The government-backed Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) has recorded over 68 million transactions since inception, the Economic Survey FY 24 noted. It is seeing 9 million transactions per month and has rapidly expanded into domains beyond mobility and food and beverages.

“During Q4 FY24, there was an 18 per cent rise in food and beverage orders owing to a strong network of over 95,000 restaurants. In this period, there was a growth of 52 per cent in grocery orders facilitated by a network of 12,585 sellers catering to over 665 cities,” the survey noted. It added that the fashion segment witnessed a growth of 11 per cent in Q4 FY24 on the back of more than 6,400 sellers offering over 15 lakh stock-keeping units (SKUs) in about 900 cities. Also, about 5,700 farmer producer organisations (FPOs) have joined the network so far, collectively registering more than 23,000 transactions during this period.

The network currently has 65 seller applications, 12 logistics provider applications and 22 buyer applications. Over 5.35 lakh sellers have onboarded ONDC, of which 85 per cent are small sellers.

The survey said the network offers “cost-effective benefits to restaurant partners, easing the burden of high fees charged by dominant aggregators”.

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“Big names like Tata Neu, Dominos, and Ola have added food services to their apps, while others like MagicPin and PayTM focus on competitive pricing and special deals,” it further added.

This comes even as the Indian e-commerce sector is expected to cross the $350-billion mark by 2030. The survey noted that business models in the sector would need to innovate to serve the needs of a diverse base of shoppers in terms of service expectations, price sensitivity and language requirements.

“Local language platforms are needed as the shopper base expands to tier-2 and tier-3 cities. Growing start-ups and innovative social media platforms provide an opportunity to test unique business models that might be targeted to specific demographic cohorts,” it noted.

The survey also flagged the lack of adequate skills in online selling, data privacy issues and increase in online fraud as significant emerging challenges in the growth of the e-commerce sector. “It becomes imperative to educate users on the safe use of e-commerce platforms,” it noted.

“Key regulations include the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020, to safeguard consumers from unfair trade practices in e-commerce and the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, ensuring digital platform accountability. The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 provides a comprehensive data protection framework, further safeguarding consumer information,” the survey added.

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