How to Master ONDC Seller Onboarding Marketing: Strategies for 2025 and Beyond

Estimated reading time: ~13 minutes

The Ultimate Guide to Retail Seller Acquisition on ONDC for 2025

The digital commerce landscape in India is undergoing a seismic shift, and at its epicenter is the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC). For Chief Marketing Officers and Heads of Customer Experience, this isn’t just another channel; it’s the next frontier. Mastering ONDC seller onboarding marketing is no longer optional—it's a mission-critical strategy for capturing the explosive growth erupting from every corner of the nation. This guide provides a definitive roadmap for dominating retail seller acquisition on ONDC in 2025, leveraging hyper-personalization, AI-driven video, and a data-backed ROI framework.

The challenge isn’t just reaching sellers; it’s activating them. In a market where digital literacy and local language are paramount, generic onboarding fails. Success requires a sophisticated approach that speaks to sellers one-on-one, building trust and simplifying their journey from registration to first sale. We will explore how to unlock the potential of tier-2 ONDC market expansion and harness hyperlocal commerce video personalization to build a thriving, engaged, and profitable seller ecosystem on the network of the future.

1. Introduction to ONDC: The Revolution in Indian E-commerce

ONDC, or the Open Network for Digital Commerce, is a government-backed initiative designed to fundamentally democratize e-commerce in India. It’s not a platform or an app, but an open, interoperable protocol—akin to UPI for payments—that allows buyers and sellers to transact regardless of the specific application they use. This model unbundles the monolithic, platform-centric approach of today’s e-commerce giants.

The strategic importance of this shift cannot be overstated. By creating a level playing field, ONDC aims to drastically reduce transaction costs, empower small and medium-sized sellers from tier-2 and tier-3 cities, and spark a new wave of competition and innovation. For marketers, this represents an unprecedented opportunity to tap into a vast, previously underserved market.

The core mission is to move from a platform-centric model to an open-network model, where the focus is on enabling participants rather than controlling them. For CMOs, understanding this distinction is key. Your strategy must evolve from acquiring users for a single platform to enabling sellers to thrive across an entire ecosystem. This is where a robust ONDC seller onboarding marketing strategy becomes the cornerstone of sustainable growth.

Source: IBM ONDC Overview

Source: Forbes India ONDC Explanation

Source: Omnicard ONDC Explained

2. Why ONDC Seller Onboarding Marketing is a Strategic Imperative

ONDC seller onboarding marketing refers to the comprehensive set of strategies used to attract, educate, convert, and activate sellers onto the ONDC network. It goes beyond simple registration forms; it’s a tailored journey designed to address the unique challenges of language barriers, regional nuances, and varying levels of digital literacy. The success of the entire ONDC initiative hinges on building a diverse and liquid base of sellers, particularly from India’s heartland.

The data is clear: the next wave of e-commerce growth is coming from outside the metros. According to a 2025 report from Bain & Company, e-retail user adoption is rapidly spreading from Tier-2 to Tier-3 cities, which now contribute to over 60% of new online shoppers. These sellers are the key to unlocking network liquidity and offering the hyperlocal variety that modern consumers demand.

An effective onboarding marketing strategy delivers tangible business outcomes:

• Faster Time-to-First-Sale: By simplifying the process and building confidence, you reduce the crucial time it takes for a new seller to become an active participant.
• Improved Seller Retention: A positive and supportive onboarding experience is the first step in building long-term loyalty and reducing churn.
• Enhanced Network Effects: Every active seller adds value to the entire network, attracting more buyers and, in turn, more sellers.

This makes retail seller acquisition for ONDC in 2025 a top priority for any organization looking to build a defensible competitive advantage in India’s new digital economy.

Source: Forbes India ONDC Explained

Source: Bain & Company Report

3. Cutting-Edge ONDC Onboarding Strategies That Actually Work

Generic emails and static PDF guides are obsolete for onboarding the next million sellers. Winning in the diverse Indian market requires innovation, personalization, and meeting sellers where they are most comfortable.

Personalized Video Onboarding: The Game-Changer

Imagine a new seller from a small town receiving a video where a celebrity brand ambassador greets them by name, in their native language, and personally walks them through the ONDC registration and catalog upload process. This is ONDC personalized video onboarding, a powerful strategy that transforms a transactional process into an emotional connection. It demolishes comprehension barriers and builds immediate trust.

Platforms like TrueFan AI enable this at an unprecedented scale. Their generative AI technology can create hundreds of thousands of unique, API-driven celebrity videos in minutes. With TrueFan AI’s 175+ language support and Personalised Celebrity Videos, a brand can render a 30-second, hyper-personalized onboarding video in under 30 seconds, making one-to-one communication with millions of sellers a reality.

WhatsApp Business ONDC Integration: Automation Meets Familiarity

For a majority of sellers in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, WhatsApp is the internet. A WhatsApp Business ONDC integration leverages this deep familiarity to create a seamless, automated onboarding funnel. It allows you to guide sellers through complex steps in a simple, conversational interface they use every day.

