Selling on ONDC: A D2C Brand’s Guide to India’s Open Network

What ONDC actually is (in plain terms)

ONDC is an open network, backed by a non-profit set up on the initiative of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Government of India, and launched in 2022. The idea is simple even if the plumbing isn’t: instead of one company owning both the buyers and the sellers (the way a marketplace does), ONDC separates them. A buyer using one app on the network can order from a seller listed through a different app. You plug in once, through a seller-side app, and become visible across the network’s buyer apps.

The practical point for a founder: you don’t ‘build an ONDC store’. You list through a seller-network participant, and your catalogue becomes discoverable to buyers coming from the buyer side.

Is it worth it for a D2C brand?

It’s worth a test if marketplace commissions and the loss of customer data are hurting you, and you have the operational maturity to fulfil orders reliably. The pitch is a lower cost of sale and less lock-in than a large marketplace. What you give up is the polished, brand-controlled storefront you get on your own site.

Treat it as an additional channel to test, not the thing that replaces owning your Shopify and D2C growth engine.

How to actually get listed (the steps)

The process is more operational than technical for most brands:

1. Pick a seller-side app — several network participants onboard sellers; choose one that fits your category and fulfilment model.
2. Get your catalogue clean — accurate titles, images, prices, GST details, and serviceable pin codes. Bad catalogue data is the single most common reason a listing underperforms.
3. Sort out logistics — decide whether you self-ship or use a network logistics partner; confirm your serviceability.
4. Price for the channel — account for the lower-but-not-zero fees and shipping, the same margin discipline you’d apply anywhere.
5. Start narrow, then widen — launch a focused SKU set, watch fulfilment and returns, then expand.

What most brands get wrong

The biggest mistake is treating ONDC as a demand shortcut. Expecting orders to pour in because you listed. Discovery on the network is still maturing, so listing without a plan to be found is like opening a shop in an empty market. The second mistake is neglecting fulfilment: because the buyer experience is stitched across parties, a late or wrong delivery reflects on your brand with less of a marketplace safety net. And the third is ignoring catalogue hygiene, brands pour effort into ad creative elsewhere, then upload a messy product feed here.

The contrarian take: ONDC is not an ‘Amazon killer’ for you

Most coverage frames ONDC as a challenger to the big marketplaces. For a D2C brand, that framing is a distraction. Whether ONDC dents Amazon or not doesn’t change your job, which is to sell profitably across whatever channels earn their place. Test ONDC on its own merits. Does it add profitable orders without cannibalising your best channel? — and ignore the platform-war narrative. A channel is worth keeping when the unit economics work, not when it’s ideologically exciting.

What tends to change, a realistic picture

Rather than a specific client claim, here’s the shape we typically see when a mid-market D2C brand adds ONDC thoughtfully:

• Business type: a mid-market D2C brand already selling on its own store and one marketplace.
• Common problem: marketplace commissions compressing margin, no visibility into who the customer is.
• Typical approach: list a focused SKU set through a seller app, clean the catalogue, tighten fulfilment, price for the channel.
• What tends to improve: a lower cost of sale on the orders that come through, and more access to customer information than a marketplace allows, provided fulfilment stays reliable. Outcomes vary widely with category, price point and operations.

Questions to ask before you go on ONDC

Use this as a quick self-audit before committing the operations time:

1. Are marketplace commissions actually hurting our margin enough to justify a new channel?
2. Can we fulfil reliably to the pin codes we’d serve?
3. Is our catalogue data clean enough to list without embarrassment?
4. Who owns this channel internally, because ‘nobody’ means it dies?
5. What does ‘working’ look like in 90 days, in orders and margin, not vanity?

If you can’t answer these, fix that before listing. It’s the same discipline behind the wider e-commerce growth work, and it pairs with the marketplace vs D2C decision.