ONDC To Limit Discounts To Rs 100 Per Order In New Incentive Scheme: Report

ONDC offered incentives for facilitating the onboarding of new sellers onto the network as well as boosting transactions. The new structure coincides with ONDC emerging as contender to Zomato, Swiggy

The Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) has brought changes in its incentive structure, introducing caps on price discounts and a minimum order value requirement, according to a report by MoneyControl. These new incentives will be effective from Thursday, June 1, until June 28.

ONDC offered incentives for facilitating the onboarding of new sellers onto the network as well as boosting transactions. The report said that the new structure is being introduced to put to rest questions about the network's potential to end the duopoly of Zomato and Swiggy. 

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, the report said adding that the 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 come into effect.

According to the report, ONDC has specified that a buyer can now avail of the discount for a maximum of five transactions per month, while a buyer app is limited to offering up to 20 discounted offers per brand per day. In the past, buyers were able to benefit from discounts on three orders per day, with a total order limit of 30. Additionally, if the number of discounted orders exceeds 1,000 for a buyer app, the app must ensure that the number of incentivized orders in a week does not exceed 50 per cent of the total delivered orders during that 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 report noted. 

The discount cap coincides with ONDC emerging as a strong contender challenging the popularity of Zomato and Swiggy in India's food delivery market. With the discount cap taking effect, the price difference between ONDC and the two leading delivery platforms may decrease.