ONDC’s Growing Pains: Logistics Remains the Bottleneck
The Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) has positioned itself as India’s answer to Amazon and Flipkart — a decentralized, government-backed platform aiming to democratize e-commerce. While its growth has been rapid, its logistics infrastructure is straining under the pressure.
Rapid Expansion, Patchy Execution
Since its beta launch, ONDC has onboarded over 2 lakh sellers and operates in 400+ cities. But with growth has come inconsistency — particularly in fulfillment. Logistics players integrated into ONDC lack uniform service-level agreements, resulting in delivery lags and order misrouting.
Perishables and Hyperlocal: The Pain Points
ONDC’s vision of empowering kiranas and small producers depends heavily on reliable hyperlocal delivery. But without integrated route optimization, tracking APIs, and standardized delivery protocols, failures in fresh produce and food orders are common.
“I lost 18% of my orders last month due to delivery delays,” says a grocer in Lucknow onboarded via a local commerce partner. Such disruptions hurt seller confidence — a crucial metric ONDC must protect.
The Policy Angle
Commerce Ministry officials are reportedly exploring a logistics performance index specific to ONDC. They are also considering financial incentives for third-party delivery aggregators that standardize APIs and performance metrics.
Private Players Step In
Startups like LoadShare and Shiprocket are rolling out ONDC-specific APIs. Additionally, Dunzo and Shadowfax are in talks to offer white-label last-mile services under the ONDC badge.
The Road Ahead
ONDC’s success hinges not just on digital pipes, but on physical ones — logistics, trust, reliability. To live up to its promise, it must become more than a protocol — it must offer infrastructure and accountability.