The huge competition in Indian e-commerce market is now compelling the online stores to introduce new offers and services to attract the customers. India’s online retailing giant Flipkart has announced an annual subscription based service called Flipkart First.
The service is similar to Amazon Prime, which yet to be launched in India. Amazon Prime offers the US customers with a free two-day shipping on all orders and access to unlimited instant streaming of movies and TV shows with Prime Instant Videos. The Prime service costs $99 per year. But Flipkart spokesman stated that the First service is not a copy of the Amazon Prime.
The company claims that the new soon-to-be-launched service will give exclusive benefits and access to the priority features to its registered customers. The only catch is the service will only be available for the purchases from WS Retail, the largest seller on Flipkart.
“We had over 4,000 customers sign up within the first 15 minutes and this number continues to grow,” Ravi Vora, senior vice president for marketing at Flipkart said.
In the first phase, Flipkart will choose 75,000 lucky customers from those who have requested to join the program by signing up at their website. These customers will get the service for free of cost for the first three months. It is not yet disclosed that how much the subscription fee will be after the trial period ends.
The service includes same day delivery at discounted price, priority customer service, 60 day replacement guarantee and many more benefits. With Flipkart First, the customers will get free shipping on all orders without the purchase of the minimum amount of Rs. 500.
Flipkart is the leading e-retailer in the $3 Billion Indian e-commerce market and seems to continue this trend in the future by rolling out new features. It becomes the first Indian e-commerce company to offer such kind of service to its customers.
