ONDC narrows retail focus to kiranas, farmer produce and made-in-India goods
ONDC is reshaping its retail playbook around kirana inventory discovery, farmer produce and Indian-made goods, while accelerating interoperable logistics and mobility services. Flipkart is also testing food ordering on the network ahead of its Big Billion Days period.
What happened
ONDC is narrowing its retail strategy toward farmer produce, made-in-India goods and kirana inventory discovery, while prioritizing interoperable logistics and
Key facts
- ₹430 crore funding
- 8 aggregators
- 1,500 FPOs
- 50,000+ farmers
- 18,000+ retailers
- 14 million+ kirana stores
- 11-fold order-volume increase in 2025-26
- 30+ fleet operators
- 22%+ of network orders
- 80,000+ logistics merchants
- 500,000+ metro and bus journeys daily
- 30% of online public-transport transactions
- 40+ consumer ticketing applications
Why this matters
Target partnerships or acquisitions in kirana digitization, fresh-produce sourcing, interoperable logistics and mobility, where ONDC’s strategic concentration may create distribution and demand advantages.
What to watch
- Flipkart expanding ONDC food ordering from a pilot into additional cities or integrating ONDC sellers more prominently ahead of Big Billion Days.
- Growth in active kirana sellers, live SKU accuracy, repeat buyers and order frequency rather than headline onboarding counts.
- Improvement in fill rates, delivery times, cancellation rates, returns and customer-resolution metrics for grocery and fresh produce orders.
- Major logistics providers offering standardized ONDC-native pricing, reverse logistics and hyperlocal delivery coverage.
- State procurement bodies, farmer producer organizations or FMCG distributors adopting ONDC-linked catalog and fulfillment workflows.
- Evidence that seller commissions and delivery costs on ONDC remain structurally below closed-marketplace alternatives after incentives decline.
- Prioritize kirana inventory digitization partnerships with POS, ERP, distributor and FMCG networks to improve real-time availability and pricing accuracy.
- Build farmer-produce clusters with grading, aggregation, cold-chain and traceability partners so fresh assortment can meet urban service-level expectations.
- Incentivize interoperable logistics through common SLA, returns, COD and dispute-resolution standards, especially for hyperlocal and intercity shipments.
- Use Flipkart's food-ordering pilot to test whether ONDC can support high-frequency local demand before Big Billion Days-driven traffic raises merchant acquisition interest.
- Create dedicated discovery rails for verified Indian-made goods, including origin labeling, quality assurance and export-ready seller data.
- Target regional cities where kirana density, local delivery capacity and consumer digital-payment adoption can create concentrated network liquidity.