketing initiatives. Exclusive merchants and a variety of one-of-a-kind products not seen on other marketplaces are featured on ONDC. across the last weekend, Kudumbashree, a community organisation supported by the Keralan government comprising neighbourhood groups of women, received 250 orders from all across India; this cannot be attributed to the hyper-local targeted advertising of buyer apps. Over a thousand orders have been placed since Kudumbashree debuted on ONDC in March.
The creator of a business in the ONDC network claims that even while the government is generally in favour of the idea, there have been suggestions that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will actively promote it once the number of orders per day reaches 100,000.
Currently, orders for food and groceries make up 80% of all ONDC orders, with Bengaluru accounting for around 70% of those orders and Delhi for the remaining 20%. Namma Yatri, an auto-booking app with headquarters in Bengaluru, is likewise expanding quickly and adds to ONDC’s overall stats.
To promote employee purchasing, ONDC is also collaborating with several organisations with ties to the government, such as SIDBI. Demand will only rise as the seller app network continues to bring on new vendors, including some of the biggest retailers and direct-to-consumer (D2C) sellers in the nation.
The product’s current version 1.2 features a number of enhancements for the customer experience in terms of delivery times, refunds, conflict resolutions, and more. The upcoming version, 2.0, is anticipated to solve a lot more specific issues and include new features that would help ONDC compete with industry goliaths like Amazon and Flipkart.
“Up to this point, ONDC had to pressure people because the sales were likewise meagre. Now that there is a lot of inbound activity, more people want to join. There are still certain problems to be resolved, nevertheless, with regard to logistics, inventory control, catalogue accuracy, fulfilment SLAs, and other branches. Many of these issues will be resolved with the upcoming major update, including enhancing search and picture quality as well as modernising the framework for resolving disputes and introducing an integrated grievance management. Both the number of cities and the number of stores will increase. According to one of the aforementioned individuals, this will bring the network closer to the standard of marketplaces.
