ONDC introduces bonuses of up to Rs 35 lakh per week for buyer-side apps ahead of festive season

While the Rs 35 lakh bonus is for those consumer-facing apps that can hit 100,000 orders a week, the scheme is designed in a graded manner — starting from Rs 5 lakh for 50,000 orders a week.

Ahead of the upcoming festive season sales, Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) has introduced bonuses of up to Rs 35 lakh per week for buyer-side platforms that can achieve certain order volume milestones, and raised the number of discounts available to a consumer to 5 per week from the earlier 2 per week.

While the Rs 35 lakh bonus is for consumer-facing apps that can hit 100,000 orders a week, the bonus scheme is designed in a graded manner, starting from Rs 5 lakh for 50,000 orders a week.

In a communication to its network participants, ONDC has said that a new version of its incentive programme that includes such bonuses for the first time, will come into effect from October 3. In the revised incentive structure, the government-backed network has also raised the minimum order value from Rs 200 to Rs 250 for availing incentives on a particular transaction.

ONDC’s modus operandi to generate demand on the network has been to give incentives to network players who then pass them on to individual consumers and sellers.

Also read: Understanding ONDC, the open network billed to be the UPI of e-commerce

As the festive season approaches, the interoperable e-commerce network is also introducing gift coupons and targeting corporates that award such coupons to employees during this period.

In another first, ONDC’s new incentive structure has included B2B sellers and logistics service providers in the incentive scheme.

ONDC will reimburse Rs 1,000 to live B2B seller apps to be in turn passed on to the sellers for the first order made by a new or unique buyer to the seller. For this, the minimum order value, including shipping charges, should be Rs 5,000, and a seller can claim the incentive for a maximum of 50 new buyers per month.

To improve the operational performance of delivery players, ONDC will provide an incentive of Rs 15 per delivery to logistics service providers on the network, up to a maximum of 100,000 deliveries.

Meanwhile, ONDC is continuing the same structure of incentives for seller side platforms to encourage them to onboard more sellers in Tier 2 and 3 geographies like Vadodara, Udupi, Guwahati, Dimapur and 42 other locations.

The government-backed e-commerce network has also taken a staggered approach to incentives for seller-side apps. For example, platforms will receive up to Rs 6,000 for onboarding each seller in metros, up to Rs 7,500 in tier-2 and -3 cities, and Rs 5,000 in all other cities, provided that the number of stock-keeping units (SKUs) is greater than 5,000 in the grocery category.

These incentive levels will also change based on the number of SKUs that an onboarded seller has and the category it plays in.

Backed by the government, ONDC seeks to prevent the dominance of a few large platforms, such as Amazon, Flipkart, Swiggy, and Zomato, in the e-commerce and food delivery sectors.

The government hopes to boost e-commerce penetration in the country to 25 percent over the next two years, reaching 900 million buyers and 1.2 million sellers through the network. It is projected to generate a gross merchandise value of $48 billion.

ONDC is banking on three key pillars to reduce the cost of doing business for everyone, including retailers: dynamic pricing, inventory management, and delivery cost optimisation.