ONDC for Small Sellers in India: How It Works, How to Join and What to Check First

What is ONDC, in plain words?

ONDC stands for Open Network for Digital Commerce. It is a government-backed attempt to make online selling less dependent on a handful of large marketplaces. Instead of one company running one app that holds every seller and every buyer, ONDC defines common rules so that different apps can talk to each other.

The easiest comparison is with UPI. You can pay a shop from any UPI app, and the shop receives the money in its own bank account, whichever app you used. ONDC aims for something similar for shopping: a customer can search in one buyer app and find products listed by sellers who joined through completely different seller apps.

That is a big change for a small business. On a traditional marketplace you list inside that company's platform, play by its search rules and often give up the customer relationship. On ONDC, the platform layer is split into pieces, and you choose the seller app that serves you.

This guide explains how it works, how a small seller joins, which costs and rules to check and who it suits. A caution first: ONDC is still developing, and the details change by seller app and over time. Treat the published fee figures you see in guides, including some we read while researching this one, as rough, and confirm everything with the app you choose and on ondc.org.

How is ONDC different from Amazon or Flipkart?

On a marketplace such as Amazon or Flipkart, one company runs the app, the seller dashboard, the search ranking, the payments and often the delivery. You sign up with that company, accept its fees and rules, and customers see you as one of its listings.

On ONDC, there are separate roles. A buyer app is where customers search and order. A seller app is the software a business uses to manage its catalogue, orders and settlements. Logistics, payments and other services plug in around them. ONDC is the network and the rulebook that lets these pieces work together.

For a seller this means two things. First, one catalogue can be visible in several buyer apps without you signing up with each. Second, the quality of your experience depends heavily on the seller app you choose, because it handles your orders, your dashboard and your payouts.

It also means no single company controls your discoverability. Each buyer app decides how to display and rank what it shows. Being listed on the network is not the same as being found, and a seller with poor photos or slow order handling can sit unseen on ONDC just as on any other platform.

• Marketplace: one company, one app, one set of rules and fees.
• ONDC: a network of buyer apps and seller apps working to shared rules.
• You: join through one seller app and are visible across buyer apps.
• Not guaranteed: orders, ranking or footfall.

Which small businesses is ONDC likely to suit?

ONDC's strongest use so far has been in everyday consumer categories: grocery and food, restaurants and cloud kitchens, fashion, home and kitchen items, beauty and personal care, and local delivery of ready goods. These are products people buy often, in small baskets, and want quickly from nearby sellers.

It tends to suit sellers who already have stock, a way to pack and ship or deliver, and a catalogue that is easy to photograph and describe. Local and hyperlocal sellers, such as a neighbourhood bakery, a regional sweets maker, a boutique with ready stock or a home-decor brand, can reach customers who would never walk into their shop.

It suits some businesses less. Custom or made-to-order work, services that need a quote, B2B industrial supply and anything that needs a long conversation before purchase usually sells better through a website, a Google listing and WhatsApp. Sellers with very thin margins should also work out whether the fees and delivery costs leave anything after returns.

We should be open about our own experience. We build online stores, marketplace integrations and payment setups, and we offer ONDC integration, but none of the clients in our portfolio is listed here as an ONDC seller, so we do not quote ONDC sales results. What follows is based on how the network is documented to work and on our experience building and connecting stores.

How does a small seller join ONDC?

You do not register with ONDC itself and receive a store. You choose a seller app, sometimes called a seller network participant, and onboard through it. Several seller apps exist, including apps built for kirana stores, restaurants, fashion brands and general sellers, and some ecommerce platforms connect to the network. ONDC publishes the list of participants on its website, and that official list is where to start.

The steps are broadly similar across apps. Choose the seller app that suits your business after comparing terms. Complete business verification, which typically includes your PAN, business details, address, bank account and, depending on what you sell and your turnover, GST details. Add your catalogue with product names, photographs, descriptions, prices, units, stock and required declarations. Set your delivery method and area, using your own delivery or a logistics partner. Set your policies for returns, cancellations and timing. Go live and place a test order with a friend before announcing it.

Allow time for the catalogue. Good photographs and accurate descriptions are the largest single task, and they decide how your listings look in every buyer app. Many sellers underestimate this and list quickly with poor images, then wonder why nothing sells.

• Pick a seller app from ONDC's official participant list.
• Prepare PAN, business and bank details, and GST and FSSAI details where they apply.
• Photograph and describe each product properly before listing.
• Set delivery area, policies and stock rules.
• Place a test order before going live.

What does it cost, and how do you compare seller apps?

ONDC does not publish one price list, because the fees are set by the seller apps and the services around them. Guides online quote very different figures for setup charges, monthly subscriptions and per-order commissions, and they contradict each other. That is a sign to ask, not to guess.

Ask every seller app you consider for the following in writing: any one-time setup or onboarding charge; any monthly or annual subscription; the commission or fee per order, and how it is calculated; the payment gateway charge; who pays for delivery and how the delivery charge is set; how returns, cancellations and refunds are charged; how long settlements take after delivery; and what happens if a customer disputes an order.

