India’s leading ecommerce firm, Flipkart has relaunched its loyalty programme ‘Flipkart First’ in an attempt to compete with Amazon Prime. In order to build India’s ecommerce ecosystem, Flipkart has held talks with multiple online booking portals like MakeMyTrip, BookMyShow and cab aggregator Ola for potential partnerships.
According to a news daily, Flipkart is looking to provide consumers with more value added services through Flipkart First including free fast delivery, discounted same day delivery and priority customer services. The homegrown ecommerce firm does not want to miss any potential area to expand its customer base. Flipkart’s payments arm PhonePe will also be leveraged for this programme.
The Flipkart First programme was first launched in June 2014, as a premium subscription based service. However, the loyalty programme failed to deliver due to a lack of focus. But, Amazon Prime, which was launched last year, became hugely popular and currently accounts for the largest chunk of spending on ecommerce platforms. Prime was launched in more than 100 cities and offered one day and two day delivery on hundreds of products. The service was further expanded in December with Amazon Prime Video, their online streaming platform.
Flipkart has raised over $ 3 billion from Microsoft and SoftBank since 2014. Nevertheless, the Chief Executive Officer of Flipkart, Kalyan Krishnamurthy also wants to ensure that Flipkart keeps the cash burn under control. Livemint reported one of the sources saying, “What Flipkart wants to ensure is that they do not miss out in an area where there is potential to grow a huge base of loyal customers and now is a good time to cash in, given the recent funding and also a successful festive season battle against Amazon.”
Both the ecommerce companies are leaving no stone unturned in the war to capture the lucrative Internet market of India. Last month, Amazon invested Rs. 179.25 crores in Shoppers Stop to buy 5% equity stake to expand its reach to smaller towns. Reportedly, Flipkart is also in talks with Kishore Biyani led Future Lifestyle Fashions to buy an 8 to 10% stake.