Here’s a sample automated flow:

1. Welcome: A seller scans a QR code and receives an instant, personalized welcome video on WhatsApp.
2. Document Collection: A chatbot prompts, “Great to have you, [Seller Name]! To get started, please upload a picture of your GST certificate.”
3. Real-Time Validation: An integrated API verifies the document.
4. Confirmation & Next Steps: The seller receives an instant confirmation message with another short video explaining how to list their first product.

This approach dramatically reduces friction, minimizes drop-offs, and provides an always-on support channel for sellers, answering their FAQs instantly.

4. Mastering Hyperlocal Commerce with Video Personalization

ONDC is inherently designed to boost hyperlocal commerce, connecting sellers with buyers in their immediate geographic vicinity. This model thrives on local relevance and trust, making generic, one-size-fits-all marketing ineffective. Hyperlocal commerce video personalization is the key to unlocking this potential.

It involves creating video content that is dynamically tailored to a seller’s specific context. This goes beyond just using their name. Advanced tactics include:

• Dynamic Text & Visuals: Displaying the seller’s name, city, and even images of their top products directly within the video.
• Regional Language Voice-Overs: Using AI to deliver the message in the seller’s local dialect, ensuring perfect comprehension and a sense of community.
• Location-Specific Calls-to-Action: Nudging sellers with relevant local insights, such as, “Shoppers in Jaipur are searching for handmade textiles. List your products now to get discovered!”

A High-Impact Video Content Template:

• Hook (0-3 seconds): A trusted celebrity greets the seller personally. “Namaste [Seller Name]! I’m excited to help you start selling to customers right here in [Seller’s City].”
• Tutorial (4-20 seconds): A clear, visual, step-by-step guide. Use screen recordings or animated graphics of the onboarding process, voiced over in their local language.
• Value Proposition (21-25 seconds): Reinforce the benefits. “With ONDC, your shop is now open to thousands of buyers in your area.”
• Call-to-Action (26-30 seconds): A direct and encouraging prompt. “It’s time to make your first sale. Click the link below to list your first product now!”

This level of ONDC personalized video onboarding makes sellers feel seen, understood, and confident, directly accelerating their journey to becoming active participants on the network.

Source: Omnicard ONDC Explained

5. Celebrity Avatars: Supercharging Engagement and Trust

To truly cut through the noise, brands are turning to the next evolution of influencer marketing: celebrity avatars. These are AI-reanimated, photorealistic likenesses of celebrities, used under consent-first contracts, to deliver millions of hyper-personalized messages. This allows a single celebrity to have a one-on-one conversation with every seller in your pipeline, at scale.

The impact of this strategy is staggering. TrueFan’s campaigns have set new industry benchmarks:

• Zomato’s Mother’s Day Campaign: Generated 354,000 unique videos in a single day featuring actress Vidya Balan, creating massive emotional resonance and brand love.
• Hero MotoCorp’s Festive Greetings: Delivered 2.4 million personalized videos with stars Hansika Motwani and Divyendu Sharma, driving significant offline action.

The engagement metrics speak for themselves. Goibibo, a leading travel portal, used a similar strategy for customer nudges and saw a 3x higher watch-through rate on their videos and a 17% lift in click-through rates. For ONDC seller onboarding marketing, this translates to higher completion rates, better-educated sellers, and a stronger emotional connection to your brand from day one.

6. Driving Growth with ONDC Buyer Activation Campaigns

Onboarding sellers is only half the battle. A successful ONDC strategy must also focus on ONDC buyer activation campaigns to generate demand and drive transactions. The same principles of personalization that work for sellers are even more powerful when applied to buyers.

Personalized video messages can significantly boost conversion rates and reduce churn. For instance, the Goibibo case study demonstrated a 50% reduction in cart abandonment when users received a celebrity-led video nudge on WhatsApp. This tactic is directly applicable to the ONDC ecosystem.

Key campaign types to implement include:

• Personalized Welcome Series: When a new buyer registers, send them a video from a celebrity welcoming them by name and highlighting top local sellers in their area.
• Cart Abandonment Reminders: If a buyer leaves items in their cart, trigger a WhatsApp video featuring a celebrity saying, “Hi [Buyer Name], still thinking about those amazing products from [Seller’s Shop Name]? Don’t miss out!”
• Festive and Hyper-Personalized Offers: During peak shopping seasons, deliver targeted video offers based on a buyer’s past purchases or browsing history, creating a truly one-to-one shopping experience.

By creating a seamless, personalized journey for both buyers and sellers, you create a virtuous cycle that accelerates the entire network’s growth.

7. Marketing to Logistics Partners: The Unseen Engine of ONDC

A critical but often-overlooked component of the ONDC ecosystem is the logistics network. Seamless fulfillment is non-negotiable for seller and buyer satisfaction. Therefore, a dedicated ONDC logistics partner marketing India strategy is essential for building a robust and reliable delivery infrastructure.