Then calculate what you actually keep per order. A simple method is to take the selling price, subtract your product cost, packaging, delivery charge you bear, commission, payment charge and a share for returns, and see what is left. Do this for your five best-selling items before listing anything.

Here is an illustration with invented numbers, to show the method, not to suggest real rates. Imagine a snack pack that sells for ₹300 and costs you ₹150 to make and ₹20 to pack. If a seller app takes a commission of ₹30, the payment charge is ₹6 and you bear ₹40 of delivery on average, you keep about ₹54 before returns. If one order in twenty is returned and you lose the product and delivery each time, your real figure falls a little further. Replace every number with the actual quote from each app, and the decision becomes clear.

What rules and registrations apply?

Selling online does not remove any of the rules that apply to selling in a shop. Check each of these before you list.

GST. Whether you need GST registration depends on your turnover, what you sell and where you sell it. India's rules for sellers supplying goods through e-commerce operators have changed over the years: from 1 October 2023, Notification 34/2023-Central Tax allows certain small suppliers selling goods within one state through e-commerce operators to sell without registration if conditions are met. Whether that applies to your ONDC seller app, and your own position, are questions for a chartered accountant, and the CBIC portal carries the notifications. Our guide on how to start an online store in India explains the GST questions to ask.

Product information. The Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020 expect sellers to share their details and key product information, such as total price and return, refund and delivery terms, and to appoint a grievance officer. For packaged goods, the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules require declarations such as MRP, net quantity and country of origin to be shown on the listing as well as the pack.

Food. Sellers of food products need the appropriate FSSAI registration or licence for their scale of business, and the number should appear on the product and listing. FSSAI's website explains the categories.

Customer data. If you collect names, phone numbers and addresses, India's data protection law applies. Our DPDP Act website compliance checklist covers the basics, and your seller app will have its own terms on whose data is whose.

• GST: confirm registration needs with a chartered accountant.
• Listings: total price, MRP, net quantity, country of origin and return terms.
• Food: FSSAI registration or licence number shown.
• Customer data: a notice and consent where your own systems collect it.

What does running orders on ONDC involve day to day?

Fulfilment is where small sellers either shine or struggle. When an order arrives in your seller app, you usually need to accept it within a short time, pack it properly, hand it to a delivery partner or deliver it yourself and update the status. Slow acceptance, frequent cancellations or late delivery damage your ratings and visibility in buyer apps.

Stock accuracy matters just as much. If you sell on ONDC, in a shop, on your own website and perhaps on a marketplace, the same stock is being offered in several places. Without a single stock count, you will sell the same item twice and have to cancel one order. A store platform or small system that keeps inventory in one place and updates it everywhere removes that problem, which is why many sellers connect their store to the network. Our ecommerce website development and marketplace development pages describe how stock and orders are kept in step.

Customer queries and returns also fall on you. Decide beforehand who answers questions, how quickly, and how returns are handled, so that one bad experience does not become a pattern.

ONDC, your own website and marketplaces: how should you combine them?

They do different jobs, and most growing sellers use more than one. ONDC offers reach through multiple buyer apps without your own advertising. A marketplace offers a very large audience in exchange for fees and rules you do not control. Your own website offers a direct customer relationship, your own brand and full margin, but you must bring the visitors.

For a typical D2C brand, a sensible mix is a website or Shopify store as the home base, one marketplace or ONDC as a discovery channel, and Google Business Profile and WhatsApp for local customers. Our comparison of Shopify and WooCommerce for Indian brands and our Shopify pricing guide help you choose the home base.

A useful habit is to turn marketplace and ONDC buyers into direct customers where the rules allow, by including a polite thank-you card with your website and WhatsApp number in each parcel and inviting them to reorder directly. Check each platform's rules on this before you do it.

To make the choice concrete, here are three illustrative sellers. A neighbourhood bakery with same-day delivery in one area is a natural fit for ONDC and Google Business Profile, with little need for a large website. A regional spices brand shipping nationwide might use its own store as the base and ONDC as one of several discovery channels. A custom furniture maker working to orders would gain more from a strong website and WhatsApp than from a catalogue on a quick-commerce style network.

How should a small seller test ONDC without risk?

With a small, time-limited pilot. Choose one seller app after comparing at least three. List a limited range of perhaps twenty of your best, easiest-to-ship products with excellent photographs. Set a fulfilment standard you can keep, such as accepting orders within a set time and packing the same day.

Track a few numbers for sixty days: orders received, orders cancelled, average order value, profit per order after every fee and delivery cost, return rate and customer ratings. Compare them honestly with your other channels.

If the numbers work, widen the catalogue and consider connecting the seller app to your stock system. If they do not, you have lost little, and you know why. Either way, keep your own website, Google listing and WhatsApp active, since they bring customers who already know you.

If you would like help comparing options or connecting your store to ONDC, tell us about your business through our contact page. We will reply in writing with what we would set up, and our payment gateway integration and D2C website development pages describe the stores we build.