Non-profit ONDC likely to charge a small fee from platforms soon

Non-profit and India’s open economic protocol, Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) will in all probability be charging a ‘small fee’ from platforms in the coming year. The fee will go towards maintenance and development of the network, say its top brass.

For now, no fee has been decided as such, but there were speculations that it could be around 1.5% from both the buyer and seller players. Though the platforms can onboard for free as of now, ONDC is contemplating capping the charge at 3.5% at a later stage.

The charge, if and when implemented, will mean a huge reduction in costs as compared to what the businesses now pay for selling their products or services online. Right now, ONDC has 26 partners and is hoping to have fintech startup Phonepe onboard very soon.

It is also being said that an additional 125 platforms will be joining ONDC in the coming two months and the figure is likely to reach 400 by the first quarter of 2023 in terms of buyers side, sellers side and logistics partners.

Currently, ONDC boasts of IDFC Bank, logistics startups like Delhivery, Shiprocket, home delivery startup Dunzo among its clients. ONDC will also be extending its network in cities like Delhi-NCR, Shillong, Coimbatore, Cuttack, Lucknow. It targets a gross merchandise value of $48 billion in two years.