Empowering Brands through Smart Logistics in the ONDC Era

India’s digital commerce landscape is undergoing a pivotal transformation—powered by the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC). Designed to democratize eCommerce and level the playing field for small businesses, ONDC brings together buyers, sellers, and service providers — including logistics players — on a unified, interoperable network.

For D2C and eCommerce brands, this shift signals a new era of opportunity and operational complexity. At the heart of this transformation lies logistics — a domain rapidly evolving through technology-driven models and a growing ecosystem of enablers.

The ONDC Growth Story: More Than Just a Platform Shift

ONDC’s adoption has surged in recent months. As of May 2024, the network clocked over 8.9 million transactions in a single month—a 23% increase from April—across verticals like retail and ride-hailing. The retail segment alone contributed over 5 million orders. But perhaps even more remarkable is the nature of this growth: around 84% of participating sellers are small businesses, contributing to more than half the total transaction volume. This is a testament to ONDC’s commitment to inclusivity.

The logistics segment, in particular, is playing a vital role in this rise. The model of “logistics-as-a-service”—where logistics players are decoupled from platforms and offer modular services across ONDC—hit over 1 million transactions in June 2024 alone. This signals a strong shift toward decentralization and specialization, where logistics players no longer act as exclusive partners but interoperable enablers in a more fluid commerce ecosystem.

Challenges for D2C Brands in the ONDC Framework

While ONDC unlocks new market access and lowers entry barriers, D2C and eCommerce brands still face several logistics-related challenges:

• Carrier Fragmentation: ONDC enables multiple logistics partners, but managing integrations, rules, and performance remains a brand-side challenge.
  
• Operational Visibility: With diverse providers comes inconsistent tracking and limited unified visibility across orders.
  
• Scalability & Planning: As brands expand across geographies via ONDC, demand forecasting, carrier SLAs, and route-level optimization need more than manual handling.
  
• Returns Management: A consistent returns experience across logistics providers is crucial—especially for D2C brands dependent on customer trust.

Tackling these challenges requires more than fragmented fixes—it demands a unified logistics strategy. That’s where eShipz steps in — bringing smart automation, performance-based partner routing, and centralized visibility to help brands scale seamlessly on ONDC.

The Rise of ONDC and the Logistics Backbone

With major logistics players like DTDC, iThink Logistics and Shiprocket (via their platform APIs)joining the ONDC network, the movement is gaining critical infrastructure strength. DTDC’s partnership aims to enhance accessibility for local entrepreneurs and sellers, offering nationwide reach and streamlining first and last-mile deliveries. iThink Logistics, on the other hand, has onboarded to support MSMEs in achieving reliable and cost-effective logistics capabilities.

By June 2023, ONDC-enabled logistics solutions had crossed over 1 million transactions, demonstrating real traction in the market.. Features like real-time tracking, automated invoicing, and label generation further reflect the platform’s focus on transparency and standardization.

Key Logistics Players Integrated into ONDC

Several prominent logistics providers have joined the ONDC network, enhancing its capabilities:

• Ecom Express: Integrated with ONDC to provide end-to-end logistics services to small sellers and retailers, enabling them to accept orders from customers across the country and deliver through Ecom Express’s network.
  
• Loadshare, Ola, and Shadowfax: These players have contributed to the logistics sector’s growth on ONDC, which logged two million orders in February 2025, a sharp rise compared to 35,000 orders in April 2024 when the segment was launched.
  
• Delhivery and Shadowfax: Maintained a fill rate of more than 98% across months, indicating high performance in order deliveries.
  
• Mahindra Logistics and XpressBees: Providing same-day and next-day intra-city and inter-city pick-up and delivery services, helping ONDC offer pan-India delivery services to over 2,800 cities and 20,000 pincodes.

These integrations allow brands to schedule pickups, generate shipping labels, offer cash-on-delivery (COD), and track shipments. ONDC isn’t just offering logistics reach—it’s creating a multi-player fulfillment ecosystem. 

Logistics Technology: The Unsung Hero in ONDC Adoption

While ONDC provides the platform and logistics partners handle movement, its logistics technology ensures everything runs efficiently. Centralized logistics management platforms act as a control tower—automating carrier selection, shipping labels, tracking, and returns across multiple partners. This orchestration ensures real-time visibility, operational consistency, and faster response to spikes in demand.

At eShipz, we provide AI-driven logistics automation software that helps D2C and eCommerce brands eliminate shipping bottlenecks. Whether brands sell via ONDC, their own site, or across multiple marketplaces, our shipping platform streamlines order fulfilment, automates carrier selection, improves delivery reliability, and drives scalable, profitable growth. 

In the evolving ONDC landscape, smart logistics isn’t just about speed—it’s about control, agility, and customer experience.

Discover how eShipz can be your trusted partner in optimizing your logistics journey. Let’s connect