India’s much-hyped Open Community for Digital Commerce (ONDC), designed to be the UPI of e-commerce, is displaying indicators of promise—but additionally fatigue. Regardless of efforts to broaden participation and deepen attain, cracks have gotten seen.
A brand new LocalCircles survey reveals a combined actuality: solely 15% of e-commerce customers used ONDC to put an order in FY25 up to now. Whereas that’s a 20% leap from the earlier yr, the dimensions remains to be modest for a community that goals to democratise Indian e-retail.
Extra worryingly, 54% of those that tried ONDC discovered it cumbersome to make use of, up from 44% the earlier yr. That’s a rising dissatisfaction curve in an area the place person expertise is all the things. 35% flagged poor customer support, a crucial hole when put next with incumbents like Amazon and Flipkart, who make investments closely in post-sale expertise.
To its credit score, ONDC is making strides: 62% of customers now say they get higher worth on ONDC than on different platforms, up from simply 31% a yr in the past. And the dissatisfaction with customer support has dropped from 44% to 35%, indicating enchancment. However the numbers nonetheless level to a half-built bridge.
Behind the scenes, incentives have dried up. ONDC’s month-to-month payout cap to companions has dropped from ₹3 crore to only ₹30 lakh, weakening the discount-led momentum it initially relied on. The exit of gamers like PhonePe’s Pincode and Paytm pulling again ONDC visibility on its app haven’t helped sentiment both.
From a peak of 6.5 million orders in October 2024, retail volumes dropped to 4.6 million by February 2025. Clearly, the community’s early development curve was subsidy-led—and what we’re now seeing is the platform’s true product-market match underneath take a look at.
