Even with smaller incentives by Centre, daily orders on ONDC touch 30,000

ONDC's majority of retail orders come from the food and beverage category, with a small amount coming from the grocery category

Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) saw a new high of 30,000 retail orders over the past weekend, despite the government-backed network having drastically cut back on consumer and network player incentives in recent weeks, said a report by Moneycontrol.

Currently, the majority of retail orders come from the food and beverage category, with a small amount coming from the grocery category, it added.

According to an industry source, numerous buyer and seller apps, including Paytm, Magicpin, and others, are collaborating to figure out how to provide their own marketing push and discounts to generate demand as ONDC has restructured its incentive schemes and reduced its subsidy payout per order.

The level of discounts is typically increased by network players on weekends to draw in new customers, he said, adding that the average number of retail orders per day in the upcoming week is boosted as a result of this.

ONDC's high incentive system 

The number of retail orders per day has been circling between 9,000 and 10,000 over the last few weeks as network discounts have sharply decreased. The previous peak was achieved on May 8 when it first crossed the 25,000-point threshold.

At the time, ONDC had faced criticism from market observers and analysts who believed the discounting regime was unsustainable over the long term, particularly for a government-backed initiative that aimed to level the playing field for all buyers and sellers.

A buyer is currently only eligible for discounts on a maximum of five transactions per month since the updated incentive programme went into effect on June 1. Prior to this, customers could avail discounts on a maximum of three orders per day, or 30 orders per week.

The maximum incentive spend per order has also been limited to Rs 100 from earlier levels of about Rs 125. Importantly, total discounts—prices included—should not be more than 50 per cent of the order's value.

At its peak, ONDC's high incentive system resulted in food prices that ranged from five to 25 per cent less expensive on ONDC than they were on Zomato and Swiggy. 

ONDC's future plans

In the meantime, ONDC has advised network users to prepare for a new initiative called Super Saver Sunday, which will begin on June 18—Father's Day—to increase network demand.

Backed by the government, ONDC aims to stop a small number of dominant e-commerce and food delivery platforms, such as Amazon, Flipkart, Swiggy, and Zomato, from controlling these markets.

With the network, the government aims to reach 900 million buyers and 1.2 million sellers and a gross merchandise value of $48 billion, raising the country's e-commerce penetration to 25 per cent in the following two years.