With open arms: How far can ONDC democratise ecommerce in India?

ONDC promotes open networks for exchange of goods and services digitally, its platform-agnostic architecture allows buyers and sellers to transact irrespective of the platform they use

Magicpin, the hyperlocal discovery platform, had a slow start. Things changed once it joined the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) in March 2023, not just acting as a buyer app but also fulfilling the backend logistics related to orders and delivery. Going toe to toe with food delivery majors by offering cheaper prices for the same items, Magicpin began to pull in around 20,000 orders a day, much more than some better known outfits, which were getting roughly 5,000 orders a day.

It is now the largest food aggregator platform on the ONDC network. “Most of the