ONDC Apps Shine as World Cup Cricket and Festival Season Make the Perfect Pitch

As Team India started their World Cup journey with an incredible victory against Australia, the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) has witnessed mega orders comprising mostly foods, beverages, and groceries, along with a tad of electronics, home décor, and other items that fall under the retail transaction category.

The number of orders has hit a fresh peak of 53,000, boosted by the festival-season deals and discounts. The government-supported e-commerce network raised its incentive levels for platforms on October 3. Moreover, the apps on the ONDC platform incur less commission compared to e-commerce majors like Amazon, Flipkart, Zomato, and Swiggy.

This, along with the festival season and World Cup cricket, helped companies like Magicpin, Paytm, Ola, and PhonePe to raise their sales. According to a report by Moneycontrol, retail orders on the network jumped almost 500 times to reach 608,307 in September. Grocery transactions have shown 200% growth in the last two months, and the number of sellers on the network crossed 75,000 in September.

Seller penetration has been on a roll, reaching over 470 cities. Ride-hailing transactions have witnessed a massive acceleration, with a rise of 4,000-fold to reach 2.7 million in September. According to the report, the ONDC network is stepping up to reach 200,000 transactions by the end of 2023, up from the current peak of 160,000 transactions. To achieve this, the government plans to publicize the network in Tier 1, Tier 2 cities, and beyond with educational courses for merchants in 14 to 18 languages.