What is ONDC, and why should a D2C brand actually care?
The short answer
ONDC (Open Network for Digital Commerce) is a government-backed protocol, not a marketplace, it lets any compliant buyer app (Paytm, Magicpin, Mystore and others) discover and transact with any seller connected through a network participant, without Amazon or Flipkart sitting in the middle taking a cut of every interaction. For a D2C brand the pitch is lower platform dependency and, in theory, thinner commissions, but you reach buyers through a seller app you don't fully control, so the trade is real. It's worth testing as a low-cost, low-commitment channel, not yet worth betting your primary distribution strategy on.
A quick summary to orient you. The real value is below: the resources worth your time, from people who've actually done it, not us.
Here are the resources
Hand-picked from around the web, each with a note on why it earns your time. India-specific ones carry a badge.
Why we picked it
The cleanest plain-English explainer of how ONDC actually works end to end, from a credible business publication rather than a vendor with a seller app to sell you.
Why we picked it
A neutral, well-sourced overview of ONDC's origin, governance and structure, useful background before you take any single vendor's framing at face value.
