ONDC's Sales Skyrocket In Delhi, Cross 1.1 Million Retail Orders; 10,000 Kg Tomatoes Sold In A Single Week

According to Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) chief T Koshy, ONDC has sold 10,000 kilos of tomatoes at Rs 70 per kg in the national capital within six days.

The network has also achieved the milestone of 1.1 million retail orders and 5.4 million mobility transactions since its establishment last year.

“Last week, we had an allocation of 2,000 kg of tomato every day (1,000 orders) in Delhi from the National Cooperative Consumer Federation (NCCF), which was getting sold out by afternoon,”, reports Money Control.

Following the Centre's directive, NCCF and NAFED began selling tomatoes at Rs 70 per kg to address the soaring prices of the vegetable across the country.

NCCF and NAFED have been procuring tomatoes from 'mandis' in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Maharashtra and making them available at affordable prices in major consuming centres like Delhi-NCR, Bihar, Rajasthan, etc.

Koshy announced that the initiative to offer zero delivery fees for tomato orders on ONDC will be extended for another week. However, users will now be limited to placing only one order per week. The goal is to encourage as many people as possible to try out ONDC through this initiative.

The number of daily orders on the ONDC network has been steadily increasing as more sellers join. For instance, a farmer producer organisation that sells honey on ONDC has already received orders worth Rs 1 lakh.

“We can see now that retail orders are being placed from as many as 320 cities, a lot of which are Tier 2, 3 and beyond. As such, we are seeing a greater dispersal of orders than before,” he said.

On 9 July, ONDC reached a new peak of 35,000 daily retail orders. Interestingly, Delhi-NCR surpassed Bengaluru in terms of order volume, with approximately 11,000 orders compared to Bengaluru's contribution of over 7,000 orders.

Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Pune were the next three cities in terms of order numbers, with each city logging order volumes in the range of 2,500-3,000. The retail orders on the government-backed interoperable network primarily consisted of food and grocery, with food accounting for the majority of orders.

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

Initially, ONDC faced criticism from industry watchers and analysts who believed that the discounting regime would not be sustainable in the long run. They questioned the viability of a government-backed initiative that aimed to create a level playing field for buyers and sellers.

Effective from 1 June, the revised incentive scheme allows buyers to avail discounts for a maximum of five transactions per month. Previously, buyers could enjoy discounts on three orders per day, but this limit has now been capped at a total of 30 transactions.

The government has set a target to increase the country's e-commerce penetration to 25 per cent within the next two years.

To make business operations more cost-effective for retailers, the ONDC is focusing on three key strategies. These include dynamic pricing, inventory management, and optimising delivery costs.