How to Sell on ONDC in 2026: Seller Apps, Network Fees and Logistics

To sell on ONDC, a seller lists products through a seller network participant (a "seller app") that is connected to the Open Network for Digital Commerce, and buyers find those products on ONDC-connected buyer apps. You choose the seller app, complete its onboarding with your business documents, upload your catalogue, and ship. ONDC itself charges network participants ₹1.5 per successful transaction above ₹250, effective 1 January 2025, according to Inc42. What your seller app charges you is separate and not confirmed here. Details are as of November 2026, and several points could not be verified.

What is ONDC, in plain terms?

ONDC is a network, not a single marketplace app. Instead of one company owning the storefront, sellers, buyers, logistics providers and payment or credit providers connect to a shared protocol and can transact across apps. A buyer on one app can see a seller registered through another.

For a brand, this changes who you deal with. On Amazon or Flipkart you sign one agreement. On ONDC you sign with a seller app and, separately, with logistics and payment partners if the app does not bundle them.

We opened ondc.org for this page, but it returned only its title, so we could not read ONDC's own seller guide. Where this page describes steps, it describes the general pattern and says so.

How do you start selling on ONDC?

The general pattern, which varies by seller app:

1. Pick a seller app. ONDC lists participating apps; we could not open that list, so check ondc.org for the current names. Do not use an unofficial "ONDC registration" site.
2. Gather documents. Expect to need PAN, GST registration if you are above the threshold or sell taxable goods across states, bank account details, and any licence for your category such as FSSAI for food. Each app sets its own checklist. Confirm with your chartered accountant.
3. Create the catalogue. Product titles, images, prices, GST rate, HSN codes and stock. Reuse your Amazon or Flipkart data, but check each field format.
4. Set delivery. Choose self-ship, a logistics provider integrated with the app, or a courier aggregator such as Shiprocket, which publishes plans and rate cards on its site.
5. Go live and test. Place a test order from a buyer app, check how it appears in your seller dashboard, and track it to delivery.

What does it cost to sell on ONDC?

There are two layers.

1. ONDC's network fee. Per Inc42's 7 December 2024 report, ONDC charges ₹1.5 per transaction on orders above ₹250 from 1 January 2025. It applies to successful transactions with no return or refund in the specified window. Cancelled orders before fulfilment and orders below the threshold are exempt. The fee is paid by seller network participants, which covers integrated and managed sellers, logistics providers and financial services entities.

Participants declare chargeable transactions by the 7th of each month, ONDC invoices by the 15th, and payment is due within 10 calendar days of the invoice, by bank transfer.

2. Your seller app's own terms. Each seller app sets its own pricing: a subscription, a commission, a per-order fee, or free tiers. We could not confirm any app's rates, and we do not quote any. Ask each one in writing whether the ONDC fee is passed on to you.

Worked example, for the ONDC fee only. An order of ₹600 that is delivered and not returned attracts ₹1.5 at the network level. An order of ₹200 attracts nothing. If a seller app passed the fee through at cost, 1,000 qualifying orders would be ₹1,500. Real costs will be higher once app fees and logistics are added.

How does logistics work on ONDC?

Logistics providers are network participants too, and they are fee-liable like seller apps. In practice you can often ship through a provider integrated with your seller app, or ship yourself.

We could not confirm current logistics partners, rate cards or COD terms on ONDC, so we do not list any. The checks in best courier for D2C in India apply: compare cost per delivered order, pincode coverage and RTO.

Is ONDC worth it for a D2C brand?

It depends on what you are trying to buy. Brands complain about marketplace commissions, no customer data access and rising ad costs on Amazon, Flipkart and Meta. ONDC addresses the fee and ownership concerns in principle, because the network is run as not-for-profit and its fee is a flat amount per order.

What ONDC does not do is bring you demand on its own. ONDC reported 14 million transactions in October 2024, up 200% from 4.5 million a year earlier, and 14.5 million in November 2024. Those are ONDC-reported network totals across all categories, as covered by Inc42 in 2024, and we have not found a current 2026 figure to cite. A large marketplace sends you shoppers through search and ads. On ONDC you need to check how buyer apps rank and show your products.

A sensible approach is a small test: one seller app, 20 to 50 SKUs, one pincode cluster, and a measure of orders and cost per order after 60 days. Compare with the options in ONDC vs marketplaces and the D2C zero-commission strategy.

What should you prepare before you list?

Do the groundwork once and it carries over to every channel. Build a master catalogue with a clean title, brand, MRP, selling price, GST rate, HSN code, weight, dimensions and at least three images per SKU. Decide your serviceable pincodes before listing, because a product you cannot deliver to a buyer will create cancellations. Decide your minimum order value, and note that the network fee only applies above ₹250, so very small baskets avoid it.

Set a stock buffer. If the same stock is listed on Amazon, Flipkart and an ONDC seller app, oversells lead to cancellations, which marketplaces and apps may penalise. Use one inventory source of truth and sync it often. Finally, nominate one person to watch orders daily during the first month; a new channel with no monitoring is how orders sit unshipped.

What can go wrong?

• Fee surprises. The network fee is small, but the seller app's fee and logistics are the real cost. Ask for a full per-order breakdown.
• Catalogue mismatches. A catalogue that works on Amazon may fail validation on an app's format. Test with a few SKUs first.
• Thin demand. A listing is not traffic. Track orders per week, not listed products.
• Settlement delays. Ask the seller app for settlement days in writing, and compare with Flipkart seller payment cycle.
• Fake onboarding pages. Use only apps listed by ONDC and type URLs yourself.

FAQ

Do I register with ONDC directly? Typically you onboard through a seller app that is a network participant, not through ONDC itself. We could not open ONDC's own seller guide, so check ondc.org for the current process.

What is the ONDC transaction fee? Inc42 reported on 7 December 2024 that ONDC charges ₹1.5 per successful transaction above ₹250 from 1 January 2025, payable by network participants. Your seller app decides if it passes this on.

Is selling on ONDC free? Not confirmed. Some apps may offer free plans, but we could not verify any app's pricing. Expect to pay for logistics and payment processing either way.

Do I need GST to sell on ONDC? It depends on your goods and turnover, and on each seller app's onboarding rules. We could not confirm a single ONDC-wide rule. Ask a chartered accountant and check the app's checklist.

Which seller app should I choose? We do not rank apps because we could not verify rates or features. Shortlist three, and compare fees, settlement days, catalogue tools, logistics options and support response time.

Can I use my Amazon or Flipkart catalogue? You can reuse images, titles and attributes, but you will need to reformat to the seller app's template. Keep one master catalogue file so updates flow to all channels.

Next step

Treat ONDC as a test channel, with a budget and a stop date. Blooprint's Amazon account management team helps brands run their main marketplaces so that experiments like ONDC have a clear benchmark to beat.