ONDC still has some catching up to do

Representative Image

Touted as the disruptor of e-commerce platforms, particularly for the food delivery sector at the moment, ONDC does not seem to have got it together yet. While many social media users are going gaga over the new government platform, mid-day's test drive on Tuesday found glitches, as all four of our orders ended up getting cancelled. ONDC is a private, non-profit company established by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade of the central government.

The Centre founded Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) on December 31 last year with an aim "to democratise e-commerce". Recently, there has been a buzz on Twitter about how ONDC offers heavy discounts as compared to Swiggy and Zomato, who are dominating the food delivery marketplace.

We also thought of availing almost "60 per cent discounts" as most Twitter users claimed. Unlike the private food delivery platforms, ONDC does not provide delivery partners. The eateries listed on ONDC deliver the orders placed via this platform.

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Where to find ONDC?

For starters, we opened PlayStore to download the ‘ONDC app', but couldn't find it, so we went online to do some more research and learned that the facility is available on Paytm app. You type ONDC in the search tab and there emerges options to choose from ONDC food, grocery, etc. Having to download a digital payment app to order food made us apprehensive but we did nevertheless.

The food homepage of ONDC (right) Halidram's bill on ONDC

ONDC's user interface design was not that difficult to navigate and the layout was quite similar to that of the top players in the market. When it came to brands to choose from, there were a few and options of overall eateries were decent, but not as many as Swiggy and Zomato. Users have the option to filter restaurants based on cuisines and dishes.

The ordering experience

Our first order was a corn and cheese burger from McDonald's, which was priced at Rs 145 both on Swiggy and Zomato. ONDC, however, had listed the item for Rs 130 after a discount of 10 per cent. The experience so far was fair. We then proceeded to checkout on all the three platforms. While this experience was seamless on Swiggy and Zomato, on ONDC, we were stuck on the same page for quite a while. We repeatedly clicked on the ‘Proceed with 1 item' tab at the bottom of the screen to head to the checkout page for payment, but there was no change at all. We then decided to start all over again, but this time around, the ONDC food page refused to load on our Paytm app. We occasionally got a ‘505 Gateway error' or a blank white screen. Meanwhile, our orders via Swiggy and Zomato were already accepted. Finally, after keeping our phone aside for a few minutes and trying again, we were able to view the ONDC food page and place the order.

Let's look at the pricing

Let's look at our bills now. On Swiggy, we ended up paying a total of Rs 248, which included Rs 145 for the burger, Rs 33 for packaging, Rs 61 for delivery along with a GST of Rs 8. On Zomato, we paid Rs 79 for delivery, Rs 33 for packaging along with a GST of Rs 8 and Rs 145 for the burger, totalling Rs 266. Having seen the hype around ONDC on social media platforms, we had expected the bill here to be less. To our surprise, however, it was more than what we paid on Swiggy. The bill of Rs 255 at ONDC included Rs 130 for the burger, Rs 7 as taxes, Rs 35 as packaging charges and a Rs 83 for delivery, the most expensive among all three.

And the order's cancelled

After finishing the payment, we went back to the ONDC page to check our order status, but it was slow to refresh. When it finally opens, we see the order has been cancelled, with a message stating that a refund has been issued and it will take a week to be processed. But, we placed another order, thinking there was a glitch somewhere in the process, but the second order was cancelled as well.

We decided to give ONDC the benefit of the doubt, because the problem could have been on the food joint's end, too. So, after some time, we placed an order for a plate of vada sambar from Haldiram's. With a discount of 6 per cent, ONDC had listed the item, originally priced at Rs 129, for Rs 121. Along with a GST of Rs 6, Rs 20 as packing and Rs 113 as delivery charges, the bill totalled to Rs 260.

Just to tally the prices, we added the food item in the cart on Zomato, with the bill of Rs 216 looking like this: Rs 129 for vada sambar plate, Rs 26 as restaurant charges and GST, and Rs 61 for delivery - half of what ONDC charged. Eventually, ONDC promised to refund our Rs 260 within a week's time, after the order was cancelled from Haldiram's as well.

We still decided to give ONDC one last chance and so, three hours later we placed an order from Wow Momos. But, despite trying at a different time and from a different place, we were left disappointed, as even this order was cancelled. ONDC has estimated to transfer back our money latest by May 16.

We reached out to ONDC via email for their comment on the recurring glitches and understand what they are doing to address the issue. We are yet to get a response. mid-day tried reaching out to the outlets from where the orders were placed on Tuesday, but Wow Momos's number was switched off and McDonald's did not answer.

Not on ONDC: Haldiram's

We connected with the centralised team of Haldiram's, whose representative said he was not aware that their outlets are on ONDC. The person, requesting anonymity, said he did not even know what ONDC was. "Since Haldiram's is not ons ONDC, I believe this platform must have cancelled the order on its own," he said, adding that Haldiram's registered only on DotPe, Zomato and Swiggy.

Rs 248
Final bill on Swiggy for corn & cheese burger

Rs 266
Final bill on Zomato for corn & cheese burger

Rs 255
Final bill on ONDC for corn & cheese burger