ONDC limits discounts to Rs 100 per order in new incentive scheme

The Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) has brought changes in its incentive structure, placing caps on price discounts and a floor for the order value, according to a report in The Financial Express. The new incentive regime will come into effect on Thursday, June 1 and will continue til June 28.

ONDC offered incentives for facilitating the onboarding of new sellers onto the network as well as boosting transactions. The cap for maximum price incentive has been fixed at Rs 100 per order and it should not exceed 50 per cent of the order value, including shipping charges.

Orders should have a minimum order value of Rs 200 for food and beverages to be eligible. The threshold for all other categories is higher at Rs 300, which includes shipping charges, before any pricing incentives coming into effect.

ONDC said that a buyer can encash the discount for up to five transactions per month, while a buyer app can only offer up to 20 discounted offers per brand per day. Previously, buyers could take advantage of discounts on three orders per day although the total number of orders was capped at 30.

Also, if the number of discounted orders crosses 1,000 for a buyer app, the app has to ensure that the number of orders, for which it can claim incentive in a week, should not exceed more than 50 per cent of overall delivered orders in the week.

The move comes as ONDC said it is averaging around 9,000 orders per day, around 64 per cent down from the peak of 25,000 orders achieved earlier this month. ONDC started the incentive programme when the network was clocking fewer than 100 orders a day.

The cap on discounts comes at a time when ONDC is seen as a serious challenger to the popularity of Zomato and Swiggy in India’s food delivery market. With the discount cap coming into force starting tomorrow, the price gap between ONDC and the two delivery giants might come down.