The goal is to onboard and activate courier and express delivery partners onto the network. The value propositions are compelling:

• Access to a Massive Order Volume: ONDC unlocks a vast new market of local sellers.
• Streamlined Operations: Real-time tracking APIs and low-latency order alerts via WhatsApp enable efficient management.
• Branded Partner Portals: Offering partners a professional interface to manage their ONDC operations.

Effective marketing tactics for this B2B audience include:

• Personalized Video Demonstrations: Create videos for logistics business owners showing exactly how to integrate their systems with ONDC’s APIs.
• Testimonial Campaigns: Feature videos of existing ONDC logistics partners sharing their success stories and the growth they’ve experienced.
• Automated Onboarding via WhatsApp: Use the WhatsApp Business ONDC integration to simplify document submission and answer technical queries for new partners.

8. The Future is Now: Retail Seller Acquisition ONDC 2025

The growth trajectory for ONDC is exponential. Projections indicate a target of over 5 million retail sellers on the network by the end of 2025, a goal fueled by deepening smartphone penetration in semi-urban and rural India. As of 2025, e-commerce sales in Tier-3 cities are already surging by over 21% year-over-year, signaling a massive untapped market.

To capture this tier-2 ONDC market expansion, forward-thinking organizations must invest in scalable, technology-driven initiatives:

• AI-Powered Onboarding Bots: Deploy intelligent chatbots that provide 24/7 support in multiple regional languages.
• Multilingual Helpdesks: Staff support centers with agents fluent in the dialects of your target seller regions.
• Targeted Incentive Programs: Design sign-up bonuses and commission rebates specifically for sellers from Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities.

Furthermore, strategic expansion requires a grassroots approach. Co-marketing with local chambers of commerce and partnering with micro-influencers in smaller towns can build authentic trust and drive retail seller acquisition for ONDC in 2025 far more effectively than broad, national campaigns.

Source: Ventura Securities ONDC Blog

Source: The New Indian Express Tier-3 E-commerce Report

9. A Practical ONDC ROI Measurement Framework for CMOs

Marketing investments in ONDC must be accountable and data-driven. An ONDC ROI measurement framework allows you to quantify the impact of your initiatives and optimize your strategy for maximum performance. CMOs should focus on a core set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that track the entire seller journey.

Core KPIs to Track:

• Onboarding Completion Rate: The percentage of sellers who start and finish the onboarding process.
• Time-to-First-Listing: The average time it takes for a newly onboarded seller to list their first product.
• Seller Activation Rate: The percentage of sellers who make their first sale within 30 days of onboarding.
• Seller Churn Rate: The percentage of sellers who become inactive after 90 days.
• Attributable Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) Uplift: The increase in GMV directly linked to cohorts of sellers onboarded through specific campaigns.

A Step-by-Step ROI Calculation Framework:

1. Establish a Baseline: Measure your current metrics before launching any new initiative (e.g., a 20% onboarding completion rate with a generic email flow).
2. Launch Interventions: Roll out your personalized video onboarding and WhatsApp automation campaigns to a specific cohort of new sellers.
3. Track Engagement Metrics: Monitor video view rates, WhatsApp message read rates, and click-through rates on your CTAs. Solutions like TrueFan AI demonstrate ROI through detailed analytics dashboards that provide these insights.
4. Measure Outcome Metrics: After 30/60/90 days, compare the KPIs (activation rate, churn, etc.) of the new cohort against your baseline.
5. Calculate ROI: Use the formula: (Incremental GMV - Campaign Cost) / Campaign Cost.

This framework provides a clear, defensible method for proving the business value of investing in a superior seller onboarding experience.

10. Conclusion: Your Next Steps to ONDC Dominance

The ONDC network is not just an evolution; it’s a revolution that is reshaping Indian e-commerce. For ambitious marketing leaders, the mandate is clear: master the art and science of ONDC seller onboarding marketing. Success lies not in broad strokes, but in targeted, personalized, and culturally resonant engagement.

The key takeaways are undeniable:

• Personalized video onboarding is the most effective tool for building trust and ensuring comprehension at scale.
• Hyperlocal tactics and multilingual communication are essential for activating high-growth Tier-2 and Tier-3 markets.
• Celebrity-driven AI avatars provide an unparalleled boost to engagement and recall.
• A rigorous ONDC ROI measurement framework is critical for justifying investment and optimizing performance.

The time for deliberation is over. The time for action is now. The most effective next step is to validate these strategies within your own ecosystem. Launch a pilot program targeting 1,000 new sellers using a combination of API-driven personalized video and WhatsApp Business integration. Measure the uplift in activation and retention.

Discover how TrueFan’s enterprise solutions can power your ONDC seller acquisition strategy. Learn more about our generative AI video platform.