A handful of platforms dominated Indian e-commerce, charging high commissions and controlling who buyers could reach. ONDC (2022) borrowed UPI's idea: an open protocol so any buyer app can connect to any seller app.
e-Commerce · ONDC
e-Commerce · ONDC
ONDC — the Open Network for Digital Commerce — does for shopping what UPI did for payments: it 'unbundles' e-commerce so any buyer app can connect to any seller app over an open protocol. Launched in 2022, it lets small kirana stores, artisans and local businesses reach customers nationwide without being locked into, or paying heavy fees to, a couple of giant platforms. This timeline traces its rise.
2022
ONDC launched
Open
Protocol — 'UPI for commerce'
Millions
Transactions / month
Open digital commerce
2021
ONDC is born
The Open Network for Digital Commerce is incorporated to 'unbundle' online shopping — letting any buyer app talk to any seller app, so small sellers aren't locked into a few giant platforms.
2022
Public launch
2023
Scaling across categories
2024
Millions of monthly transactions
2025
Beyond retail
2021
1milestones
20212025
Latest
ONDC is born
The Open Network for Digital Commerce is incorporated to 'unbundle' online shopping — letting any buyer app talk to any seller app, so small sellers aren't locked into a few giant platforms.
Why it matters By breaking the 'walled gardens' of big platforms, ONDC can lower fees, widen choice, and give millions of small sellers a fair shot at the digital economy.
- Open protocol for e-commerce (launched 2022)
- Millions of monthly transactions; retail, food, mobility
- Source: DPIIT / ONDC
History
Unbundling commerce
On ONDC a small kirana store, weaver or restaurant can be discovered by shoppers on many different apps, without joining any single giant. It has scaled to retail, food, groceries and mobility across dozens of cities, reaching millions of monthly transactions.
How it works
ONDC tries to break e-commerce out of a few walled gardens. Instead of a seller being locked inside one platform, ONDC is an open network: any buyer app can connect to any seller app through shared protocols, the way any bank's UPI app can pay any other. A small shop lists once and becomes visible to buyers across many apps — so a kirana store or artisan can reach customers without being trapped in, or squeezed by, a single dominant marketplace.
Outlook
ONDC has grown quickly across mobility, food delivery and retail, with millions of transactions a month flowing through the network. The test ahead is scale and trust — building quality control, reliable delivery and dispute-resolution across a decentralised network, onboarding enough small sellers and buyer apps to reach critical mass, and proving it can genuinely loosen the grip of the big platforms rather than remain a promising experiment.
The road ahead
The test ahead is scale and trust — building quality control, returns and logistics across an open network so ONDC's fast-growing volumes can rival the big platforms.
By the numbers
Open commerce protocol launched 2022; millions of monthly transactions; retail, food, mobility, dozens of cities. Source: DPIIT / ONDC.
Source: DPIIT / ONDC — Open Network for Digital Commerce milestones, 2021–2025.