Inspired by Amazon’s immensely popular loyalty program Amazon Prime, Walmart-backed Flipkart is all set to reintroduce their own loyalty program.
As per reports coming in, Flipkart will spend Rs 1200 crore this time, on their loyal customers.
What all can we expect with Flipkart this time?
Flipkart’s Loyalty Program: A New Push
As per unconfirmed reports coming in, Flipkart is now all set to relaunch their loyalty program by end of July or August.
The plan, it seems, is to cash-in the peak October-January season, and trigger more sales via loyalty program.
Infused with fresh capital from Walmart, Flipkart will spend Rs 1200 crore on their loyal customers, in the next three years.
As of now, there are two types of special features being planned for their loyalty program:
- Early access to exclusive offers from brands
- Low cost or free shipping, pan-India
Unlike Amazon Prime, Flipkart’s new avatar of loyalty program won’t be based on an upfront payment, but rather based on the frequency of shopping.
Hence, if you are a regular buyer from Flipkart, you can be invited for the loyalty program.
One of the persons close to the development said, “The idea is to start treating the cohort of loyal customers as more special. This is why it will be based on frequency and repeat purchases rather than a fixed fee paid upfront,”
But What Exactly Happened In The Past?
Way back in 2014, Flipkart had launched their loyalty program called Flipkart First, which was a paid subscription program, priced at Rs 500 per year.
Instant shipping, and exclusive deals were part of that program as well, but within a year, it was shut down.
It seems that Flipkart First simply couldn’t compete with Amazon Prime, which kept on adding newer features like on-demand entertainment and music into their fold. Their recent focus on regional content has proven to be a big hit as well.
In fact, Amazon Prime, on some level, have beaten Netflix in India, due to the rising popularity of their on-demand entertainment.
Now, the question is, whether Flipkart too will launch some sort of on-demand entertainment features for their loyal customer?
And the bigger question: Has Flipkart missed the bus of the loyalty race?
We will keep you updated, as receive more inputs.