The Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) has reportedly made changes to its incentive scheme to grant greater flexibility to buyer-side apps for providing discounts to consumers.
The changes also include reducing food category subsidies by 50% and expanding merchant density in 45 non-metro districts.
The notice about the fifth version of the incentive scheme was sent to network participants (NPs) on September 4, and it will come into effect from today, Moneycontrol reported.
Among the new changes, ONDC has increased the maximum amount that buyer-side apps can claim per week to INR 40 Lakh from INR 25 Lakh. It has also removed monitoring of discounts for specific orders.
Meanwhile, it has also made changes in discounts offered for some categories. While the average incentive has been reduced to INR 50 per order for orders exceeding INR 200 in the food and beverage (F&B) category, it has been kept unchanged at INR 100 for orders of above INR 200 for grocery and beauty products category, the report said.
Incentive has also been kept unchanged for electronics orders between INR 200 and INR 1,000.
In the previous version of the scheme, there was no distinction made based on product categories for the maximum incentive per order, with a uniform rate of INR 100 being applied across all categories.
Since its launch in 2022, ONDC has been working on establishing open protocols for all aspects of digital commerce, allowing buyers and sellers to use any compatible application or platform to conduct transactions. It aims to break silos of multiple ecommerce platforms and unify them with a single, open network.
The platform has been growing from strength to strength. It counts names such as Magicpin, uEngage, Bitsila, EkSecond, Growth Falcons, Mystore, nStore, and eSamudaay among its network participants on the seller side, while those on the buyer side include Pyatm, Pincode, and Meesho.
ONDC has also been gradually expanding its presence across categories, including grocery delivery, mobility and fintech.
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