Domino's goes live on ONDC in Delhi-NCR, visible on PhonePe's Pincode app

Retail purchases on ONDC have grown by more than 1,700 times within a span of 11 months — from 1,281 in January 2023 to 2.1 million in December.

Several Domino's Pizza stores have gone live on the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) for users in the Delhi-NCR region, a move likely to help franchise owner Jubilant FoodWorks shore up profit margins and de-risk online sales from food aggregators Zomato and Swiggy in the long term.

While Domino’s stores are visible on PhonePe's Pincode app, they are still not available on other buyer-side platforms on the network such as Paytm and Ola. As reported by Moneycontrol, the pizza chain has been working on adding ONDC as a sales channel since 2023.

Though most eateries have been gone on ONDC through seller-side platforms such as Magicpin, Growth Falcon and e-Samudaay, Domino's has integrated with the government's e-commerce network on its own. This means it will not have to pay charges to an intermediary to show up on ONDC.

The ONDC model breaks down the e-commerce value chain into multiple parts such as the buyer-side app, the gateway, the seller-side app and logistics providers. Any app — an e-commerce platform, a banking app, a D2C app or a cab hailing app — can be a "buyer-side app" into which the consumer logs to search and completes a transaction.

Similarly, a "seller-side" app is a platform that registers sellers of goods or services — fashion brands, wholesalers or retailers, restaurants, cab drivers, kirana stores and even home service providers like plumbers or electricians. An e-commerce platform can choose to enlist itself as both buyer and seller app — or only one of the two.

ONDC is being seen as an answer to Swiggy and Zomato's dominance in food delivery, Ola and Uber in ride-hailing and Amazon and Flipart in online retail.

According to ONDC, lower commissions on the network will translate to more affordable prices, as sellers like restaurants, grocery shops and electronics brands are expected to pass on the benefits to the consumers.

Moneycontrol earlier reported that ONDC crossed 5 million transactions in a month across ride-hailing and retail purchases for the first time in December, according to people close to the developments.

Of the 5.5 million transactions made via ONDC in December, 2.1 million were in the retail category, while 3.4 million were in the mobility category. Within the retail segment, food delivery and fashion purchases each accounted for a third of the 2.1 million orders, with the remaining transactions spread across newer categories such as cosmetics and electronics.

The current share of retail purchases stands in stark contrast to the early 2023 transaction breakdown, where retail accounted for only 5-10 percent, while the mobility category dominated with 90-95 percent of all ONDC transactions.

Retail purchases on ONDC have grown by more than 1,700 times within 11 months — from 1,281 in January to 2.1 million in December.