(Yicai Global) Feb. 10 -- Up-and-coming Chinese e-commerce platform Pinduoduo is offering a special CNY1 billion (USD143 million) reward for merchants that still serve consumers during the novel coronavirus pneumonia epidemic, while also easing its standards for evaluating a store's delivery efficiency, Beijing Daily reported today.

Vendors will get a CNY2 (29 US cents) commission per order consumers placed between Jan. 17 and Feb. 2 if they were shipped before Feb. 5 and received within a reasonable time, according to Shanghai-based Pinduoduo's new policy. They will get CNY3 per order for those placed between Feb. 3 and today, shipped within 48 hours and received within a reasonable time.

The company has set no cap on the total amount a single store owner can get and payment will be transferred to the merchant's account before Feb. 29.

For orders sellers booked from Jan. 17 up to today, the firm has extended the latest delivery to Feb. 12 and the logistical evaluation time from delivery to receipt to 96 hours from 24 hours, Fu Zheng, the head of Pinduoduo's counter-epidemic team, said yesterday.

The company hopes merchants refund consumers as soon as possible for out-of-stock goods ordered or those they are otherwise unable to ship, Fu said, adding the platform will assume liability for damages if customers suffer impairment of their interests from the cancellation of orders during this time.

Chinese e-commerce giant JD.Com set aside a CNY100 million award fund for its merchants using the JD Logistics warehousing system, it announced on Feb. 8. The company also introduced a CNY100 million incentive scheme for 250,000 sellers on its platform on Feb. 2.

Editor: Ben Armour