Flipkart to Enter Food and Beverages Segment on ONDC: Report

Flipkart, a Walmart-owned e-commerce company, is set to expand its services to include food and beverages on the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), according to a report by the Economic Times.

The company will reportedly allow users to order from a wide range of restaurants via the Flipkart app, marking its entry into the food and beverages segment on ONDC. The talks between Flipkart and ONDC are said to be in an advanced stage, with Flipkart executives having met ONDC officials to finalize the details.

This move is significant as ONDC was launched by the government in 2022 as an alternative to e-commerce giants like Amazon and Flipkart. The primary goal behind ONDC was to provide more opportunities for small merchants and curb the dominance of big players.

In April this year, the government asked both Amazon and Flipkart to set up ONDC storefronts on their respective home pages to improve order efficiency and operations. Flipkart’s entry into the food and beverages segment on ONDC will be the first step, followed by the integration of its logistics arm, Ekart.
Flipkart will operate on the customer-facing side or the buyer side of the ONDC platform, eliminating the need for a dedicated fleet of food delivery personnel or persuading restaurants to partner directly with Flipkart. This will make ONDC’s sellers in the food and beverages category visible to Flipkart’s users.

The development comes as ONDC recently recorded 89 lakh transactions in the month of May. The company stated that categories like grocery, fashion, home, and kitchen have seen rising shares, indicating diversification of ONDC’s retail business. The food segment accounted for around 20% of total retail orders in May, compared to 76% a year ago when food was the only category