Reliance Retail starts ONDC pilot via retail platform Fynd

Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd (RRVL) has launched a pilot programme on the government-backed Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) through Fynd, an omnichannel retail platform where the Reliance Industries unit has a stake, people in the know said.

Currently, one Reliance Retail store called Shri Kannan Departmental Store in Madurai in Tamil Nadu is live on the seller side of ONDC through Fynd. "This is being done as a pilot. A few more stores in Tamil Nadu are in the pipeline. They are testing it out. If it works, then Reliance Retail will scale it up to five stores and then to 100 stores on ONDC. Gradually all brands owned by Reliance Retail will go live on ONDC," a source said.

Reliance Retail had acquired Shri Kannan Departmental Store in December 2021 for Rs 152.5 crore.


Reliance Retail-backed quick-commerce company Dunzo had gone live on ONDC during ONDC’s beta launch in Bengaluru in September 2022. But since April this year, Dunzo has not been active as a logistics service provider on the network.

RRVL, Fynd and ONDC did not respond to ET's requests for a comment.

GoFynd.com currently services more than 15,000 pin codes. Fynd launched its seller app on ONDC in February. Its buyer app is expected to go live on the network in the second quarter of 2025.

If RRVL, with its large pool of sellers and businesses, becomes a full-fledged participant on ONDC, it would help accelerate the adoption of the network by consumers.

Reliance Retail reported a turnover of Rs 306,786 crore for the financial year 2023-24. As on March 31, 2024, it operated 18,836 stores where more than 1.06 billion footfalls were recorded in FY24. It had 304 million registered customers and reported nearly 1.26 billion transactions in FY24. It operates in sectors like grocery, consumer electronics, fashion and lifestyle and pharma under various brands.

Since its formal launch in January last year till the end of April this year, ONDC has facilitated 57 million transactions.

Mobility led by ride-hailing apps such as Namma Yatri now have a little less than 50% share in the total monthly orders.

From February last year to March this year, mobility accounted for more than 32.2 million orders while non-mobility accounted for more than 17.5 million orders.

Companies and platforms that have been onboarded on the platform include Wow Momo, McDonald’s and Domino's Pizza in food and beverage; Marico, P&G and Hindustan Unilever in FMCG; and Namma Yatri, Kochi Open Mobility Network and Ola in mobility.