While India took on Pakistan in a World Cup 2023 match on October 14, the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) saw its order volumes increase to 65,400, which was more than double the average of around 30,000 orders per day in the last month, according to people close to the developments. This was also the highest number of retail orders—which is defined as all transactions other than ride-hailing—registered by ONDC in a single day.

On match day, ONDC saw Delhi placing 7,852 orders, Bengaluru 7,586, Mumbai 3,770, Pune 3,729, Hyderabad 3,231, Jaipur 2,013, Thane 1,763, and Gurugram 1,732. While the orders were placed from a total of 600 cities, 70 of them placed over 100 orders each.

In terms of categories, food and beverage accounted for 47% of the orders, fashion 25%, electronics 9%, grocery 8%, home and kitchenware 7%, beauty and personal care 3%, and health and wellness 1%.

Moneycontrol had reported earlier that ONDC hit a fresh peak of 53,000 orders during India's inaugural World Cup match against Australia, driven by an array of deals and discounts introduced for the festive season.

With the government-backed e-commerce network raising its incentive levels for platforms from October 3, industry sources believe players like Magicpin, Paytm, Ola, and PhonePe have an extra incentive to accelerate sales during the festive season, which overlaps with the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup.

According to an internal slideshow of ONDC accessed by Moneycontrol, retail purchases on the network rose almost 500 times from 1,281 in January to 608,307 in September. Apart from deals and discounts funded by ONDC, industry executives feel lower commissions on the network than e-commerce majors like Amazon, Flipkart, Zomato, and Swiggy have enabled sellers and network players to offer better prices to consumers.

Last month, Moneycontrol reported that ONDC's mobility pilot in Kolkata, which started in July, has already seen around 250,000 completed trips, 365,000 registered users, 18,600 registered driver partners, and around Rs 7 crore in driver earnings.

The network is gearing up to hit 200,000 transactions a day by the end of 2023, from the current high of 160,000 transactions, and the government is also working to bring financial products to ONDC in the next couple of months.

For its next phase of growth, ONDC has multiple strategies in place. For example, to popularise the network in tier 2 and 3 cities and beyond, it has started an online educational course for merchants that will be disseminated in 14 to 18 languages. Additionally, state broadcaster Doordarshan will soon begin regular programming to educate buyers and sellers about ONDC across the country.

Backed by the government, ONDC seeks to prevent the dominance of a few large platforms, such as Amazon, Flipkart, Swiggy, and Zomato, in the e-commerce and food delivery sectors.

The government hopes to boost e-commerce penetration in the country to 25% over the next two years, reaching 900 million buyers and 1.2 million sellers through the network. It is projected to generate a gross merchandise value of $48 billion.

ONDC is banking on three key pillars to reduce the cost of doing business for everyone, including retailers: dynamic pricing, inventory management, and delivery cost optimisation.